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.
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.
Too Old for Anime 
As they say, any woman can act like a man, but can she act like a gentleman?