Aldnoah Zero 12 is one of those episodes where it’s tense all the time, everyone’s battling, but there’s nothing really to say. All the familiar things happened. the bad guys have pushed the good guys to the brink, the good guys have one more attack ready, Inaho comes up with a cunning plan which frankly seems really stupid to me, but it works … Rayet redeems herself by escorting Asseylum through danger (what an amazing coinkidink that mecha crashing into her prison cell yet still being functional). Oh, we finally see something besides Vers royalty and nobility, some infantry grunts invading the stronghold, and I couldn’t tell them apart from the Earth forces. Maybe that’s a statement of sorts.
Akame ga Kill 11 has a lot of fighting too, but this show has the edge of happily killing off characters whenever it wants to. You figured that guy with Sheele’s imperial arms was going to go down, so Mine would get a mourning scene with the scissors, but Leone going down early seriously worried me. The rest of it was underwhelming. Every time a bad guy displayed a new power it was quickly negated by good guys intervening. Then the boss brought in two ringers to make it all meaningless, even Stylish’s leveling-up. Favorite bit for me was Tatsumi and Mine’s reaction when Leone rejoins the fight, seriously pissed off.
I expected more mayhem when I watched Sword Art Online 2 11, but the damn thing was nothing but talk. Basically, Kirito comforts Sinon some more, and pull some improbable deductions out of their asses to conclude that there’s a murderer in Sinon’s room right at that moment. So the whole killing people in a video game thing is more a setup between the online killer and a real-life one. I’m not sure what to make of this. It’s a mundane way of killing people, and removes the mystical-technological bullshit from the equation, but I don’t see a way the two killers could time things so perfectly. Also, since the original SAO game shows that the series is fully capable of mystical-technological answers, I don’t see why they’re trying to make it more “realistic.”
Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun 11’s first half was maybe the better one, since at one point I actually burst out laughing (Sakura sitting on Nozaki, then the romantic flower, followed by the fake hand). And it’s still kind of sweet to see Sakura acting all giggly over this dense lunk. The second half wasn’t bad but there was no Sakura or Seo or even Kashima. Just the boys. Nothing wrong with the boys, and I always like it when the show flips genders and consider the boys’ behavior as if they were girls. But what on earth was that at the end with the valentine chocolate in the fridge? Why doesn’t Sakura recognize it?
Too Old for Anime 