Weeks in Review, 11/10 – 11/30

Catching up.

Well, to be honest, haven’t watched much anime in the second half of that time period, as work and Thanksgiving interfered with that (and also with doing any of these regular posts), but I did manage to squash some in. Still have to finish catching up on Kyousogiga and Galilei Donna, though… and, well, we’re coming up on the end of the year, so I want to pick up to finish a couple of shows that aired earlier in the year on which I stalled. Looks to be another busy holiday season. (Oh, shit, which reminds me that there are three Christmas presents I have to wrap today!)

Oh, and, by the way, the one year anniversary of the Butt Fumble occurred earlier this month, so here you go:

The magic never dies.

Danganronpa, ep. 8 – 13

Why on earth did I not watch this when it originally aired? I suppose it was having been burnt hardcore by Umineko, since a show featuring multiple murder mysteries really is my cup of tea. The pacing got a little unfortunate and one of the least compelling characters was of the final folks left standing, but I overall really liked this show. Would be absolutely in favor of a second season, and am also tempted to pick up the game that’s being released for the Vita in N. America this coming February (although I’m put off by the overly complicated approach the Vita takes to gaming).

By the way, if someone had told me that this’d have pretty much the same ending as Revolutionary Girl Utena: Adolescence Apocalypse, I would’ve thought they were bullshitting, but, hey, it was.

Think my favorite character of those still alive at the end was Asahina. Her righteous anger really was something to behold. Also, lol at Naegi’s willingness to give complete benefit of the doubt to both the girls who tried to frame him for murder – I mean, really dude? You almost got pancaked and you’re going to overlook that immediately?

Samurai Flamenco, ep 6 – 8

Well, wasn’t expecting this of all things to pull a Wild Adapter on us. Not really sure what to make of this anymore – its playing the transition to a more ‘traditional’ superhero show so straight that I feel a bit boggled by it given where this all started. I agree with Goto’s girlfriend, though – there’s something off about Masayoshi in the eighth episode and its a bit creepy. Its a pretty good bit of effort from the writers, the voice actor, and the animators, as its a pretty subtle feeling of something being a bit off, as reflected in a slight deadening of his usual tone and an artificiality to his facial expressions in the second half of that episode.

By the way, I really love the masks that the Flamenco Girls use. Reminds me of Sailor V, and of Sailor Moon in the first arc of the Sailor Moon manga. Now there’s a post someone could do – magical girls who use masks. Saint Tail occasionally utilized one, too, although she relied much more on the magic of shadows to keep her identity secret.

Galilei Donna, ep. 5 – 7

I still love this show even if it seems I’m one of the few who do. I started out not knowing what the hell this show even was, while Samurai Flamenco seemed fairly straightforward, so it feels weird to have such a reversal as Galilei Donna as a show has become more clearly defined. I suspect I enjoy Galilei Donna so much for the same reasons that I enjoy/ed Outlaw Star so much – both are somewhat goofy quest tales involving flying ships with plenty of stopovers in new and different places as well as a decent amount of intriguing technology (don’t even try to pretend that the Caster Gun is one of the best pieces of futuristic technology that anime has ever come up with). While Galilei Donna stays terrestrial, it really is more of kin with the scads of anime involving adventures spanning galaxies.

The episode with the orphans was pretty bad, but I liked the rest of the episodes just as much as I’ve liked the show previously. I will admit to being surprised at the fact that they did kill off the orphans, and even was a little surprised at how casually they depicted the gunning down of several people in the hospital episode. Of course we are meant to see the villain’s decision to not kill our main cast off in episode seven as a sign that he isn’t a total asshole, but that would be to ignore the fact that he ditches them on an icy, deserted island instead; yeah, we might know they won’t croak since they’re our heroines, but if we stop for a moment it becomes obvious that the most likely outcome would be starvation and/or freezing to death instead.

Oh, and, lol, of course they are headed for Japan next. OF COURSE. Have you ever noticed that the biggest weebs in anime are foreigners? I mean, ok, I know, a Japanese person from Japan can’t exactly be a weeb, but anime is made by Nihons, and its ALWAYS the foreigner who expounds upon how damn pissah Japan is and they ALWAYS mention stuff like kimono. So freaking weeb life.