Dorei-ku the Animation – Episode 10

We’ve seen Ryuuou’s backstory from Julia’s point of view. This episode we get Ryuuou’s backstory from Ryuuou’s point of view. His relationship with his mother, how they lived together as long as he could remember and she would always praise him on how smart he was. He was smart, so he would be alright and soon as she said that she started coming home less and less.
Eventually, she stopped coming home all together. Leaving him all alone to care for himself. Until Julia came into his life.

We see that Ryuuou had obtained the SCM’s online and decided, to try it out on Julia. Which matched up to what we saw on Julia’s side, upon seeing that he could really enslave people. His first thought was ‘I want to save my mother.’
So we see him go and meet with the guy who owns the brothels, we already know how that plays out.

We see a little more of what goes down with Julia and Ryuuou. The tattoo she got, a dragon and a flower to represent his name was not something he’d ordered her to do. Neither were a lot of things, like making dinner or falling into a very family like dynamic with him.
He’s clearly distressed and worried about her. He’s not giving as clear of orders to his servants.

Everything is falling apart for him.

Everything falls even more apart when his servants. Determined to save Fujiko and Julia from whatever have happened to them go off and act on their own. Capturing…uh, whatever his name is from episode 1. Guy who lost at the pachinko parlor. They get information on a meeting place and all go in to take down the person who had taken Julia…
They all put in their SCM’s and surround him, intending to force him into a duel and make him let the people he captured go. Which is all fine and good, but really one of them should of not been wearing their SCM as a safety measure.

Maybe I don’t know, the guy with the gun? Chūō, Honey, I thought you were smart. I mean, I suppose I can’t blame him because there is no way he could know about the existence of the judgement SCM. Setagaya calls Ryuuou and proves to him that he’s captured all his slaves and unfortunately, even Julia broke…

He only has Zero left, who is also Kiyo as we saw in the previous episode and kidnapped by Maria. So Ryuuou has been left with nothing and no one and that’s a horrible painful feeling.
My only hope here comes in the fact that Eia approached him during this episode. Not antagonistically. She didn’t even hint that she knew who she was.
She did nothing more then offer him a doughnut and speak about books. I’m hoping he will take up an alliance with her soon against Setagaya.

Speaking though of Zero. With their original plan to have Ryuuou release him gone from their grasp. Maria slips on an SCM, hoping to enslave Zero herself so she can release him from Ryuuou and release him all together and make Kiyo happy.
As soon as she slides the scm in though, her proximity alert goes off. She goes outside to check the source, thinking perhaps that it’s Gekkou returning from getting snacks.

What she finds instead is someone wearing a gas mask and carrying a sling shot. That claims to be very good at shooting, he issues a game against her. If she can escape, she wins. Well, she tries her best to run, but that slingshot nails her right in the heel and she’s down on the floor. She loses and becomes his slave.

God, is it wrong that I hope it’s Yuuga in another one of his flimsy disguises? It’s TOO late in the series to be adding even MORE characters and more factors to the story. I am getting severely worried about it having time to wrap up all the plot threads it does have hanging. One can either hope it starts all coming together soon or we get news of a second season.
The novels spanned three novels, with a side novel and two sequel novels. So there is a possibility this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Dorei-ku, but I still want this season to come to a satisfying conclusion.

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Megalo Box Episode 11

Megalo Box is drawing to a close and with this brilliant episode of sacrifice and redemption, it is officially my anime of the season. It’s quite mind blowing to think about how Nanbu has changed over the course of the season, transitioning from a spineless alcoholic deeply in debt to the best possible trainer Joe could’ve ever asked for. His growth dwarfs the rest of the cast, and in some light Megalo Box is just as much Nanbu’s story as it is Joe’s.

The shadow that Fujimaki casts over Team Nowhere has been present since the very beginning. There were joyous moments in the series where Nanbu, Joe, and Sachio may have forgotten about the crime lord that watches their every move, but those moments were short lived as they were reminded of the bonds that held them down. Fujimaki himself is a pragmatic, cruel man, but not unnecessarily cruel. He was the final hurdle standing between Joe and Yuri, the antagonist before the final arc. He believes that men cannot change, and that frauds like Nanbu and Joe could never be the real thing. This philosophy of his is pushed heavily through the scorpion and stray dog metaphors, and is not too far fetched, considering he’s a crime lord who has probably seen men unravel and display their true colors multiple times.

He considered Nanbu no different, another scorpion trying to be something it wasn’t. Perhaps at the beginning of the series, Nanbu was indeed just a scorpion, a fraud. However, as his attachment for Joe and Sachio grew and as Joe repeatedly proved that he was indeed the real deal, Nanbu stripped off his scorpion skin and became the real deal. Fujimaki himself even comments that Nanbu seems like a genuine trainer as he speaks to Joe. This episode is the culmination of Team Nowhere’s progression, and is representative of how their bonds to each other are empowering them beyond normal measures. Sachio pushes Joe to keep fighting, Nanbu sees this and pushes Joe himself, and Joe defeats Glenn with a spectacular punch. Our ragtag group of hoodlums is a trio of strong spirits that has become “the real thing,” through sheer courage and determination.

However, this did come with the cost of Nanbu’s final eye. I found this sacrifice extremely saddening after Fujimaki explains the significance of its loss. Nanbu has trained Joe for all this time to reach Yuri at Megalonia, yet he himself cannot watch Joe win. It’s a tragic fate for the trainer, something akin to breaking the hands of a piano prodigy. It’s interesting how Fujimaki demanded Nanbu’s eye during the start of the series, but Nanbu pleaded his way out of the situation. But now at the end, he cuts it out himself without a shred of cowardice. Way to go Nanbu, you’ve redeemed yourself tenfold.

The fight between Glenn and Joe was great, but not spectacular. I enjoyed Glenn’s monster truck entrance and the punch out was entertaining, but the fight itself was no the focus of the episode. It was Team Nowhere’s inner struggles. As a result of that change in focus, the fight was not as fleshed out as something like the Aragaki fight or the Mikio fight. Other highlights of the episode included Sachio’s unexpected rap, which was amazing by the way. Along with Yuri walking down to the ring to motivate Joe!

It’s finally coming! The fight we’ve been waiting for since episode one, the fight to make Joe reach beyond! Yuri versus Gearless Joe. Shirato versus Team Nowhere. I am not ready for this hype.

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Tokyo Ghoul Re Episode 11 – That b!tch was killed? Thank da Lord.

First of all, shout out to my girl Matsumae for killing the 2 most cancerous people in the CCG. That girl with the pink hair was looking really bloodthirsty and the guy with the patches is blood thirsty all the time. And Furuta, the butler of the guy with the patches, is also cancerous and I hope he dies. He used his teammate as a shield and uses mind controlling techniques, which is smart by the way.

Matsumae is like “ You used your own teammate as a shield and killed him” and he was like “technically you killed him” and he stabs her eyes out. Oof.

Then I don’t understand the dedication of the workers of the Tsukiyama. They would die for their family and would do anything for them. They must have done a lot for these ghouls. Apparently, it was mentioned in previous episodes, but for some of them, they gave them a place of refuge when they had no where to go and a job.

There is something else I don’t understand. There was a cut scene/flashback scene while Tsukiyama and Haise were fighting, where I think Haise just turned into Haise and he wanted to die. And then that Arima guy was like you’re my quinque and if you want to die, you can. So in order to save himself, he had to be part of the CCG and become Arima’s quinque. Kankei doesn’t want to die yet. Not yet.

When they use a questionable ghoul that may or may not turn to the ghoul side to fight ghouls…

Ghouls have amazing powers. But I feel like they are getting more amazing over time. That ghouls that was regernating faster than they could fight it and then after they did a big attack, it attacked them more( laughing face).

I guess this isn’t the first time they have done a family extermination because apparently Kanae’s family was killed by the CCG too. They know what they are doing. Ay! This might end quickly….

Kanae’s backstory was interesting, we knew that she was the only person in her family left and the  Tsukiyama’s are her cousins. The fact that slowly her family was hunted and killed and she was only one left is painful.

And also the fact that her eyes and mouth and still sewn from the torture is creepy. She got really messed up because of the torture. We don’t know how exactly messed up yet, but she really messed up. She probably has a twisted love for Tsukiyama that was in her, but now brought to the surface by the torture. That rabbit girl probably put some ideas in her head and probably raped her to be honest. I felt like that could have happened.

I think Kankei is going to show himself during this battle. I’ve been waiting for this the entire time. The entire time, I’m waiting for everyone to get wrecked, because like I previously mentioned, this was a bad idea in general.

Next episode: The Conclusion of the Tsukiyama Fight! Is Kankei going to come out? What they going to do with regenerating ghoul? Is Matsumae and her comrade going to kill this bloodthirsty piece of trash who uses his own teammates as shields? Is Kanae going to kill Haise/Kankei( well, she’s going to try)?

See y’all next week!

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Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS Episode 56

It is understatement to say this episode was a hot mess. It was unbelievably boring. I was hoping for some witty exchanges, but nothing. It was annoying how predictable it was, and for the sake of switching up the tempo I wished Takeru had blown the use of his skill because the reactions that would have followed would have been freaking hilarious. It certainly didn’t help the fact Fusion Fire enables him to use his opponent’s fusion materials as his own was straight up disgusting. Violet Chimera’s is super sick though. Love it.

And the dull exchange wasn’t the only problem. The animation this week, was absolutely horrific. It has been a while since I have last seen an episode with this many flaws in the animations, and it was terribly difficult to ignore because it stood out like a sore-thumb. In fact, it was so distracting, I had a difficult time focusing on the duel. I did notice the animation improved for a bit during the second half of the episode, but overall it wasn’t good.

We all knew Aoi was going to lose, it was going to happen no matter how badly we wished for her to win— even when she is in this stupid mindset right now. Aside from her internal monologue at the beginning of the episode that made my head hurt, I enjoyed seeing she has taken the time to properly reflect on her deck, identify her vulnerabilities and how she can cover her weaknesses, all while building off of her core style of chipping away at her opponent’s life points. The most pleasant surprise however had to be the Link Fusion Summon, which was awesome to see how characters each will have their own unique Fusion summoning sequences, as they do with Links and Rituals Summons.

However, her loss may not be in vain. So as long as the writers don’t intend to sabotage her further, (something I honestly don’t have a lot of faith in…) this could turn into a crucial learning experience. Aoi was able to recognized something important, and that is the bond between Takeru and Flame. There is an opportunity for Aoi to possibly start reflecting on what Ignis are, what are their bonds with Humans/Partners, and potentially recognize it would be in humanity’s best interest for them to be with the partners they have chosen to be with. However I don’t believe she knows that part of the story yet, how the victims and and Ignis are connected to each other. In fact, perhaps it will encourage her to investigate the matter further. Of course the worst case scenario (and the stupidest thing that could happen), she becomes greedy and wants an Ignis partner of her own since she can’t bond with her AI, at least not in the same way she could with an Ignis.

Either way, I hope this loss will enable her to start looking outside of her brother’s box, and start thinking for herself and investigating on her own terms, rather than going along with the flow of others.

Yuusaku was MIA this episode because he has gone ahead to investigate the enemy. Next week we see he will be encountering Haru and Bohman. The preview indicates the subject of the Lost Incident is going to be brought up. However I am a bit worried for him, since Yuusaku looks alarmed, and potentially vulnerable. Just when he thought he could start putting the past behind him, it looks like the past is about to come back to hunt him, showing even with the Hanoi Knights gone, the case has yet to be closed.

Oh and one last thing: Flame blushing at Emma and calling her a Goddess was freaking hilarious!
Watch out Takeru, Ghost Girl might steal Flame’s heart!!!!!

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Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu: Die Neue These – Kaikou Episode 10

“Nothing is more stimulating than using whole nations and the very fate of humans as intangible chips in a game of politics and strategy.”

Adrian Rubinsky is probably the only person in the galaxy that Yang Wenli could outright despise in ever way. He manipulates both the Free Planets and the Galactic Empire into throwing lives away in these huge scale battles as if he’s playing the greatest strategy game of all time. However, I must admit that there’s probably some fun behind being such a jerk with so much power. He can bend the strongest militaries of the galaxy to his will, while lounging about in his mansions on Fezzan. A man with such a strong grip over both sides is no doubt cunning enough to be a major player in this space opera. I’m just curious as to how he’ll inevitably fall, will it be at the hands of Reinhard or Yang?

The news arrives to the Galactic Empire that the rebel forces are planning an invasion through Iserlohn with a thirty million men. But being Legend of the Galactic Heroes, there is no quick answer of just sending Reinhard off to do battle. There’s the question of politics. The elderly administrators of the Galactic Empire must not only ensure victory to appease a rowdy populace, but must also tip toe around Reinhard’s success. Normally something like this would grind my gears because it’d be yet another example of older officials screwing over young blood, but here there’s political reasoning backing it up. It’s not simply out of pride or arrogance that they’re hesitant on sending Reinhard, it’s calculated politics. However, if anyone can screw over expectations, it’s our glorious Reinhard.

On the Free Planets side of things, Yang raises a very interesting point about his capture of Iserlohn has backfired. He worked endlessly to ensure minimal casualties from both sides, praying that the capture of Iserlohn would mark the beginning of a potentially peaceful era. Unfortunately, it has the reverse effect and instead fires up the people into a battle hungry frenzy. I’m not sure what Yang can do here, he doesn’t want anything to do with the military, yet he’s being dragged into a dangerous offensive. Furthermore, he knows that the true reasoning behind the campaign is political, which makes him hate it even more. He really doesn’t deserve this, and the Free Planets Alliance doesn’t deserve him to save them from whatever blunder they commit.

The introduction of Commodore Falk is just as I remember in the original OVAs, a complete scumbag. Not only is his strategy overly bold, his attitude towards Yang is despicable. Yang and the other officers are merely questioning his strategy, trying to cover up possible holes, but Falk responds with messages of patriotism and bravery. Not only is he a scumbag, but incompetent as well, which is a horrible combination. However, his disgusting nature is made quite clear to both Sithole and Yang, revealing a potential destiny for Yang. Sithole explains that if honest men like Yang could take ahold of the highest military position in the Free Planets Alliance, then he could weed out men like Falk before they grew into fruition. This must sound like a horrible destiny for our lazy Yang, but Sitholes deems it a necessity if the Free Planets Alliance is to survive and prosper.

The episode ends with Reinhard and his subordinates discussing their strategy against the Free Planets Alliance, and I believe it captures the essence of why Reinhard has succeeded until now. Far more than just militarily talented, Reinhard collects talented men under his flag and heeds their opinions. Almost like a teacher willing to learn from his students, it’s respectable. His plan to draw the Alliance deep into enemy territory and then shatter their force at once sounds absolutely bonkers, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s Reinhard. I’m just curious as to whether Yang will have enough control or influence to possibly defend against him. Guess we’ll see soon!

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Mahou Shoujo Ore – Episode 11

So after the dramatic reveal at the end of last weeks episode where everything we thought we knew was turned on it’s head. How does the show follow up this shocking revelation? With an episode that was generally good, not great, but good.

Hyoue proves to the girls that their manager is really the demon boss by showing them a photo taken by Fujimoto of their manager with the bunch of demons in his apartment.While this is being established, Mohiro is dragged off into the demon world and portals to the demon world and demons are popping up all over the city. The demon portals shoot a ray that decrease the animation budget and make everything wonky looking…
While a ticket along the bottom of the screen reads “We’ve decreased the animation quality to get along with the story, sorry for the inconvenience.”
It’s times like this I honestly wish I’d had the foresight to read the manga for this show ahead of time. So I could know if gag’s like this are exclusive to the anime or if the manga cut down on the drawings during this part too. I’m not sure why it would matter, it wouldn’t make it any more or less funny for me if it was content sticking to the manga…It’s just one of those things i’m curious about.

Their manager does an over the top broadcast on the television, hijacking the airways to show that he has Mohiro captive and invite the magical girls to come defeat him. He’s wearing a mask, so there can be a dramatical reveal of his identity. Though the girls and we the audience already know it.
The girls jump through one of the portal, leaving Hyoue to try to close up the other portals. Since fairy magic and demon magic isn’t all that different.

The girls rush into a rather gaudy area. Right up to a door that says ‘Final Boss door’, with save point right outside of it. God, their manager really is a giant nerd. They can’t get the door open, so Sakuyo shoves Saki actually just straight through the door.
There is a nice dramatic moment where surounded by demons Sakuyo is telling Saki to go on. Saki is worried because Sakuyo’s love power comes from being with and near Saki. It’s fine though, because Sakuyo has a little Saki doll that she made to keep her going when the real one isn’t around. She also made a little Sakuyo doll for Saki. So they are never truly apart.

Saki runs on to the boss room. Where the manager pulls his mask off in a dramatic reveal…and then tells the demons to cut the broadcast and take a break while they go to commercial. During which time, he takes the time to talk with Saki.
We get a slightly revised version of his backstory that we got the last time. This time, we see that he was a director among the demons. Basically, a guy who sat behind a desk and managed all the work and complaints of the many races that the demons had taken over. When he hears that the Human World, a realm that was rated class-D and not a threat to them all is in danger. The demon stationed there had been defeated by a magical girl.

Apparently, the demon world had anime. So he knew what that was, got hype as hell and said he’d go on a mission to earth to find out about the magical girl threat. When he got there though, all he saw was Saki’s mom. In her man form, getting on in years. His dreams broken, his stay in the human world begins and it follows the backstory we are familiar with up until the start of the show. When the manager and Sakuyo are hiding from Kokoro-chan in the first episode, he overhears Kokoro-chan offering Saki to become a magical girl.
He questions Sakuyo about Mohiro-chan and it begins the set up of the series from there.

Now he wants to push it to the natural conclusion. They’ve reached peak popularity. Now to do something that will make it so the public won’t forget them. Because trends come and go, but you need to do something to stand out to be remembered forever. For Magical Girls, for Saki’s idol career! All of this has been for them. So now, she must defeat him…the demon boss on live television and save the world so Magical Girl Ore will never be forgotten.

Next weeks episode? the epic conclusion. But all we get in the preview is a flashback to the first episode and vague grunting noises from Mohiro…boy do I hope this series can pull it out in the end. It’s got the steam to build to a good conclusion…episodes 10 and 11 were pretty solid. Now just don’t botch the ending!

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FLCL Progressive – Episode 2 [Freebie Honey]

Well from what I’ve seen so far, FLCL Progressive is definitely continuing with the trend of FLCL being “anime on crack.”

For one thing, it appears that our protagonist Hidomi has such a desire to “be nothing” that she even dreams about zombies and post-apocalyptic worlds. She also, apparently, has a fetish for seeing men be beaten up or even eaten (as in her dream). Blech.

Hidomi heads to school and Jinyu (who is now the Hibajiri family’s newest cafe worker) tries to warn the teenager about the woman on the Vespa motorcycle (whom we now know is Haruko, Hidomi and Ide’s teacher), but she is repeatedly cutoff and is unable to convey her full warning before Hidomi leaves the house.

At school Haruko continues to brainwash her students with her bizarre speeches and random noises. She gives her students a yearbook that, to her students, appears to be full of strange-yet-normal memories from throughout the school year. This includes contacting UFOs and using the school to light a giant bonfire on its roof. xD   Hidomi however is still unaffected by Haruko’s words, so she is able to see that the yearbook is really just a bunch of kid drawings rendered in crayon.

After class Haruko asks Hidomi to give Ide his homework as he was absent that day; Hidomi reluctantly agrees, forgetting about Jinyu’s warning in the process. By the way, the dub has Yoshimi’s name as “Ko Ide” (or “Idechi” as Haruko calls him), but Wiki has his name listed as Yoshimi in the episode summaries. * shrug *   The latter appears to be incorrect information, so I’m using his last name Ide for my reviews.

Anyways Hidomi heads to the town slums where Ide lives, and she bumps into Ide’s friend Goro on the way. Hidomi learns that Ide is fairly poor so he

works hard to try to make and sell machinery after school. However he’s not very respected and is often beat up for his efforts.

As I mentioned earlier, Hidomi gets turned on (“overflows”) when she sees someone get hurt, and seeing Ide be beat on is no exception. Hidomi has a nosebleed and she passes out, and Ide rushes her back to his room so he can take care of her.

Ide is able to stop Hidomi’s nosebleed, but finds that being in close proximity to a cute girl in a short skirt makes for a very awkward conversation. It quickly becomes less awkward and more “da fuq?” when Haruko somewhat crashes the scene’s fourth wall and interrupts the two teens.

Jinyu arrives moments later, and we see that her classic car has turned into a mobile mecha. Jinyu breaks into Ide’s room and grabs Hidomi as a hostage, trying to provoke Haruko into fighting her. Having only her guitar for a weapon, Haruko straps a leash onto Ide’s neck and uses him as a weapon. The poor guy becomes a “laser beam” and a whip, and even ends up getting electrocuted by Jinyu’s car-turned-mini-lasers.

Jinyu stows Hidomi inside her car-turned-back-into-a-car so she can fight against Haruko one on one. Interestingly, Jinyu makes references to her and Haruko possibly being a single person at one point in time, but Haruko doesn’t take the bait to elaborate the comment for the viewer.

As she watches the two women battle each other from inside Jinyu’s vintage car, Hidomi is warned about Haruko again by Jinyu and she starts to overflow once more. A red horn emerges from her forehead – according to Jinyu, this is Hidomi “overcoming her inhibitor”. Hidomi then transforms a small, ugly robot that looks a lot like the metal version of a Raggidy-Ann doll. Hoever this robot contains great power and strength, and she’s easily able to overcome Haruko with a single burst of power. However when robot!Hidomi attempts to finish Haruko with a punch, she misses and hits herself in the face instead. This causes Hidomi to revert to her human form again. After her odd transformation and punch to the face, Hidomi is now rather weak and slightly injured.

Jinyu summons her car immediately and it transforms into some kind of medical monitoring machine. Hidomi and Ide are placed inside it so their vitals can be monitored. Haruko threatens Jinyu once more, saying that Hidomi is “hers.” I’m presuming this is because of her ability to summon robots or creatures from her forehead like Naota could. In the final moments of the episode Hidomi remembers to give Ide his homework, and they both laugh at the absurdity of what has just happened to them. Like really, after all that…. homework?

By the way, before I wrote this review I watched this video and noticed that FLCL Progressive continues with some details contained in the original FLCL dub, such as the English dub containing a handful of Japanese words. In this episode it was hearing Goro say “yamero” (stop) that was a bit of a mindfuck, especially since the dialogue following his line delivered by the thugs was in actual Japanese.  * head explodes *  I imagine hearing the entire scene entirely in Japanese will make more sense.

I’m still not a fan of this dub, but I appreciate some of the details that have gone into it and have paid homage to the original FLCL dub (such as the use of some Japanese words). Hidomi is very slowly growing on me as a character, but her attraction to zombies and death and blood still creeps me out a little.

Next episode… omg more baseball? xD

FLCL song of the week: Thank You, My Twilight  (off the FLCL Progressive OST, heard in the beginning of episode 1)

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