Episode twos and ones

Damn, I still can’t get 10-bit files playing right on my machine. It’s not only the bricks, but the fact that mplayer overwrites each screenshot I take with the next one. It happened last week, too. So this is the only one I got left. Damned if I’m going to play the episode again to get more …

Well, let’s see. Fate/Zero 2 has a lot of scenes of the servants getting to know their masters. We start with Waver and Rider. I hated Waver from the start, and dreaded having to watch his scenes, but Rider is a hoot, the exact opposite of the little punk. What’s more, he’s more than happy to slap Waver around if he says something stupid. Maybe not what a servant is supposed to do, but it adds a fresh dynamic to these relationships. Then it’s a parlor-room scene between Irisviel and Saber, and more talk about goals. Then we meet a fun-loving killer and his accidental servant, Caster; all I’ll say is that the servant/master shows yet another side … poor kid. Waver/Rider are comlete opposites while Ryuunosuke/Caster are of the same mindset, a sick one. It also shows that the show is perfectly able to get cruel and depraved if need be. It will be fun to see what happens when Caster’s desire for the Grail clashes with Ryuunosuke’s … simpler desires. To finish off the episode we get a battle. Wait, one of the servants is dead already? I’m not buying it, or there’s something to the master’s strategy that he hasn’t shown yet. “Go kill Tohsaka. Don’t worry about Archer.” “Duh, yes boss.” Don’t worry … Sheesh.

'Once more unto the breach, dear friends ...'

Ben-To has the best premise of the season, one of those “only in Japan” type ideas. But this doesn’t mean the show is going to be any good. Take that show where they mixed baseball with Peter Drucker. Awful, just awful. Ben-to, however, has a more promising start. Our hero, Satou, finds himself unconscious in the supermarket and nobody caring much apart from a white-haired girl who says something through the window. It’s only the next day when he returns that things become a little more clear: he was a victim of brawl over the half-priced bento. On the third day, bandages and all, he finds himself competing, only to get knocked unconscious again thanks in part to the girl, known as the “Ice Witch.” There are lots of good little bits strewn throughout: the brawl doesn’t start until the guy with the half-price stickers is finished and leaves the floor. Afterwards, two opponents say a cordial goodbye, until tomorrow. Some of the characters are interesting, like Oshiroi, the bespectacled thing who is too fascinated by Satou’s injuries–Aoi Yuuki strikes again. We’ll have to learn more about Ice Witch Sen. Satou scores points by being both appalled by the fighting and drawn to it–or maybe he’s just starving. Yes, the series has promise. But my big question is: how the hell are they going to milk an entire season out of this premise?

She LOOKs scary, but ... well, okay, she IS scary.

Mirai Nikki follows Amano, a weird kid, who likes to observe rather than participate, which means he doesn’t have any friends, except for an imaginary one (Air Friend!) named Zeus. Turns out Zeus is god himself, and for kicks he sets Amano’s phone diary to show what will happen in the near future. It’s great for Amano at first, aceing tests, avoiding bullies, so we’re waiting for the bad stuff to happen and to get some moral lecture, some monkey’s paw type conclusion. So I’m getting a little bored … then the show ups its game. A girl named Yuno seems to know too much, and then his phone diary announces his death. Suddenly the show has gotten interesting … only to fall a little flat as there’s this serial killer to dispatch, and Deus shows up again and explains the rules to what turns out to be a twisted game. Last one left standing becomes god. Looks to be a confusing time-paradox type of show with lots of mayhem, but with one difference: Yuno is another contestant, and she swears she will keep Amano alive, which is good, but she’s a stalker who’s out of her mind, not so good. I don’t normally care for shows like this, but when it was on its game I was fascinated. Also, I didn’t expect the funny coda. If the show continues to keep me off balance, I’ll keep watching.

Squid girl II 2 had it’s best moments early on, when Ika goes to the elementary school and rouses the kids to join her in her plans for invasion. That’s it! Infect their minds when they’re young! She should have thought of this before! Too bad an incident in the playground distracts her into a silly soccer game. As for the other skits, hmm, I can’t really remember. Cosplaying and weight loss.

I started watching C3 confident that it would remain the same–dumb and predictable, so I could safely drop it. But the show had other plans. Mainly, this woman showed up.

After the usual first-day-of-school shenanigans this crazy lady named Peavy Barroy comes out of nowhere and attacks our cute little girl now named “Fear Kubrick.” Harauka and Konoha join in the fun, and it’s soon blood and screaming and distorted faces. Not only that, it’s directed well and looks great. Alas, I have to keep the show for at least another week.

So I watched ep2 of Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinashi. Last week everyone was playing military games and it wasn’t very interesting. This week they go after a lost dog and discover a warehouse full of weapons, henchmen, and ninjas. It still isn’t interesting. The hero is bland, though his sister is a lot of fun. Miyako can’t go a paragraph without an innuendo. The others just run around. Even the dog was dull. Dropped.

One last finale and the start of the new show deluge

Let’s start with the finale: Dantalian no Shoka. It tries to wrap things up as best they can, while obviously appealing for a second season.

Dalian meets one of her kind.

The Professor and Raziel turn out to be bad guys, trying to disrupt postwar peace conferences by turning Londoners into zombies, which is both laughably silly and a lapse in imagination by the creators. Zombies? C’mon! Huey and Dalian try to interfere and Huey’s wounded. There follows scenes with the lady in that other world, finally coaxed to exit, though she fails, another phantom book, and an intervention by whats-his-name and his sluttish flunky who we met a long time ago. What I liked the most (apart from the usual, occasional, striking visual moments) was the Professor’s desire to release the dangers of phantom books in new formats, like newspapers, in order to reach more people. Rather slow thinking, since newspapers had been around for a long time before, not to mention other mass-produced printed matter. Why didn’t he free himself from books before?

So we’ve finally learned the dynamics and rivalries of the various biblioprincesses and their keyholders–at the end of the series. I do hope they get another one. There was plenty of things to laugh at, like many of the stories, but the visuals and soundtrack set an excellent mood. It could go from dark and somber, or warm, to blazing with light and energy. It was always a treat to look at.

Right, I think I’m ready for the new season.

Fate/Zero, as you probably know, is the most eagerly anticipated show of the season. It’s predecessor, Fate/Stay Night, was one of the first anime series I watched, so this prequel has some resonance for me as well. Nevertheless, I wasn’t a huge fan of the earlier series and have never followed the entire story, which either makes me the wrong person to review this series or the perfect one. What’s more, I’ve forgotten much of what I saw, only got annoyed when I’d see figurines of cute chibi Sabers for sale. “Damn it, that’s not Saber! She should be scowling and swinging her sword! THAT’s Saber!” There are some things in Fate/Stay Night that you don’t forget.

One of many conversations.

Appropriately, the opening episode is a long one, and much of it is spent with dour men making dour pronouncements about their goals or trying to figure out what everyone else is in the Grail War for. It’s talk-talk-talk, Emiya with Iri, Kariya with his father or a young Rin (Hi Rin!), and that annoying kid. Clans plot and nab artifacts while the soundtrack plays an unending dirge. And what the hell, it mostly works. That is, if you’re watching this show seriously and not a casual viewer who just turned on the TV or downloaded the file out of curiousity. If you’re not a fan, I don’t know how you’d take it. But if you are, everything you need to know is patiently talked out, to the point that we don’t get any Servant appearances until the very end, and, of course, Saber has the last line, the one that gave me a chill even with how much I’d forgotten:

People have been waiting five years for this.

We’ll have to see how the show works out when it gets to the battles, but episode 1 tells us at the very least that the creators are taking this seriously.

The inevitable best-friend-discovers-scantily-clad-alien-at-his-house scene

Then there’s C3, or CCC, or “A show I will probably drop early on.” Our hero, Haruaki, gets a metal cube in the mail. He sticks it in the basement. That night he discovers, as male teen anime boys so often do, a naked alien girl eating his rice crackers in the kitchen. The next morning his best friend Konoha drops by, sees the alien girl wearing Haruaki’s shirt (but where did she get the panties?), and hilarity ensues or is supposed to. You see where this is going already. It’s only a little refreshing that Haruaki isn’t terribly surprised by any of this, and neither is Haruaki. Haruaki, apparently lives in a place with lots of spiritual power, so that’s why his father sent him the cube/Fiya. And Fiya’s got a curse to work off by making people glad she’s there, or something like that. This is explained to us through dull monologues. If this isn’t bad enough, the rest of the episode is all about Fiya trying to fit in and be helpful but making a mess of things, and flashing her panties (and WHERE did she get those?) a lot. Sigh, let’s move on.

Hunter X Hunter looks harmless. A kid’s show where 12 year-old Gon goes off to take the hunter exam, and to find out why his father liked hunting so much. “Being a hunter is so great that he was willing to abandon his own kid!” We meet future members of his gang, who don’t like each other, but they team up to save a drowning sailor, etc etc. We get the tearful goodbye scene, the cynical rivals bit, components of your average first episode. And that’s what this show looks like: average. It’s also a little slow-paced, but I cut slack for first episodes. More worrisome is that Gon is dull, and Kurapiko speaks his/her lines so slowly that I lose interest. There’s some hope for Leorio. Yeah, nothing really bad about it, but nothing that makes me take notice, either. I’ll probably drop it soon.

Shonen Jump Quartet ... actually it's only Saeko speaking. The rest are gaping.

Bakuman II starts right where Bakuman ended (well, apart from the fake opening, good enough to have me checking the file’s name), with Hattori at the door, introducing Miura to the boys as their new editor. Apart from introducing new characters (their assistants) and reintroducing old ones (Hi, Niizuma! Your new buddy Hiramaru looks like fun!) the episode throws a lot of new things at the boys. Salaries and budgets, they actually have assistants, the annual New Years party, all things that working mangaka deal with, well, maybe not always the party. They take it in stride and occasionally utter lines about how determined they are. In other words, their surroundings and expectations are different, but their aspirations haven’t changed.

The commander (left) is in danger!

Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinashai! has two high school classes battling old-school, using non-lethal weapons, like Baka to Test meets Dog Days. The fight is one of those where one character will turn the tide and introduce herself, followed by someone else retaliating, then introducing HERself, and on and on. I stopped scribbling names midway through when I realized they weren’t going to stop. They also had four really good warriors, a guy who confesses to a girl three or four times, imcompetent commanders, armies switching sides … I suppose this episode was to give us a taste of what is to come, but I found it hard to care when I didn’t know anyone. I can guess that Yamata (the confessing boy) is the main character. I just don’t know about this. I’ll wait for it to settle down.