Tatami Galaxy 2, K-ON!! 5

The Tatami Galaxy 2 tells what the structure of the entire series is going to be like. Each episode our hero joins a different club and has similar misadventures. And I was worried.

The first thing that sprang to mind was “My god, another Endless 8!” but it isn’t as bad as that. Though some scenes repeat, they add self-referential touches to keep it fresh. Also, the episode doesn’t end with a mob throwing him off the bridge. I think I would have stopped watching if the results of each episode were too similar.

This time he joins the movie club, only to find that it’s ruled by an eighth year student named Jougasaki, who only wants to make Hollywood-style films with him as the lead. The hero (I wish he had a name so I could call him something) manages to make some arty flicks which no one likes except Akashi, the one girl in the club who seems to understand him. She still thinks his films are worthless, but she did not hate them. Meanwhile, Ozu prompts him to make a revenge flick and sneak it into the screening of Jougasaki’s latest epic.

Okay, I said, it’s going to backfire and he’s going to get thrown over the bridge, but to my surprise, it works. Jougasaki is publicly humiliated and our hero manages to escape. But though the end is less dramatic, his feelings at the end are that of failure and regret, because he didn’t live up to the promises he made to Akashi. There’s that little toy that’s hanging from his lamp fixture, which presumably belongs to her (which we saw last week) and he didn’t make the “true” film he said he would, or rather, he’s to embarrassed to show it to her. I wouldn’t want anyone to see a scene with me kissing Ozu, either.

So, what’s going to happen? Is it going to be episode after episode of the hero screwing up and not getting the girl (for obviously that is what this series is about)? Frankly, I don’t know how excited I am by that prospect. Maybe this is a little more like “Endless Eight” than I thought.

For me, every other episode of K-ON!! is good. One and three were good. Two and four drove me crazy. Would five live up to the pattern? … Yeah, pretty much.

Well, some parts dragged a little ...

While the upperclassmen are making asses of themselves on their field trip, the young ‘uns are left behind. Ui’s without her beloved big sister, Azusa is without her club, and they feel in a bit of a vacuum. They’re joined by classmate Jun and decide to hang out overnight so none of them will feel lonely. And basically that’s what the episode is all about. They retrieve Yui’s lunchbox, they eat, they wonder what the hell to do with themselves, go to an entertainment center, feed the turtle, this, that and other things, while constantly interrupted by texts sent by Yui.

Not that nothing happens. It was nice to see Azusa get a bit of attention. She helps the girls in the Jazz Club, something she is unable to do in the Light Music Club. And the three become better friends. She won’t be so alone next year when the upperclassmen graduate after all.

So, yeah, not a bad episode as K-ON!! goes. Maybe it was because I got a small break from Yui.

Night Raid 2, Tatami Galaxy 1

I’m still trying to figure out the characters and organizations in Senko no Night Raid. Ep2 helps out a little by providing a number of flashbacks concerning our super-powered spies, even if I’m not sure who’s working for whom. Also, though the backdrop remains confusing, the story in ep2, when they get to it, is straightforward.

The team is out to investigate Krainev, a violinist who’s performing in Shanghai, and visited the house of a late professor who had ties to the Kwantung army. The team is skeptical, but go on the case. They discover nothing, but Krainev has a good memory and could certainly be keeping it in his head. Isao, who can apparently read thought when touching the person, manages a private lesson with Krainev—and discovers nothing of use.

Interspersed are the members’ memories, Takuma being pulled away from his goals because of his power. Isao has a brother who might be working for the other side, and she’s looking for him. The violin playing reminds Aoi of his sister, though we learn no more than that. Because of all this they find it even harder to suspect Krainev, or at least to condemn him. A Russian Jew now living in Germany, he has to survive.

They unravel the mystery—the information is encoded in the sonata he’s going to play on the radio. They cut off the power but Krainev plays anyway, for the pleasure of making music, released from his burden. It was a quiet episode after that first one, but quite effective. I suspect the show will get more so for me once I have the backdrop figured out.

The Tatami Galaxy 1 looks and sounds fantastic; it’s also damn exhausting to watch.

Pretty much my expression after half an episode.

The show throws so much at you with bright visual effects and rapid-fire dialogue, that by the halfway point I was worn down. But once you start watching, it’s next to impossible to stop. We follow, er, never got his name, who meets a guy who claims he’s a god, and intends to match up a girl, Akaishi, with either the hero, or his friend and worst influence, Ozu. Time for a flashback. The two of them had been on the tennis team and had been losers at life, and had decided to ruin the romances for everyone around them, causing much annoyance. The hero finally tells the god that he wants Akaishi for himself, and weird things happen, leading to this …

It’s too much for me to explain, and since the conclusion leads me to think this is not part one of a longer story, I don’t quite know what to make of it. We’d seen the hero do stupid things all throughout, but I rather hoped he’d do something to fix it instead of spending the rest of his life that way. That doesn’t happen, he fails in his attempt to woo Akaishi (by not even trying). The loser in all of us sympathizes with him, yet at the same time we can’t forgive him for his multiple failures. And as for what it was all about, well, I’ll have to wait for the next episode to get a clearer picture.