Usagi Drop, Hanusaka, Sacred Seven, Prince-Sama, Idolmaster–a mess of a post while I catch up

While I was too busy to write last week, I wasn’t too busy to watch an episode or two and scribble notes, which I’ve hastily assembled here and dare to call a coherent blog post.

Usagi Drop 4 and 5 manage to balance Daikichi’s problems with the sheer cuteness of the situation. The big crises, such as they are, the meeting with Rin’s mother and deciding what name to give her are tempered by the joy that Daikichi obviously finds in the little tot. The mother turns out to be an irresponsible manga artist with issues who hasn’t fully realized she’s partially responsible for this mess. As for the name, Rin decides that for herself. Unaware of ramifications or expectations, she goes to the heart of the matter: she’s with Daikichi now. No, he’s not her father and she won’t take his name, but who cares? You wonder if she’s actually right, or just too young. Maybe the show will get back to that. Meanwhile, Daikichi continues to rise to the challenge of acting like a father, even if he isn’t one. In episode six the point is made that a family tradition had been maintained, especially important considering Rin’s existence is definitely NOT traditional. And so Rin becomes a little more a family member. … And we get some nice bits with Rin’s best friend Touki, who has a mother, but is in desperate need of a father.

Hanasaku Iroha 18 features Nako and her mermaid metaphor, but unlike all the other mermaids with shell bras, Nako rather likes swimming in the ocean where she feels free. It’s work at the inn, and school, that drag her out onto dry land. But after getting an unexpected raise she’s convinced to try a few new things out with her friends, to branch out and improve and earn that pay raise. I expected her to make mistakes and feel huge remorse, but the show, as usual, is too smart for that. Some things she regrets, others, she discovers, aren’t so bad, and she now looks upon the land with more confidence. Not much to the episode but, like most in this series, it’s consistently entertaining to watch.

A bento scene gone wrong.

Sacred Seven 5 brings us a beach episode that turns into a darkstone encounter inside a mountain that is shaped like a pyramid. There’s arguing between Kagami and Arma about protecting Ruri and not distracting her from their outing, Kagami goes to investigate, and when he realizes there’s danger there he doesn’t think about going back and getting reinforcements but goes half-cocked right into the danger, eventually causing Ruri and Arma to fall into danger as well. Such is the life of a character in a silly adventure series. Episode 6 gets back to Kijima/Fei and throws Kenmi in for good measure. Nothing much to it; just another story-arc starter. More variations on the “Protect Ruri at all costs” theme, with Kagami screwing up this time. At the same time, he doesn’t want Arma involved, which doesn’t explain why he stops his car to fill Arma in on the situation. “I have a crisis to tell you about, and, oh, stay out of it, please.” Actually Arma spends this episode standing around looking confused, from an odd bento scene (where Ruri flips through several girl-modes, finishing with tsundere, while Arma merely blinks) to grumbling while the others plan. Oh, and a fight with Kenmi’s assistant/dog, who is fun because she simply doesn’t care.

The way to cure acrophobia.

In Uta no Prince-Sama 5 it’s Syo’s turn as problem boy of the week. Since he’s basically a clown, it’s a silly episode where he, with the misguided help of his friends, tries to overcome his fear of heights. It’s predictable enough. The highlight is an impromptu song made by, um, I forget, about Hyouga’s action movie. Just one question: why hasn’t Syo beaten the shit out of Natsuki already?

I don’t really know why I’m still watching Idolm@ster, but I am. I’d say that it’s my silly escapist anime for the season, but I’m also still watching Yuru Yuri and Nyanpire, to name two. Maybe it’s because I don’t expect much from it apart from a small army of characters having goofing around, with maybe one girl spotlighted each episode. And, I would add, it’s relative lack of fanservice in spite of all the opportunities. That is, before I saw episode 5. In ep4 the cooking show camera crew’s interest in fanservice shots was intended to be humiliating for the girls, or at least for Chihaya, but one episode later the show is revelling in swimsuits and dropped towels. Yet I still watch it. Something’s wrong with me.

A few more things I watched before I stop watching for a few days

Because I can, I will tell you some more of the things I’ve been watching before I take an actual vacation …

Idolm@ster 3 splits the story between the girls’ performance in the sticks, and Yukiho’s fear of men and dogs. The sticks part works all right. The girls adapt and help out in ways they didn’t anticipate. The other part had far too many Yukiho freakouts and bonding scenes and was dull as dirt, except for the performance. She gets the audience to respond to her. I’ve seen it before. Some performers like performing because they like the control they have over the crowd, full of people that they might not be able to handle one-on-one. But that’s my observation, and certainly not a reason to be watching this. Why AM I still watching this?

Okabe runs a lot but he never seems to get anywhere.

I know why I’m watching Steins;Gate. It’s excellent, though I’m so lost with all the time traveling that I don’t quite follow what’s going on anymore. Which is why I haven’t said anything about it. But a couple questions: first, what happens to the old timelines? Do they simply vanish or do they go on their merry way? So while characters regret things that they will lose when Okabe jumps, will those things carry on in other timelines? Second, I found an IBM 5100 on Ebay for about 8 grand, after 1 minute of searching. Why haven’t they thought of that? Maybe they don’t have the funds?

You have to ignore a lot of things in Uta no Prince-Sama in order to enjoy it. In episode 4 Ren was able to come up with a full arrangement for his lyrics in so short a time, and Haruka manages to find all those eeny-teeny bits of paper. Fortunately, the insert song is so forgettable that it’s safe to ignore it altogether. What’s maddening about this show is they give us a painful Ren flashback only to leave questions unanswered, i.e., why did his father hate his mother? And his dilemma about staying or going doesn’t work; does he slack off only because he was forced to come to that school? What triggered these thoughts about his mother? Not a very satisfying episode, even for this show.

In Kamisama Dolls 4 good scenes are followed by dumb ones, and by the end all the antagonists have been introduced to one another, to the regret of Kyohei.

Now that we're all gathered ...

Good scenes include the ones between Aki and mad-scientist wannabe Kuuko, who’s tied him up and attempts to torture him. They’ve both got a twisting obsession within them, but it’s not the same one, and it’s nice to see Aki taken aback by an outsider who’s just as crazy as he is. Dumb scenes include the completely unnecessary bath scene and the one where Aki enrages Kyohei by mentioning “Sensei,” causing Kyohei to go beserk. I hate this sort of thing, when the smug villain says THE BAD THING just to piss off the protagonist so he gets to say “See, we’re actually the same,” in order to justify his own psychotic actions. Like any of us DON’T have a very painful memory that causes us to react foolishly.

Worst of all is the kid who does the smug bit to little Utao, the one character who’s totally innocent. Apart from his voice and his size he’s playing an adult character. The fact he is indeed a kid just makes him more annoying. Unfortunately, he’s obviously going to be a long-term villain in this series, and he’s already started the “You’re the same as me” bullshit by announcing that he’s Kyohei’s brother. Sigh.

Bleh! Bluh-bluh-bluh-bluh!

“If there’s someone you want to see, you aren’t alone anymore.” That’s the message, I suppose, of Natsume Yuujinchou San 4, and I don’t buy it. Or maybe I’m thinking not about being alone, but being lonely, something both Natsume and the unnamed youkai of the week have suffered from.

At first we think the story will revolve around Natsume’s grandmother (or whatever she is) meeting an old elementary school classmate and resolving a little fight they have, but that turns out to simply be the theme for a story involving old friends and differences we remember. We watch it mainly through the youkai’s POV, and she’s a lot of fun. Frustrated by the fact that humans can’t see her, when she finds one that does she takes delight in scaring him whenever she can. Pretty childish behavior, but the youkai in this show are rarely models of maturity. So in spite of the problems she causes poor Natsume, I still enjoyed her antics, sitting in her tree, hrumphing her frustrations.

What she doesn’t realize is that she liked having Natsume around not because she could scare him, but because he could actually see her. Being bitter and immature meant she dealt with this the wrong way. It takes the boy Natsume lashing out at her (and an interlude where she becomes a cat and befriends him—did Natsume know all along?) and finally getting shunted away to the next relative before she realizes this. When she does it doesn’t help her mood one bit.

But even if she hasn’t matured, Natsume has. He knew they parted badly and goes out of his way to visit. It’s a simple ending which leads to the Natsume quote above. Okay, maybe you aren’t alone if you want to see someone, even if from time to time you pretend to the world, like Natsume and the youkai do, that people aren’t worth the trouble. It doesn’t make the loneliness go away. Natsume has learned that sometimes you can do something about that.

Nekogami Yaoyoruzu 3 is better than last week’s (I think. I don’t recall what it was about at all). The gang are enlisted to help Yukina, a manga artist and diviner, make a deadline when her familiars run out on her. So half the show is them making a mess of things, and the other half is them trying to capture the wayward familiars, and making a mess of things. They set up the idea of the cat goddess being useless and then forget all about it. There’s a nice bit where we read a bit of the manga and the characters do the dialogue. That’s about it.

Kagami's attempt at concealment actually works.

In Sacred Seven 4 Alma and Kagami must stop a darkstone from interfering with the school festival. With hilarious results. Well, not really. It looks like next week we’ll return to the drama with … a beach episode. Certain to be followed up by a hot spring episode, a karaoke episode, athletic festival episode, home center episode (To my knowledge, only HidaSketch and K-ON!! have had one. It’s underused cliché fodder), etc.

There, that’s done. Tomorrow I catch a train to do touristy stuff.

Dantalian 2, Prince-Sama 3

At times Dantalian no Shoka feels like a stage play, albeit a modern one with rear-projectors which show flashback images. There are scenes where Huey and whoever are standing around talking plot while Dalian sits to the side, reading and listening, which I can imagine watching in a theatre.

Okay, if it WAS a stage play, Huey would be blocking Mr. Geese from 1/3 of the audience.

Alas, this stage play sometimes isn’t very good. There are too many scenes of pure exposition, talking about the family curse, golems, old news clippings and this week’s phantom book, where one character just talks and the other one nods or goes “hm.” Any snarky comment or attempt at humor signals the end of the scene. A golem crashing through the wall works as well (which leads to another exposition scene, not to mention the bizarre “hand thrust into Dalian’s chest” bit, during which the golem sits there and waits for them to finish their business. You see this a lot in anime, of course, but rarely taken to such extremes).

I was wondering when they'd get back to that.

And the acting isn’t very good. If Huey was a flesh-and-blood character his lines would sound wooden and his movements overly broad, the latter of which works on stage but not so well on a screen. As for Dalian, I can’t get a handle on her character, yet. She hasn’t done much but explain things and toss out the odd insult. The story isn’t much. It’s hard to believe Huey didn’t suspect Estella sooner; the idea that he didn’t because he finds her attractive doesn’t convince me. That idea was pretty much invented by Dalian. Also, the “phantom book of the week” format doesn’t interest me. On the other hand the show demonstrates occasional flashes, like the ED with its voice and strings contrasting with violent or frighening footage. Bits like that make the show much more watchable for me. When they start explaining who that girl is in the teaser maybe the overall effect will improve.

We’re through three episodes of Uta no Prince-Sama and the pattern has formed, and this week’s new boy is grumpy Hijirikawa, though frankly it took me awhile to figure out it wasn’t Tokiya, another black-haired grump. Hijirikawa is the one with in the sweater.

A compassionate teacher-student conference.

Haruka passes the first test thanks to that redhead guy and their generic pop song, but unfounded resentment over her accomplishment remains as strong and nasty as ever, leaving her unable to play the piano, which feeds the vicious cycle further. But this is a cutthroat school, as the cross-dressing homeroom teacher tells us; Haruka better toughen up. This leads to many scenes of her trying to practice and failing, hanging out with sheep and naming that cat-who-has-significance-we-can’t-fathom yet, with a side visit to a bad cooking lesson and a saxophone recital, so all the boys not involved this week can get some screentime.

The scene where Hijirikawa gently helps Haruka regain her playing abilities was a nice one–boring, but nice. I actually wanted something out of Nodame Cantabile, with Haruka screwing up her first note and Hijirikawa smacking her, but let that pass. They could have left it at this, a nice scene where the unsmiling Hijirikawa shows some decency and kindness, but they ruin it with a flashback to … whenever, and Haruka unknowingly inspiring him to study music, and THAT might have been okay, too, cheesy, maybe, but then they go overboard with thoughts like “You’re the one who taught me the magnificence of music.” I expect some cheesiness in shows like this, but a little restraint, please!

Uta no Prince Sama 1, No.6 1

The bad news is that Uta no Prince Sama is a girly story about a young maiden who enters a prestigious performing arts school and is surrounded by good-looking boys who dote on her, and they’re apparently all would-be idol singers, and they start the episode with a generic boy-group song. The good news is that the show likes to go over the top—a lot.

We start with a examination day crisis, as our young maiden Haruka is late and they won’t let her in. She is rescued by two cute boys and is mysteriously admitted. From then on she and her new best friend Tomo meet still more cute boys of various moods and inclinations, let’s see, Otoya, Natsuki, Masato, Ren, and probably more but I forgot to write them down., and I begin to wonder if I’ve stumbled onto a Ouran High School host club with better artwork. They all take keen interest in Haruka, in spite of the fact that Tomo-chan is much hotter. It must be Haruka’s bizarre, yellow eyes. Oh, we also get another song, sung by Hayato, who’s not at the school, or maybe he is, as the mysterious guy with the cat we meet at the end. And flashbacks. Nothing much to to it, really.

A flashback, or a dream sequence, or something.

If that was all it was then the show wouldn’t stand out too much; I’m not its target audience. But I did enjoy the over-the-top elements. Many of the school’s faculty are idols in their own right, and I could have predicted the cross-dressing one, but the principal, Shining Saotome, is completely off the charts, doing his opening day speech while flying on wires, and he’s voiced by Norio Wakamoto! If they can keep that level of weirdness I might wind up watching this show after all.

No. 6 is a NoitaminA show, meaning it should be more sophisticated and free of cliché than your average show. That does not mean it’s going to be any better. And, though the direction and art look impressive, I have my worries about No. 6. After all, Fractale and C looked pretty good, too.

Shion is a gifted, elite 12 year-old who lives in one of six city-states carved out of the remains of that last big war, hence the show’s title. He seems obedient but seems to be looking for something beyond his sheltered existence (daydreams about floating in the sky and going out to shout during a typhoon kind of give it away). Then a fugitive named “Mouse” or “Rat,” depending on the source or fansubber, sneaks into his home. So far it’s nothing particularly new. I was watching, wishing we’d get a typhoon of our own around here (over 100F–the show’s grey rain looked awfully good to me), wondering if the title is a reference to The Prisoner, and waiting for something unusual to happen. Nothing really does.

There are things of interest. Shion is so guileless, or so desperate for something new in his life, that he’s delighted by Mouse’s appearance, even when Mouse threatens him. Mouse, otherwise your typical cynical hard-life fugitive with nothing to lose, is so taken aback by Shion’s behavior that his facade keeps dropping, either that or he can’t help but look at Shion’s peaceful, sheltered life with a bit of envy, or maybe it’s the erotic overtones the two give off almost from the start. Then there’s Shion’s rambunctious young friend Safu, and city hall, known as Moon Drop, which Shion describes as a blister and makes whale noises when wind whips through it. We’ll just have to wait and see if these and other things keep this from being a pedestrian adventure story.