Week in Review, 9/2 – 9/9

Alright, so, unfortunately, no pictures this time around, either; I’m traveling currently for work, and my internet connection simply isn’t fast enough to handle the uploading of pictures. This is also why my post is late.

Hyouka Episode 20

So, more cute adventures of Chitanda and Houtarou. The primary storyline has closed out (i.e. Houtarou not being confident in himself and being uninterested in exerting effort as a way to avoid confirming that he is right to doubt himself), so might as well pick up the undercurrent of our would-be cute couple being interested in one another.

I probably would’ve been annoyed at the whole “no, we can’t call for help, my reputation!” thing had we not seen the newspaper club guy much earlier in the show similarly having to face a similar situation with his smoking habit. It is pretty ridiculous that people would risk freezing to death instead of just taking the chance that their reputations would be harmed. I know they were going to just try to wait for Satoshi and Mayaka to catch on and save them, but it’s still so weird to me. If you end up freezing or falling ill from it, everyone is going to know what happened, anyway. Better to face it head on.

By the way, saw a few folks expressing disbelief that anyone would go anywhere sans cellphone in 2012. I haven’t read the final volume of the light novels, but they take place in 2002 or 2003. As such, smells to me like this is one of the things that KyoAni added in as they have it set in 2012. While Chitanda probably would’ve had a phone back in 2003, I tend to doubt that Houtarou would. It’s not a huge deal, but it is a reminder that studios need to be a bit careful when they change the setting time-wise to the year of airing.

Digimon Frontier Episode 38

You know what? I can’t do it anymore. I just can’t. Digimon Frontier is awful. I could copy and paste my complaints from last week, and it would apply equally as well an episode later. Most of the kids don’t matter to the storyline, the pacing is bad, and it’s practically wall-to-wall filler. Toss in the shitty gender stereotyping, and blend with the fact that, oh, what is that? The primary villain has been defeated? And you only have/still have eleven episodes left? Oh, ok; cool. I’m sure that’s going to work out reaaaaaal well for you.

I did want to finish Frontier, as a rare exception to my general policy about dropping shows that I dislike. My reason for that is, well, I’m feeling completionistly inclined toward the Digimon franchise. I’ve already seen the entirety of the first three seasons, and I’ve seen about a third of Digimon Savers/Data Squad. I plan to finish that, and also to watch Digimon Xros Wars, to include its sequels. This is a franchise I find fairly enjoyable. But I just can’t bring myself to keep watching this garbage. It’s boring, and I really don’t care about the characters. The only possible suspense present can’t make me feel suspenseful at all, either – yeah, we saw that in the Real World, Kouchi went headfirst down a staircase, although he’s got some amnesia going on that front. If this were Digimon Tamers, we would be wondering what his ultimate fate was. But it’s not. I’m sure he’s fine. Dropped.

Mouretsu Space Pirates Episodes 1-12

The yuri mafia finally convinced me to watch this. Well, no, that’s not true, I was planning on watching it at some point anyway because it looked kind of like a Mai-Otome but with less sleaze, and I really loved Mai-Otome. But, yeah, that there is some yuri later on certainly didn’t hurt my intentions.

So far, it’s alright. I’m not enjoying it as much as I was expecting, although I do really like Marika. It shouldn’t be such a pleasant thrill to have a young heroine be so competent and level-headed, but it is with Marika. They also do a good job of avoiding Mary-Sue territory with her – yes, she’s doing pretty well, and she’s got a good head on her shoulders, but she is also still a sixteen year old, and the entire pirate thing is pretty new to her.

I think what I’m enjoying thus far the most is how space opera-y it all feels. In a way, it feels like a throwback. There are still shows that have elements of space involved in them (Space Bros, Aquarion EVOL), but it isn’t on the grand level like was more common in the 90s and early aughts. Watching this, one gets a better feel of the vastness of space.

Actually, the show that keeps coming to my mind while I’ve been watching has been Outlaw Star, although I think the mythos there beats Pirates so far (but, hey, is anything ever going to be as cool as Gene Starwind’s Caster Gun?).

Fancy Lala Episodes 1-2

So, I finally get around to starting in on Fancy Lala just in time for Bandai to tell us they’re exiting stage left come November. Maybe they’re just expecting that damn election to go very poorly. I bet Mitt Romney wouldn’t approve of anime.

Fancy Lala dates from the late 90s, and is a magical girl story more in line with the original magical girl stories of anime. In it, young Miho somehow comes by some magical dinosaur-looking things who grant her the power to transform into her older self… although, the effect is only physical. Through a stroke of luck, Miho suddenly finds herself working for a talent agency as a model, known to them as Lala.

This may sound uninspiring, but it’s fairly good so far. It might be pure fantasy in some ways, but Fancy Lala is forthright about things one may not have expected it to be – Miho as Lala must contend with a creepy man posing as a talent agent who tries to pressure her into coming with him, and Miho’s friend Akiru comments that if she becomes an actress someday, she might have to take her clothes off on-camera.

Perhaps of some amusement, Fancy Lala is a remake of Fashion Lala, which I reviewed not too long ago. Mercifully, Fancy took out the disco, terrorism, and creepy May-December romance vibe that Fashion had. Perhaps of some more minor amusement is that Miho looks like a young Yumi Fukuzawa (Marimite).