Finales: UN-GO, iDOLM@STER, Ben-To

Happy Holidays everyone! I had a great Christmas, I hope you had the same. Now it back to work. Today we say goodbye to three series and start to wrap up another season. Damn, this has been a good year.

There he is! Hey guys! Kaishou's right there! Listen to me!

UN-GO came and went, delivering either a mystery that I didn’t have the wits or mystery-reading training to follow, or not-so-original thoughts on modern technology, politics and culture, not to mention the more philosophical questions of truth. So with the finale we get the “one of you in the room is the murderer” scene, even though the supposed victim shows up halfway. Heated accusations and denials fly, evidence is presented … at one point everyone gets a weapon, but then they hardly do anything with them (what’s up with that?). While I’m not fit to criticize it all as a mystery, my more general, fiction-reading instincts gave much of it away. Of course Kaishou would show up, even with the misdirection over who the real one is. Meanwhile, Kuramitsu the politician is there to help present the energy/political side of things, though they don’t go far with it apart from suggesting the current state of Japan isn’t very good. The higher concept of truth degenerates into a monster battle. I blinked at that. But Inga is his/her old self, so it’s all right. And at the end, everyone is more or less happy, except for the culprit (correctly guessed, not deduced, by me, using those fiction reading instincts I mentioned). In other words, UN-GO could get pretty messy, but that’s fine. NoitaminA has had a bad year, but with UN-GO it at least tried to give us something different and challenging, not the bland SF pap it otherwise tossed to us. That’s what they used to do all the time. Now, if they could avoid any more Guilty Crowns in 2012, I’ll be happy.

No huge drama for iDOLM@STER 25. They took care of the last shred of adolescent angst in the last episode. Okay, there were two major events in the episode. The girls were sad that the Producer would miss the big concert, but he shows up anyway. The other is a trivial last-minute shot by Kuroe concerning 765′s new digs, but frankly, moving to a hi-rise didn’t seem right for them anyway. No, the bulk of the show is taken up by the concert. Good thinking. iDOLM@STER’s concert footage is always great to watch. It is again, but frankly it didn’t have the same emotional charge earlier ones did; none of the members had crises to overcome. On the other hand, you might like this one better. You didn’t have to worry. This one was a celebration. And so, hats off to the creators of iDOLM@STER. It’s hardly a compliment to say this show wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been, but when you consider that the very concept of an iDOLM@STER anime series would make money, it would have been tempting to just mail it in and watch the bank account grow. But the creators obviously cared about this show. The girls were mostly clichés but they were almost always used to good effect, and they wound up showing more depth than I expected. Their character designs were expressive and fun to look at. And there were so many of them that you’d never get bored of one. The story arcs went along predictable lines, but were told well enough that I didn’t care too much. And, as I said, the concert scenes were amazing. Fluid, detailed, energetic, the camera glancing at one girl for a moment before swooping around and through all of them. Watching these scenes you could see how much care was put into them. So, again, well done!

Ben-To 12 had two disappointments. We don’t get to how Orthrus is beaten, and we don’t get to see the Ice Witch in action. But these were problems that just occurred to me now. Otherwise the finale was great fun. When we learn how the Club of Hercules “defeated” (if that’s the word) Orthrus it gave the concept of battling for bento a new wrinkle. Tired of losing, Hercules convinced the others to simply wait and let the invincible twins take what they want. By refusing to fight, they humiliated Orthrus into not returning. This sounds like rather dishonorable behavior for wolves; I wonder how any of them managed to handle the shame on their end. Now Hercules is back and it looks like he’s doing the same thing. (Other wolves, I’m ashamed!) This might be the only possible way for me to sympathize with Kyou and Kyou, and it shone a light on what this whole bento thing is about: fighting. Or so I thought. Satou returns, ready to muck up Hercules’s plan, and the story turns ludicrous (okay, the CONCEPT is ludicrous. I’m talking comparatively), and fun as hell as he reminds everyone of the missing element: hunger. In other words, he convinces everyone to fight two people who will likely kick their ass, in order (partly) to redeem the people who will kick their ass. There follows another great Ben-To fight, bodies flying to a thumping soundtrack, and just as Orphrus, redeemed, welcomed, enters the fray … we jump to the aftermath. Oh, well. They added a good twist at the end and managed to emphasize what the show is about, apart from lunacy. Ben-To was the most consistently entertaining series of the fall season. It took a premise weird even for anime and made it exciting. I said at the beginning that I didn’t know if they could sustain such an idea for an entire series. Well, they did, and I’m wondering now if they have plans for a sequel.

Episode dump; iDOLM@STER 23, UN-GO 10, BakumanII 12, Ben-To 11, Tamayura 11

Another iDOLM@STER character spends time with her outer child.

iDOLM@STER 23 continues the Haruka story, rather, it’s her turn to wander off in a funk and think things out while everyone else worries about her. It’s practically a mirror image of Chihaya’s crisis, though this one has no ridiculous bad guys behind it or painful past to overcome (but she does sit around at home and even meets her younger self, just like Chihaya did). Rather, she’s worried about the future. The drifting apart continues, people still aren’t making it for the New Years rehearsals. Not to mention that the producer is in the hospital because of that trap. One of the weirder moments of the story arc is that while everyone is worried about him, the show pretty much ignores him except for some words of wisdom for Chihaya which sets the girls plan in action. Other words of wisdom come from Touma, Jupiter’s former lead asshat, who’s happier with the smaller-scale productions they are forced into because he enjoys the sense of community. And so on. Meanwhile I waited and worried that there wouldn’t be anything to spice the inevitable reunion up … until a typical kids in the park sequence, where their little voices transform into those of 765 Pro, an unexpected and beautiful moment that made me gasp and fumble for the rewind button. And yes, we get our reunion bit, though everything else felt flat compared to that moment before.

But he's still alive, or maybe he's not, or he's an AI or ... my head hurts.

I had a write-up for UN-GO 9 all written up, but it went missing, overwritten, probably, or copied over … Or maybe Kaishou didn’t want me to post the explosive truths contained in that post, so he used that software he made!! YEAH!!! Anyway, episode 11 goes farther out of its limb concerning The Truth. Let me just say that I hope the series doesn’t wind up with a pat conclusion such as “there is no absolute truth or reality.” I hate it when creators do this, unless he’s Philip K. Dick (on the other hand, at least this show’s source material isn’t simply ripping Dick off). But I think Shinjuru agrees with me on this. He seems pretty certain that there is a truth. Not to mention that Inga could force it out of people (But this would explain why he/she’s at a loss when Bettenou’s around). As for the plot, I’ll say again that I suck at mysteries. I was following along quite happily until they got to the humming and the handkerchief and suddenly Shinjuru was running off somewhere, throwing Kazamori at somebody, at which point my eyes glazed over. I didn’t really focus again until Shinjuru held up that invitation. Well, all will be explained next week unless it’s not the truth, or THAT’s not the truth, or THAT’s not, ad nauseum.

Lovers' tiff.

The straight line in Bakuman 2 12 is the growing relationship between Miura and the boys, or that’s how it felt like, and looking at it that way it makes a nice contrast with the episode’s theme of love and relationships in general. Starting with an embarrassing text dialogue Kaya jokingly reads aloud, we next get Nagai falling in love with Kato (poor sap), Aoki’s new editor putting the moves on her (what a slimeball), and Aoki’s subsequent meeting with Aiko at college. I had forgotten completely about her, but she’s the one who rejected Takagi because he wanted to write manga, or did he reject her? I forget. Now she meets Aoki, and the scene feels completely different, like the beginning of a romantic story not at all related to Bakuman. Where it will go, I don’t know. But back to the heroes and Miura. The arguments about whether or not to do a gag manga, not to mention the exhaustive research on sales Miura makes, then his saying the wrong thing and having to apologize, after the boys had realized how much work and care he had taken (shown in a gift package full of gag manga with extensive, scrupulous notes) for them, feels like a manga-ka equivalent of any relationship past its first stages and at the point where you start to learn what your lover is really like.

Who is this guy and why is he barging into our story arc?

After the trauma of last week, Ben-To 11 comes as a disappointment. Two or three things go on. First, we learn about the Sawagi twins’ happy childhood, kindergartners entranced by a violent bento fight, and we get some more of Kyou (not Kyou)’s dual identities. Then there’s Satou visiting Sen the day after and learning she has a cold, and that’s maybe why she lost. The scene is inflated with the usual Satou fantasies, which never really work for me. Meanwhile other people try to figure out where Othrus comes from. We find out. And the usual Oshiroi bit. Satou loses again to Othrus but we don’t see it. The only interesting thing comes at the end, when some totally unmentioned newcomer, who three years ago beat Othrus so badly they still have nightmares (well, Kyou does. Not Kyou), shows up to do it again. Where did he come from? Why is he messing up with our perfectly good but currently slow-moving story arc? Especially with only one more episode to go?

Tamayura – Hitotose 11 presents us with possibly the most excruciating type of story (for me) imaginable: doing a stage show. Because I’ve done a lot of theatre I know what can go wrong, so I can’t help but feel nervous along with the poor performers. This episode promises to be even worse, for it’s Maon who’s going to perform. But right away they do some things right. First, it’s not a whistling exhibition! (Insert cheers and fireworks here). Rather, it’s going to be a recital drama, where she’s going to stand up there and tell a story, or something. Here’s where the unwelcome pressure comes in. Since it’s for the “Ourselves Festival” she wants to try out her material in her home town, at her family’s inn, for whoever’s around. But word gets out, big posters are made, people invite other people, and soon they have to rent out the Virgo Theatre, a large space where, ironically, Maon has always dreamed of performing. Also, she has no material to try out. What keeps this from getting to be too much is the gentle overall tone of the series. There’s that tranquil piano music playing throughout even Maon’s worst moments of fear. You know the show is not mean-spirited enough for worse-case theatrical scenarios. And while her nervous recitation of a text any 2nd grader could write wasn’t all that great (we are fortunate to only see a little of it), and was no more than a metaphor for her making friends and growing up, everyone watching is a friend. It could have been a lot worse. For one thing, she could have chosen whistling.

Chihayafuru 10, Working’!! 10, iDOLM@STER 23, Horizon 10

In Chihayafuru 10, I find it improbable that Chihaya’s team would go to their first tournament and actually win the thing. It doesn’t feel right for a series that has done so many other things well, so far. On the other hand, they have a crisis and overcome it, and everyone uses their strengths to overcome the team’s weaknesses, so it’s all right.

Not really a team, yet ...

It starts lightly. They’re wearing traditional clothes and feel a little embarrassed, Chihaya recognizes some old enemies and treats them as friends. Poor Retro-Kun doesn’t seem to know what hit him. The matches start, and Kana actually gets a win! Yay! But the crisis is upon them, actually, two or three of them.

First is Desktomu, he of great brains and some arrogance, but almost no playing experience. He gets wiped out in his matches and lets his immaturity come out. Feeling he’s bringing the team down he announces he’s leaving. They don’t need him there, anyway. Basically a poorly-timed sulk. Taichi may have some issues of his own, but he shows a moment of good leadership here. He tells him that he can sit out the semifinal match but to be ready for the final. In other words he smacks down a subordinate junior and at the same time reassures him that he’s needed. It works. But Desktomu’s sulk has bad effect on Chihaya.

Just breathe ...

Part of Desktomu’s rant was that he believes Chihaya wants to get to the nationals in order to meet Arata again (well, that’s his excuse, anyway), and that he’s just a pawn in her plans, a fifth member because they need five members. This knocks Chihaya sideways and she finds herself losing in her semifinal match against a mutually supportive, upbeat, not to mention loud and distracting team. A real team. Chihaya’s side hasn’t meshed that well yet. Here’s when Taichi shows his second good moment of leadership. He scatters cards all over the place and while picking them up goes to each member and gives them reassurance. Breathe, Chihaya. And you get your come from behind victory with the sound of hands slapping mats amplified and the swelling music, etc. I would like to point out just how effective the show is with the hand slapping. It’s a percussive motif that punctuates every important moment of the match. Well, as I said, I don’t buy how they made it to the final match (and I guess we’ll learn a lot more about the smirking villain on the other side next week), but as usual the show was executed well enough to cover for it.

My biggest problem with season one of Working’!! was that Inami and her androphobia overwhelmed the rest of the show. I know they were playing the romance angle, but there were plenty of other good things in the show that we didn’t see enough of because of it. Season two has largely kept the punches and romance in a better balance, but now the series is in danger again. We recently had an episode featuring the two, and now we have another. Well, it was enjoyable enough. Everyone played to their strengths. My favorite bit came early on with Satou and Inami on break at the same time. Inami frantically tries to make conversation and not hit him, while admiring Satou’s calm exterior, while Satou’s real thoughts deliver the punchline. Poplar throws in some good moments, and Souma even manages to add some well-timed comments while not for once being despicable. Actually, it’s unfair to single him out for that. Everyone working on the show has refined the comic timing that even a Inami-weighted episode is still fun to watch.

iDOLM@ASTER 23 brings us the bad vibes that were temporarily held away from their most recent triumph and the holiday episode. It really is a good thing, you know, that everyone’s so busy. Haruka knows it, and when she reads an article about some of her coworkers in a magazine while the taxi rides past billboards and TV screens showing other idols also making good, we feel the pleasure she’s feeling. But when the bad vibes start happening you’re not sure exactly what she’s feeling bad about. Is it because everyone’s so busy they can’t get everyone to the New Years show rehearsals? Are we going to see them on stage, unrehearsed and failing? Is it because she’s not seeing any one of them? She’s seeing quite a few. Her beloved Producer isn’t exactly ignoring her. Because they won’t be doing that daytime show any more? Is it because they’re going their separate ways? Because that was inevitable. Is it because Miki told her that she definitely wants the role they’re both going for, so that “working together” wouldn’t be accurate (I know exactly what Miki means, and she’s nice about it, but she really could have phrased that more gently)? Or is it because the stage crew didn’t close the FUCKING TRAP IN THE FLOOR??? WHERE WERE THOSE ASSHOLES TRAINED, ANYWAY?? … I vote for all of them.

Your lesbian techno-witch image for the week.

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon 10 manages to bring us what is meant to be a thrilling battle AND its usual endless backstory and techno-cult-babble. Which is not so amazing considering one side of the battle seems to freeze when the other half gets going. Let’s see … Horizon is still captive, behind a disintegration wall. In this world, disintegration means you will see your greatest sin replayed before your eyes before you’re devoured for it. You can avoid that by denying your sin, but who can deny their sin? While the theologians among you sort that out, we see the enemy’s Tercio formation (which exists, BTW), and that is discussed until Toori decides to just run ahead and start the battle. We see the danger of the Tercio immediately, when it opens up to reveal a HUGE gun in the middle. But Adele rebuffs the shot with her heavy armor retainer (big mecha), which causes her some pain and a little annoyance. Everyone on both sides stops to marvel at her old-fashioned suit for a few minutes, then the good guys line up directly behind her and push her in front of them. So the Tres Espana and other bad guy airships launch missiles, but they are rebuffed by maids wielding bows and that one whose name I forget. Who am I kidding? I’ve forgotten almost all the names in this show. So the now-burning Tres Espana unleashes a God of War (flying mecha) and the lesbian witches go to fend it off after a magical girl-style transformation, using Techno Magic. The sleepy blonde witch is knocked unconscious but is revived by a pep-talk from an old guy. The blond sets up her big attack by saying “White magic creates plus power. Black magic creates minus power. Guess what you get when you combine the two?” I’m thinking that this is the least inspiring description of a weapon I’ve ever heard, but it works. Then the ground forces, who have all paused to admire the battle going on in the sky, get back to work. The good guys are split in two! But they launch a god of war of their own. End of episode. So much for THIS show until next week.

Penguindrum 21, UN-GO 7, two iDOLM@STERS and Horizon … oh, who cares?

Mawaru Penguindrum 21 is comparatively light on new metaphors, but they make up for it with plot developments which are just as weird. By the end, the Takakura “sibling’s” “family” is shown to be as flimsy as the gaily-colored house they live in.

There’s a reporter snooping around who’s discovered that Kanba is getting Himari’s treatment money from the remnants of the Kiga group, the ones responsible for the deaths. Much of the episode revolves around this situation. He talks to Himari, Shouma, and Ringo, and while his information isn’t news to us, it’s of great significance to them. Most of all, Himari. She’s the one causing all the trouble, anyway. By living. This is straightforward, almost soap-operish stuff, and I didn’t know whether to be relieved by the relative normality or disappointed by the lack of mind-fucks. Turns out they were saving the latter for later. Though we get a taste of it when Himari follows Kanba and discovers the bright, warm diner he uses to meet his father. Only it’s not.

And we learn more about Sanetoshi, in one of his weird talks, this time with Himari’s first doctor. He was the father Takakura’s “talented assistant,” and should be dead, too. And he’s trying to try what they couldn’t do again, by passing “my will to their children.” He suggests that he is a ghost, or a curse. I’m going for the latter, here. He is a curse, and the children are his victims. So is he keeping Himari alive in order to extract more revenge out of them? I’ve had this thought before. Then things begin to come to a head. Shouma confronts Kanba about the money and Kanba beats him up and tells him they are no longer family. Then he rather effortlessly makes the reporter die. And Himari visits Masako and learns that Masako and Kanba are blood siblings, apparently, the only ones in the entire series. Who’d have thunk?

So now the family has been destroyed. This is odd. Their core was Himari, and she’s still there, wanting Kanba and Shouma there. That seems to be impossible now. But there are no tears. Himari and Shouma seem to think that it was inevitable, that they were doomed to fall apart. But there’s someone they can save, and it’s not Himari (apparently she’s going to die soon, no matter what), it’s Kanba, who thinks that only he can save Himari. That’s why he beat up Shouma, and why he’s accepting money from people who tried to kill a lot of people, why he just killed someone himself. He’s become the sort of monster that his father was without knowing it, the type of person who accepts no other opinions except his own. The belief that anyone else is capable of doing anything doesn’t cross his mind. He doesn’t even tell anyone where the money’s coming from. But we see now that Kanba is only interested in saving Himari, even if that means ripping apart the family she loves and needs so much. “Gosh, I must stop him soon,” has never been a more apt phrase. Why he sees his father as alive and healthy when he’s actually rotting in that diner may just be an allusion to the deluded futility of his desires, but he’s got plenty of clout to follow them. But one more question. What is Shouma in all this? Since he’s the only person who’s remained the same since the beginning, you KNOW he’s going to do something in the final episodes. But what can he do? What will he accomplish if he tries? What’s left for him, now that even Himari has said goodbye to him?

I probably shouldn’t have watched UN-GO 7, or any of it’s episodes, after Penguindrum, but I didn’t know this one would be especially strange. After the talk with the “novelist” in his cell, where we learn that Shinjuru is the man’s protagonist, his great detective, Shinjuru passes out and winds up as a cameraman helping with a movie where no one yet knows the ending. No! That last thing I want after Penguindrum is Pirandello! But on it goes. We have three actresses who, in the movie at least, are running around escaping something while wearing little clothing. Off the set they talk about the movie, including a long conversation about the asshole director saying they’re prisoners of the war they’re depicting, for in this world there is no war so they have to make movies of them. Shinjuru manages a few WTF moments during all this, but otherwise settles into this other world, maybe happy there hasn’t been a war here. Then the director gets rather nastily murdered, and Shinjuru becomes both suspect and detective. It’s interesting enough for now, but every now and then it feels like the creators (I mean the animators, not the movie people–OR DO I??) are trying to squeeze their source material into a format and genre not fit for it. Right. On to something that won’t tax my poor brane. Oh, I know …

No, but it would make me happier.

I thought the whole Chihaya thing was cleared up last week, but iDOLM@STER 21 decides to make more of it. This is okay. It’s a problem with series in general when a character breaks through an emotional issue to assume the problem is gone forever. More often it’s a series of two steps forward, one step back. So when the girls’ accompaniment CD gets screwed up (thanks to you-know-who) and they have to work without music, the show spends a lot of time with her announcing that she wants to try singing anyway. Rather too much time, really, because there’s the suggestion she makes to whats-er-name, and that talk, and then asking the rest of the girls who are all, naturally, there for her. However, it does pay off in another nice onstage moment, when the sound guy says fuck it and brings in the music he’s claimed to have lost. Was he bribed, or what? Meanwhile, Jupiter quits, and everyone except them go off to a nightclub to watch Kotori sing. This is maybe the best moment. We get a view of someone who loves to sing but didn’t want to do all that idol business, who’s found an outlet for her desires and is happy. Oh, and a weird moment where we learn that Kuroe, apparently isn’t all that bad a guy after all, at least that’s what someone says. Could have fooled me.

And after all the nasty events of the past few weeks the show takes some plot time off to give us a slightly early Christmas episode. In a way it’s a letdown. Everyone wants to celebrate together, but they’re so busy these days it looks like they won’t be able to. You know they’ll find a way, or rather, the producer (who gets so much praise heaped on him this episode it’s disgusting) will find the way for them. So we get the early “I don’t think I can make it” bits, which are nothing more than that, while we at home aren’t fooled at all and wait for the party to begin. They could have done more with it. On the other hand, they make a nice point about how their success means being so busy they never see each other anymore, and they sow a few seeds for the next plot thing. Also, while it’s all predictable, there’s a lot of unabashed, silly, jingle-jingle fun in the episode anyway. Really, the iDOLM@STER is just the place for us to wallow in it for our once-a-year fix. I’d have felt let down if the series HADN’T given us at least one Christmas song, complete with sleighbells.

Your average lance vs. boobs battle.

From sophisticated and complex, to silly and fun and seasonal, right down to completely inane, I watched Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon, where Futayo (I think) is about to duke it out with Galileo (no, not THAT one) when King Maron of Musashi, the one who looks like a playing card, steps in, pointing out that Futayo is one of his royal guards and therefore one of the students should fight her instead. After a discussion, and a flashback by Maron about how he was forced to become king (usually you’re forced to stop being king), Kimi, Toori’s big sister, announces she’ll fight Futayo. She has no combat powers but has a sexy dance and is pretty fast. Toori is so impressed that he starts flirting with a bucket, and Kimi’s just getting started. Soon she and Futayo are on a dance floor and she’s doing a song which, we are told, is the the Song of Passage reimagined as a dance number. Then there’s a flashback to the only time Kimi ever cried, a touching scene where she makes a despondent little Toori face his life again, but all I can think is “Damn, she looked like Taiga. I wonder if Taiga will ever get boobs that large?” Of course not. No one can have boobs that large, but I digress … Futaya is further flummoxed in the battle by being asked the question in the picture above, which is not only an interesting line but “the Q&A for the dance’s intermission.” Futaya loses, I guess, gets a blood lipstick makeover and sees the error of her ways. There follows more political banter than I couldn’t write down or even endure, but according the the Peace of Wesphalia which ended the Thirty Years War, they’re now all going to rescue Horizon. … I thought that was decided a month ago …

Chihayafuru 7, Bakuman II 7-8, iDOLM@STER 20, Guilty Crown 6, Horizon 8

Chihayafuru 7 brings us a new player, Tsutomu, or “Desktomu” as they say, because he never leaves his.

You know the type.

One of those diligent people, “shaped like a jelly bean,” who harbours resentment toward everyone because they’re stupider than he is, but prettier. Sort of like Kohta, but without the zombies to take out his rage on. We’re supposed to feel sorry for him; even before we learn about him we’ve seen his type, or have been his type in one social group or another. But there are some bad vibes around this guy, in spite of his cat-smile. It looks like without some kind of acceptance he’s going to grow up nasty. Good thing that there are other strange, blindingly bright people around him, and they’re interested.

Skills of persuasion.

Well, Chihaya is, anyway. Tsukomu is the second-smartest person in their grade. Definitely a plus. But Tsutomu has been so burned by so-called friends in the past that he doesn’t react at all to fact that now the best-looking girl in the school is interested in his brain. Trouble is, he thinks he’s a little too smart. Bah! A game! How will this help his studies. It’s stupid. But, points out Chihaya, it requires memorization. If they’re really so smart, play the game with the cards face down, says Tsutomu, whom I’m disliking more and more in spite of myself. And so they do. The result is not what I expected.

It makes me wonder if there is a popular variation of this game. It seems so obvious. Hardcore Karuta! Beyond that, we learn more about Chihaya and Taichi’s abilities. Chihaya, invincible before, too much so, in fact, works from instinct and blinding speed. She hasn’t had to learn to memorize. Taichi, the best student in their grade, pounces upon this chance to turns the tables on her, and wins. It’s a good study of both their characters. And it all nearly backfires on them. Tsutomu is already resentful of Taichi, smarter than him, better-looking, popular. To see him win drives Tsutomu away, and it takes a lame speech to bring him back. You know, the past two episodes have been nothing but side-character recruitment stories, but the show adds so many little touches to it that they feel like more.

Bakuman II 7-8 continues the ludicrious story where Saiko, working himself into a sickness so bad he needs part of his liver removed, insists on drawing anyway. The chief editor, quite rightly, says the manga will be on hiatus until he’s discharged from the hospital. BUT, it will continue that way until the boys graduate. Look at it from his perspective. It was a controversial decision to even let high school kids undertake the pressures of weekly serialization to begin with. Now that one of their three artists that age has gotten sick, it’s quite right to re-think the policy. I certainly think he has a point. But the show decides to make him the bad guy here, with all the other artists we follow boycotting until Saiko and Takagi’s manga is reinstated.

This decision comes out of the blue. I know they’re all loyal to each other, but to risk your own careers on what is, really, a reasonable decision done out of concern for a fellow artist, is doesn’t make sense. It does bring up some interesting questions, however. How will these artists pay the rent? Will this behavior lead to future ill feelings, and a possible blacklist among the manga industry? Is their fanbase big enough that they can survive being kicked out of the biggest magazine in the industry? And what about Jack? Can it survive losing some of its most popular talent? How soon before the readers simply go elsewhere? We’ll never get an answer, as Miura manages to turn the tide by showing that Saiko can draw even while nearly dying … I said it last time. This series drives me crazy sometimes.

Putting Chihaya's younger self on stage with her was a nice touch. *sniff*

I keep missing episodes of iDOLM@STER, and apparently 961′s been at it again, and now Chihaya can’t sing. Little brother tragedy and broken home, all that stuff, comes out in the tabloids. Even Jupiter’s pissed off now. Naturally the episode is mostly Chihaya saying she’ll quit and moping about, while Haruka can’t convince her to come outside her apartment. Until she does, thanks to an old sketchbook and a hastily-written song. It sounds trite, and it is. This is a trite show. But in spite of the dull angst everyone undergoes for most of the episode the final scene, where she gets help in regaining her voice, was done well enough that even I got into it, and I didn’t even see episode 19.

Guilty Crown 6′s maddeningly stupid moments: they were able to get into the satellite controller base with hardly any troubles, just your average gun battle where the good guys are never hit and the bad guys always are. This Daryl guy, a sadistic madman killer type who is unleashed to defeat the good guys once and for all, is, for the second time, defeated rather easily. Really, those mecha don’t have armor in the back and rear of the cockpit, so you can just climb up and shoot them in the head? The whole Gai-is-just-human thing was overplayed. Though it was nice to see him reveal some remorse and self-doubt. On to the good things: the climax of the battle, shooting down the wayward satellite, was well-done and had me going, though I wondered why Gai chose himself to be the sacrificial lamb when he didn’t have to be. … Yeah, that’s about it. More bad than good.

Notes won't help you, Toori. Take it from me.

Finally, on Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon 8, the show with more exposition than plot, Seijun starts to argue with Toori about what to do about Horizon. Save her and they get a country, don’t save her, and well, I guess they don’t. Then it’s on to the casualties of peace and just cause, until a black blob in a water bucket gives her a pep talk. There’s talk of absorbing Mikawa into Musashi to save it, but I’m not sure, because people keep talking over the exposition. Then the pope shows up to intellectually outwit her using arcane arguments from the Catholic Church’s long history until the other side says “enough, already!” (That’s how it was explained in the episode, but again, people were talking around it, so I’m not sure). When that doesn’t work, he tells everyone that Horizon OS includes “Encompassed Yearning,” which is part of the Envy Sin Armament, or maybe it was the other way around, and why should Mushashi/Mikawa have WMDs anyway, especially with Seijun being untrustworthy because of her incomplete sex change operation. Toori springs into action–and pulls down her pants. This fills Seiju with resolve, not to mention embarrassment, and she declares that Horizon has a right to her own emotions, even if they ARE WMDs, and so the country will fight according to school rules. So Galileo attacks them. End of episode. To quote Anna Russell, “I’m not making this up, you know.”

UN-GO 4, Tomodachi 5, iDOLM@STER 18, Tamayura 4

Who's talking to who?

UN-GO 4 had a satisfying end to the Kazamori story, and a typical reaction from me when I watch a mystery: I follow right along until there’s a moment I get distracted by something I forgot, and it’s downhill from there. People say things, point at each other, other characters show up and I don’t remember seeing them before … Until the show reaches the revelation whereupon I usually nod and note to myself that I’d be a lousy detective. Still, the end was satisfactory because of this. What we had seen so far had been so predictable it’s hardly fair to call it mystery, so see it behave like one at the end (and confuse me) was a good thing. Not that it matters. The world detective Shinjurou and Inga live in is a lot more interesting. To me the mysteries are only there to add depth to the world, okay, except for some of the dated, stereotypical uses of technology. In spite of this, monstrous legislation like their “Information Privacy and Protection Act” strike too close to home, even if its dangers are more easily combatted or circumvented here. And we’re just now learning about Inga, a being so oddly out of place in their world that the RAI who knows everything has no idea. I think the show’s beginning to gel. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next.

The forces of light and dark begin their epic battle.

Ever since we met Kobato, and saw Kodaka’s innocent neglect of her in Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, I’ve been waiting for the inevitable scene where all those wistful looks she gives out between the “ku-ku-ku’s” and minions of darkness talk bubbles out into a tearful scene with accusations of neglect. This would be that episode, except the show, again, works above my expectation. Mostly. After all, most of it involves playing yet another computer game, this one with full sim goggles. It’s the usual Yozora betrays Sena, or vice versa, while the other characters look on. We saw it a couple episodes ago. But then Kobato makes her entrance. Oboy, I said, here come the tears. But Kobato is no shrinking violet, she doesn’t just start crying. She’s proactive. She sought out the club to see what was distracting Kodaka so much and gets to verbal and physical sparring with Maria for daring to call her onii-san onii-san. That’s the spirit! The other characters shrug; she fits right in. So now I think this splendid cast of outcasts and weirdos is complete and united. There might be better series out there, but this might be the one most look forward to each week.

iDOLM@STER 18 is predictable as it gets. Ryuuguu Komachi have a “secret concert,” which apparently means something I don’t know, since there’s nothing secret about it at all. One of them gets the mumps, so Ritsuko, former idol, now producer, steps in. So the tables are turned on the Demon Drill Sergeant, she sweats a lot and gets stage fright. You knew when, early on, someone mentions her old fanbase that they would show up for the concert right when the jitters were getting too much. Actually, that was a nice scene. Concert scenes in this show are usually pretty good. I could have done without the pep-talk from sick what’s-her-name, but that is the sort of thing you expect from this show. More satisfactory is Miki turning down the opportunity to fill in with the group she nearly quit 765 over, because Ritusuko was a better fit. Still, not much to this one.

I fell two episodes behind with Tamayura – Hitotose, but didn’t realize it, which should tell me something right there. In spite of that I don’t really want to drop this harmless show … as long as fuu doesn’t harp on her father and Maon doesn’t whistle. Well, episode 4 is dedicated to her, but she doesn’t whistle TOO much. Instead the girls visit the inn where she grew up, there’s an important question about whether she’ll take over the inn when she grows up (I can’t see Maon as Madame Manager), or pursue her other dreams, but since she’s in middle school and her parents are actually kind and perceptive, the question is important only to Maon and her friends. From our perspective, of course, she has all the time in the world to decide. This isn’t a pressure-type show. Another reason to keep watching.

I try to catch up, I fail, I break a laptop. Episode dump.

How can anyone expect me to catch up if my laptop dies one me? … Oh, that’s right. No one does. Luckily, I never save anything too important on it, and I had a backup of Mawaru Penguin 16 on the desktop. But all my screenshots are gone. The gods of computers, at least the faction that hates me, or maybe it’s the god of blogs, must have known that I’m far too lazy to go back and get more. So no screenshots for Mawaru Penguindrum this week.

As for the episode, Penguindrum 16 was going along just fine. I was enjoying the episode as usual, taking in the visual marvels, watching Masako’s flashbacks, the repeated dreams of killing her grandfather, the maid in the clutches of Penguin-Himari, the odd fight between Himari and Kanba, Ringo happily taking on her new role as Shouma’s stalker (being decent enough to tell him), when the episode began to get a little weird. I could handle the thought of Mario being possessed by the Grandfather, even the blowfish-eating duel he offers. What confused me was I wasn’t sure when this was happening. Before or after she started going after Kanba, i.e., is this present day, a flashback, or a flashback that occurs after the other flashbacks? It doesn’t help that we still don’t know much about Kanba and Masako’s relationship, only that they were friends as kids. What about all the MiB, and that line about how they’ll use Kanba like they did her father? And so the series throws up yet another plate to juggle. It’s amazing that so far it hasn’t dropped a single one yet.

To make up for the lack of screenshots for a visually-rich show like Penguindrum, I will give you THREE of a normal high school harem series with nothing striking visually about it. Because Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai 4 brings us three new characters.

'Wagh!'

Okay, apart from her first line (“Wagh!), which made me burst out laughing, Maria is your usual ten year-old nun loli. Also their advisor, and easily manipulated to the point that even Sena is taken aback. After we get a taste of Maria she gets shoved aside and we meet the next one.

I’m not sure how much Yukimura can bring. He either has the Hideyoshi thing going for him to the point that boys in his class avoid him in the changing room or maybe he is indeed a girl who thinks she is a boy, which is more twisted because in that case something’s actually WRONG with him. But what else can he contribute except for this gag? Yozora is working on it already. Already she’s got him wearing a maid costume. We move on to #3:

Rika has potential. Unlike the others, she is outgoing (Yozora wonders why she needs to join a friendship club) and can drive some of the scenes herself, unlike the other newbies who, to a greater extent, need help from others. First thing she does is cause a small explosion in the lab–good start. While thanking Kodaka later for “rescuing” her she goes off on a dirty tangent. Then there’s that hair scene (with two lol moments in it, at least for me), and of course the dirty book business which was great until they pushed it too far. You never really know how Rika’s going to respond to anything.

So that’s five weird characters in this show who are fun to watch, sorry, six. I forgot about Kobato. Judging from the previews I think we’ll see a lot of her next week.

With one thing after another going on around here I have decided I need to simplify my entire watching and viewing practice. I will watch fewer shows an write on even fewer than that. So after watching episode 4 I have decided to drop Mirai Nikki. It’s not that I dislike it. This show is a lot better than most of the things running now. It’s partly because suspense and horror are not my favorite genres, so a show has to have something beyond that to keep me watching shows like that. Also, though this was another good episode, some flaws are beginning to show. Too many diary holders are showing up now, each with their own agenda, and it gets wearing. When that guy who captured the ninth does his silly act near the end I could not believe this was the same formidable person we met last week. Yuno’s crazy act is getting a little stale, even if she’s some kind of inspired-crazy as ninth insists. Show is becoming routine. If you ask me why I’m dropping this while still watching iDOLM@STER, well, maybe I’m crazier than Yuno. So good luck, Yuukii! Don’t turn your back on the crazy chick! Er, any of them!

As for iDOLM@STER, episode 17 is a disappointment considering it features Makoto. We get the whole “I want to be a princess, that’s why I became an idol” thing, and the producer, after some harrowing amusement park rides and a run-in with some thugs, tells her she’s doing what an idol does by letting the girl fans be treated as princesses. Just as expected, but nothing more. First, I wanted to see her rough up those thugs, because we know she could. Roughing up Jupiter or their boss would have been nice, too. We’re still waiting for Jupiter to make their face turn, but I guess it’s too soon to expect that. Nah, we don’t really get much of what makes Makoto one of the best characters in the show: she CAN act like a man. More than the producer, but that’s not saying much.

Guilty Crown 2, Kimi to Boku 3, iDOLM@STER 16

After the second episode I’m still of two minds about Guilty Crown. There’s nothing that really sets it apart from any other SF anime out there. All the gear and the standard plot bits are there. But they’re oddly put together and I am not sure whether the creators are being inept or have something up their sleeve.

We start with Shu dragging his magic sword around, still wreaking havoc on the bad buy forces, known as “Antibodies” because they have the legal ability to declare people “infected” and dispatch them without trial, in other words, they’re another ruthless army with yet another justification for their cruelty. This is demonstrated by a group execution scene complete with pleading mother and child, but we’ll get to that. After the Antibodies withdraw, well after we meet Daryl, your typical prissy/mad killer bad guy, Shu meets up with the rebel leader Gai, who’s not much fun himself. He’s pissed at Shu for using the Void Genome meant for him, so he grabs Shu by the coller and tosses out some “You’re in it or you’re not” lines. Everyone else in his army (named The Funeral Parlor, for reasons either hard to translate or inane to begin with) hangs on his every word. He might be right, and his actions justified, but he’s such a dick that I personally would have trouble following him.

In real life, when a commander says something like this, it's time to get a new commander.

He plans to get some people rescued from an underground parking lot, and without any explanation Shu is crawling through conduits staring at Inori’s ass in front of him. We get that execution scene, THEN their attack is launched. Which is actually a nice touch. FP just wasn’t in position yet, and so some innocent people died. The battle is good fun to watch, as are all the action scenes in this show, but really nothing more than a staredown between the two field leaders.

Thinking about it all too closely won’t help your opinion. What about all the poison gas bombs the Antibodies rigged? Why did it suddenly become Gai vs. that bald guy? How did timid Shu suddenly find himself in the fight? I imagine Inori gave him some type of courage-enhancement when she transformed, but what about before? How could he just go back to school the next day? And that’s the oddest thing about the episode. The last few minutes looks like a series finale, with rescued citizens blinking in the sunlight of freedom, etc. And Shu’s back at school. And to cap it off, we get that old anime cliché: Inori enters his class as a transfer student. Hey, this is a noitaminA show! Even the failed recent series didn’t go that far. It makes me think that there’s more to this, like the show is going to turn into a commentary of SF anime clichés. … Well, probably not. But I’ll say it again, the show looks great.

In Kimi to Boku 3 we meet chizuru, the straw-haired boy who we see in all the credits. He’s pretty much as expected, an excitable guy. And he seems to remember Yuki from childhood. This gives the four guys all sorts of chances for puzzled, nonchalant dialogue. While there’s a mystery as to how he knows Yuki (turns out he met both twins, and let me just say here, that it’s not fair when they both wear the beige blazer. How am I to tell them apart?), I was waiting for the moment when he meets Shun and realizes he’s actually a guy. His initial confusion brought out the best lines of the episode from Yuta and Kaname.

The IDOLM@STER 16 brings us the return of Kuroi and the evil 961 company, this time set out to sabotage and Hibiki’s animal show and discredit her in the process. And she doesn’t help matters by having a fight with her star dog before the filming. It’s all ridiculous. Animals and people travel great distances to reach one another, Hibiki slides down a cliff and doesn’t injure herself. I could mention the fact that Hibiki can communicate to her pets, but that feels like a natural thing for this show. Oh, there’s a bit with Chihaya having a bad dream at the show’s start, but we don’t get any more than that.

Penguindrum 14, Boku wa Tomodachi 2, and more

Mawaru Penguindrum is getting a little disturbing. Its world of fate and victims grows more insular. Is there any character in this show that isn’t connected to that wheel of fate of theirs?

In episode 14 we learn a lot about Yuri, we see her dump her lover from her theatre company and speed off in her fabulous red car, talking about haves and have nots until a memory of her One True Love (not Keiju) stops her. Interesting. Who is this person? It should have been obvious. And when the episode is not about Yuri it’s about Ringo. Well, Kanba gets a scene with slingshot girl (how easily he takes her down, too). But HIS mysteries are again left for a later explanation. His scene with Sanetoshi is more disturbing with his talk about the market managing the lives of children and dividing them into salvagable and unsalvagable. What do you have to do go from the latter to the former? What do Kanba and Shouma and Himari have to do? And Himari makes scarves for her idol friends and then throws them away, and they are reclaimed by Sanetoshi, himself fabulous. While my mind races around trying to figure out the significance.

But no, the episode really belongs to Ringo, even though she doesn’t do anything. Things happen to her. All of them bad. First we get Shouma rejecting her for a stupid reason: he feels he can never make up to her the fact that his parents killed her sister. How that justifies him treating her like a girlfriend he caught cheating, I have no idea. It was a callous and wrongheaded thing to do. None of them are responsible for what happened before. I’m hoping this show will make that an issue later on, but for right now it turns former instigator Ringo into a victim, and while instigator Ringo got tiresome, victim Ringo is fresh enough that I don’t yet mind.

It gets worse. Yuri grabs her and speeds her away in her fabulous red car for a fabulous max night at a hot springs inn. If it wasn’t for the darker side we’d seen of Yuri before, we’d think that this is just what Ringo needed. As it is, we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, or rather, the drug to drop into Ringo’s drink. Yep, turns out Yuri’s lost love was Momoka, and in a moment of twisted irony, after Ringo had spent episodes trying to become her dead sister and resigning herself to the fact that she isn’t, now Yuri is treating her like she is, by drugging her and presumably, raping her. No matter how she behaved in the past, Ringo didn’t deserve that, hell, no one does. And you wonder if this is another indication of how the unsalvagable, the people on the unfortunate side of this two-tiered system the show imagines, gets treated by the fortunate. But if there is this wheel of fate going on, it should keep turning, and eventually bite Yuri on the ass. I’m looking forward to that.

The iDOLM@STER 15 goes from nefarious rival idol organizations to nefarious robots and other things in a completely silly and useless episode that I enjoyed quite a bit.

It’s some daytime variety show thing, and all the girls are helping out. It’s a nice idea and it allows every one of them to show their strengths and eccentricities. The only thing remotely serious (apart from the fear that the girls as a whole will screw up) is Chihaya’s inability to loosen up and have fun, something we’ve heard before. It’s well handled, though, as in the end just about everything sets her off into helpless giggles (or something: she hides her face). Elsewhere, Takane’s “Ramen expedition” was a highlight, along with Makoto’s makeover, which only succeeds with the audience when she dresses in drag. On the other hand, I don’t know where Hibiki’s bit was going, and Yayoi, Azusa, and Lori were stuck with kindergarteners.

Maken-Ke! 2 brings us some more info on the mysterious maken power that all the students have. Takeru has an unidentifiable type, so naturally the plot will go that route. Not that I really care. What I want to know is what is with the fanboys’ obsession over panties and boobs? Half the episode is about showing girls flashing their panties, and their boobs are so unnaturally large that I wonder how they can stand up straight. I know we see this in anime all the time, but watching this show drives it home that I just don’t understand the obsession. And because the show is more interested in THAT than in telling the story, it’s dropped.

Yeah, never mind about Miho's problems ...

Bakuman II 2 continues the straightforward story. Really, everything about this show is about the boys’ rise as professional manga artists. Everything else is just a series of bumps along the way. In this episode the bump is Miho getting an offer to do a photobook with the threat that if she doesn’t, her career as a voice actress might be in danger. Serious stuff. But the show wraps it around how it will affect Saikou. Yes, there is the problem that the barriers the two future lovers have set up keep them from communicating, or in this case, make it too easy NOT to communicate when you should, but more central to everyone else is, is this crisis distracting Saikou from his manga work? Yes, he and Miho do finally talk, but more important is that they made their deadline.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai 2 doesn’t introduce any new characters, even though the OP and ED are full of them. Instead, we get the friends club’s first attempt to build trust and teamwork, through gaming. Like last week, Yozora and Sena’s bad temperments spice things up. For the second week in a row, I found myself giggling helplessly–when they try playing Monster Hunter, and the girls realize that they can kill each other.

After that they try a dating sim where they react to 2D girls being 2D girls the way any overly cynical person would, which bites them later when they discover one they DO like. Here we see a little difference between Sena and Yozora. The former is heartbroken while the latter goes out the door (the real door) to get revenge. Kodaka, sadly, does nothing but follow along again. It looks like he’s destined to be the straight man of the group and little more. Still, the episode has fun playing with the game worlds, and it’s refreshing to have two female characters who are unpleasant to be around but not (as yet) tsundere.

Penguindrum 13, iDOLM@STER 14, SKET Dance 27

After a few days of watching new shows go through their paces (and usually falling down), it’s a relief to get back to some shows good, or at least decent enough that I haven’t dropped them already.

Mawaru Penguindrum 13 has a few moments of plot but mainly has the characters sitting around thinking and talking.

The big plot point is, of course, Himari’s latest resurrection, this one at the hands of Sanetoshi. It wasn’t hard to figure out this would happen after his dramatic appearance at the end of last episode (besides, did you really think the show was going to do away with Himari?). This could have taken just a moment, but there are negotiations to undergo first (and probably more plot is inserted because we don’t know exactly what Sanetoshi’s price for saving Himari is, only that Kanba is willing to pay anything). Not to mention that we’ve already had a reprise of Shouma’s “I hate fate” speech. But the question of payment, the repercussions hinted at, will wait for another episode.

Instead, interjected with little plot points, like Sanetoshi’s call to Juri, we get a lot of flashbacks and discussions. Shouma goes on at length about what happened sixteen years ago. The events aren’t surprising, the kids are taken away and slowly learn what their parents had done. Neither are their reactions (well, Himari, the innocent little lamb, sleeps through much of it). What’s more interesting is Shouma’s belief in the present day: all this is happening to them because of their parents. They are cursed. It makes you wonder if the curse is part of fate as well. Sanetoshi, meanwhile, wonders if fate is actually set in stone. He tells us a story about a girl that I can’t fit into the show’s master plan yet, but which suggests that he is searching for someone, and that he is more than willing to test the validity of fate. And, in maybe the happiest moment of the show, Ringo and Teiju talk about everything. It appears she has gotten over her obsession, but, on the other hand, she is still a firm believer in fate, that everything happens for a reason. That will be no comfort to the boys. They claim that they will never amount to anything. Maybe that’s their fate, but that doesn’t mean they like it. And Kanba, at least, wants to fight it.

Back to iDOLM@STER. Last week felt like a finale, but since it isn’t, they have to add some lows, that is, after ten minutes of highs. Watching all the shots of the girls getting more successful I was just waiting for other shoe to drop. Unfortunately, it’s a rather contrived obstacle. The president of 961 Pro has declared war on 765 Pro (what is it with these numbers?) and had a pop magazine switch covers on them to promote their own group, some noir trio called Jupiter. Naturally, Jupiter is first shown as snotty and aloof, but in what will probably be the key to the story arc, they don’t really like their boss Kuroi’s tactics. As for the 765 girls, they do the adolescent moodswing thing, disappointed, then angry, then read their fan mail and get bubbly again. Nothing much to the episode, but the fruit costumes the girls wear for a shoot are pretty funny.

SKET Dance 27 isn’t bad. We get a new teacher who’s an adorable klutz, and then Switch shows off his failed inventions. None of them are particularly funny on their own, but when you start piling one on top of another there are some laughs involved. Especially the ramen-cooling head.