Category Archives: Episode Writeup

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru – Episode 7

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Only a quick prologue today, on these persistent, entirely bewildering Hikki-Araragi comparisons. I’m probably gonna get a little heated here, because I find this so ridiculous. There’s just something about this show that always makes me spill a little too much blood on the page[1] .

The only thing Hikki and Araragi have in common is they’re both snarky and articulate. That’s it. Hikki is not a pervert, he is totally insecure (especially with women), he has no savior complex, he is totally introverted and internally focused, he’s incredibly uncomfortable in his skin… outside of them both being well-written , they have almost nothing in common. Is that it? Is good writing enough to make two characters knockoffs of each other when it comes to anime?

Listen. “Snarky and articulate” is one of the base archetypes common to all media. Have people somehow missed this? Because if you’re going to point to Araragi, you might as well also be calling Hikki a Rosalind[2] , Viola[3] , or Falstaff[4] (or hell, even Ignatius Reilly[5] ) knockoff. Or a half of all Quentin [RES ignored duplicate image][6] Tarantino [RES ignored duplicate image][7]characters [RES ignored duplicate image][8] knockoff. Or an every-character-in-Scott-Pilgrim knockoff [RES ignored duplicate image][9] . Or a Bill Murray in every role he’s done since 1988 [RES ignored duplicate image][10] knockoff. Or hell, even a fucking Gandalf [RES ignored duplicate image][11] knockoff – it’s not so strong in the films, but he was a big ‘ol snarky asshole in the Hobbit.

So please. Can we quit it with these silly, reductive claims of Hikki being a derivative character? Because honestly, even if this weren’t one of the most common character types of all time, it’s also just a very misguided read of Hikki’s personality. He’s not a happy or confident guy. He’s dealing with some stuff. Get off his back.

Alright. That’s enough of that; OreGairu, you have the floor.

Episode 7

0:30 – And we’re back to OreGairu frankly dictating the terms of my life. If I spent half the time I spend rationalizing my not responding to texts actually responding to them…

1:20 – Holy shit, did OreGairu just manage a spin on these awful spinster jokes that actually works? This text-stalker gag – distinctive… relatable… actually reflective of character… kinda funny… yep, it checks out. Impressive work, OreGairu.

2:58 – Hikki finally expressed curiosity about that book that ends the OP last episode. I wonder if we’ll get back into that now that we’re in the back half

4:18 – Hey, anime writers? THIS IS HOW SIBLINGS INTERACT. PLEASE, TAKE SOME FUCKING NOTES.

5:12 – Aw man, Yuki almost doing that stupid greeting in spite of herself made me laugh out loud

6:03 – When did the teacher turn into Frau? [RES ignored duplicate image][12]

6:58 – Hayama: charming, genuine, and even good with the kids. Hikki has every right to resent this guy

8:54 – Hikki’s attitude towards Yuki has definitely changed since last episode – he’s picking up on her emotional cues now, and so they’re also being made visible to the audience. Dear lord, does this mean there are ways to depict character growth visually? I thought only KyoAni knew that secret!

9:13 – “’Sharing a secret’ must be one of the techniques he uses to get along with people” – Funny, appropriate to character, and also just kind of psychologically true. All my love, OreGairu

10:31 – Ahhh so great. Hayama is pretty much a natural at diffusing social situations, but his view of people (and understanding of how they naturally react, being himself someone who has no trouble integrating into any social situation) means he just leads the loner to the other kids and assumes that will fix things. And of course Hikki and Yuki now actually getting along (in a way that doesn’t even slightly resemble the Araragi/Senjou confident, antagonistic flirting AHEM) is just awesome to see

11:32 – “Yeah, it’s got all sorts of weird stuff!” I love these moments where Hikki accidentally realizes he’s not actually that different from anyone else, and it freaks him out

18:20 – I think this show’s just fucking with me now. That conversation where all of them have such specific, individual perspectives on how social situations work was going so well, and Hina’s point about finding people you relate to through your hobbies is actually entirely true, and then… well, each episode’s gotta have one stupid joke…

18:58 – Damnit nice people, don’t diffuse the situation! They must fiiight

19:20 – “You know you’re inferior, so you feel like you’re being looked down on.” Is it wrong of me to pretty much assume this is a big part of the actual motivation behind American anti-intellectualism?

19:40 – Man, they really do only use that guy for gay jokes, don’t they? I’m pretty damn happy Brain’s Base cut out whatever their “date” from the third LN would have entailed…

20:38 – “I took 30 minutes to defeat her, and ended up making her cry.” Man, this is so damn good. First, it’s great that they know they don’t need to show any of this – we can pretty much visualize that entire conversation. But mainly it’s great to see Yuki’s deep-seated anger express itself in such harmful ways, and show that while she’s definitely smart, she’s still at a point where she can’t use it productively, and lashes out at people for their weakness because she’s not mature or confident enough to accept them or herself. She sees people’s shields, but she can’t empathize with them, and only hates them for it

And Done

Aww. I think that at this point, since Hikki and Yuki are actually pretty close friends by now, I’m just going to like the show more and more going forward. I know, it seems impossible – but smart characters having such full and honest conversations is pretty much everything I want out of this genre. This episode also had a ton of great social commentary, and finally pitted the two most naturally antagonistic characters against each other, with a wonderfully understated and totally believable result. Also, the way this show handles romance is so damn good – so many (bad) shows just have characters antagonize each other or avoid talking honestly for endless sets of episodes, interspersed with maybe a few random moments of honesty, and then bam they wuv each other. But here? Yuki and Hikki started out as pretty defensive but already complementary people, and over time they’ve come to understand and obviously respect each other, even valuing the other’s opinions. But there’s still barely any romance there – they’re still just good friends. However, between the last episode and this one, Hikki has begun picking up on Yuki’s emotions much more sharply, and Yuki has begun trusting Hikki with her own personal problems and questions – finally, at the end of this episode, Hikki directly asks what her relationship with Hayama is, something he wouldn’t have cared about in the slightest a few episodes ago. All these small pieces build off each other wonderfully, and everything else is so smart, and the writing is so good, and, and damnit OreGairu I’m doing it again…

Hataraku Maou-sama! – Episode 7

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You’d think the show to most frequently surprise me would be one of the trickier ones – Gargantia is the obvious choice, but maybe Aku no Hana, or even Crime Edge. But no, my predictions have most often been flummoxed by the goddamn comedy.

I write down “I hope it’ll stay this funny” and it switches to excellent character drama. I swerve to “I hope it can keep developing these characters” and it introduces some themes about the capitalist class structure. I sigh and type “I hope its ideas can remain this insightful” and it goes BACK to comedy, with some action/drama thrown in for good measure. I decide to be content with whatever it throws at me, and then it throws out its first actual filler episode.

So yeah. Maou’s undoubtedly a slippery beast. I wasn’t a huge fan of last episode, mainly because I felt it didn’t really do much for the characters or ideas, but I think it was basically just indicative of the sometimes-unwieldy process of adapting a series of distinct Light Novels into one coherent anime. With that in mind, I have high hopes for the show now that we’re back in the swing of things and introducing religion into the mix, and I’m optimistic that “It will probably be pretty great” will prove to be a safer prediction than any of my previous ones. Capitalism, ho!

Episode 7

1:38 – That slowmo letter reveal. I didn’t find it that funny last episode, but the more they abuse the joke, the funnier it becomes

1:57 – Hikikomori translated as “bum” – I guess that works

2:15 – Again, the soundtrack is an all-star here, with those classic strings making her costume even sillier

5:55 – “You could say I’m just stalking some veterans who are peacefully living out their days…” Got it in one! Well, two, that was your second guess. Still good!

6:22 – “It really feels like there’s another Alsiel now.” Does that mean Alsiel gets a love interest?! WAS MY LOVE NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR HIM?!?

9:44 – I love how we get like a quarter-second shot of Alsiel looking impressed at the Shift Manager speech, but nobody else gives a shit

10:45 – “I get the feeling I’ve gone through this before…” Well at least even the show recognizes these tsundere speeches are getting pretty tired

12:25 – Wow, they played that misunderstanding so goddamn straight. Beautiful. Golf clap for a show confident in not having to overplay its jokes – normally my biggest problem with anime comedies is the massive prevalence of“that’s the joke!” overplaying of every single gag, and here they don’t acknowledge this conversation is ridiculous in any way

13:42 – It turns out heat stroke just makes Alsiel even more moe

16:09 – Ehh, this Light Novel adaptation stuff still just gets to me. The first five episodes were so self-contained, and every piece built to a coherent finale that gathered up all the existing ideas – and now there’s just a lot of stuff happening in a variety of directions, and it’s feeling more like a television show than an anime.

Okay, I know that doesn’t actually make sense. But one of my favorite things about anime is that, unlike virtually all western television, it doesn’t have to be a commercial, seasonal product – it doesn’t have to maintain status quo, it doesn’t have to indulge in episodic conflicts, it doesn’t have to manage a variety of themes but never advance them. It can tell a story, and then at the end, that story will have been told, and everything will have fit together to make a specific point or detail the journey of some specific characters or whatever. But with these Light Novel adaptations, those “commodity” strings just become much more apparent, unless the Light Novel is already concluded and the anime staff have the freedom to draw elements into one continuous narrative. So when I see a show like Maou, where in the first five episodes every single element built to a coherent point, change gears and start using the status quo to build towards another “conflict-of-the-week” (or four weeks, or w/e), it’s just kind of disappointing. The writing and characters are still good, but I feel episodic adventures are just never as satisfying as fully articulated stories.

16:21 – …that said, “Tomorrow will see the opening of a formidable foe… Sentucky Fried Chicken” is a great line

19:16 – Aha flinging the cashier aside. Great stuff

And Done

Eh, that was fine. Funny as always, though I’ve had more than enough of Emilia’s tsundereness at this point – are there really people out there not yet tired of this shtick? A new threat has been introduced, new romantic troubles, Maou and Alsiel’s new neighbor seems like a solid addition to their domestic life… all this was good stuff. Alsiel still #1. But I really do hope this show gets back to the stuff that really raised my expectations – Maou’s perspective of his own past self, Emilia’s changing perception of how people work, both of them seeing society from the ground up for once. I know, I know, this is a comedy, I shouldn’t get disappointed over things comedies don’t generally do anyway. But this show did bring up those ideas, and kept the episodes they were inside just as funny – it might be greedy of me, but I want that stuff back.

Still a solid show though, and things should continue to gain more momentum again next week. If it trades off a couple of straight setup episodes with a few awesome resolution episodes again, I’ll be more than satisfied.

Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge – Episode 7

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Halfway through. Dear god.

It’s been hard, at times. Not just in the story – obviously I have endless leagues of sympathy for the trials of our Hero and his Hair Queen on their magical journey into the land of sexy, kinky shonen fighting.

No, it’s been hard being cruel to something so adorable. Something so honest and distinctive and endearing. This show tries pretty hard. It really does.

So today, I’m going to be nice to you, Crime Edge. Let’s be friends for a while. Hell, I’ll even show you a little bit of that thoughtful analysis I try to bring to my other write-ups – maybe I’ll even take F1’s (honestly quite defensible and even likely) perspective, and analyze your flailing not as the drunken missteps of a genre experiment gone wrong, but the crafty jabs of a fond, knowing satirist at the height of his power. Let’s call a truce for today, Crime Edge. You know I’ve always loved you.

Episode 7

0:20 – “It… it’s not like I actually want to stop killing you or anything…” Here we see Crime Edge exposing the inherent lunacy of the tsundere archetype by transposing it against non-trivialized violence, thus crafting a sharp critique of the normalized violence indicative of a classic tsundere. It begs the question, “what really does separate a mind-controlling riding crop-wielding psychopath from your textbook tsundere?” Let us think on this

…alright, there’s probably nothing more self-indulgent than a parody of my own style, and I don’t know if I could keep it up for 23 minutes without strangling myself (hot) to death (less hot) anyway. I’ll stop that

1:02 – There’s something really great about Iwai excitedly sharing the latest gossip with the emotionless fishwoman

3:49 – Welp, according to the OP’s harrowing foreshadowing, dat loli is the only Author-of-the-week remaining. Well, I personally could not have more faith in this show’s ability to maintain interest without throwing constant arbitrary bad guys at our protagonists

…actually, I’m not even kidding. I agree with xRichard’s comment from last week – the most legitimately interesting thing in this show is the Kiri/Iwai relationship, and the adorable young love parallels their hairscapades result in. If this show thinks it can scare me by doubling down on the adolescent drama, it’s gonna be sorely disappointed

4:33 – “Hm, what should the story do next? I know I’m supposed to gather all the characters in one place, but… wait… how about the bad guys throw a party, and everyone’s invited! Dear god, sometimes my brilliance scares even me…”

5:42 – “You two can flirt without a care in the world…” Oh man, this show is slamming that theme. That’s right, big sis – embrace your kink! MORE KINKS FOR EVERYONE

I’m very down with this sexual tolerance stuff. Somewhat less down with conflating rough sex with addiction, though. Win some, lose some.

5:55 – Why must the show do these stupid Powerpoint transitions. Yes, I know I’m repeating material, but the show did it first!

6:13 – Fishwoman walks in on big sis and I’m all oh man this is gonna get steamy and then fishwoman stares at the camera with those cold, dead eyes and hauaglhahhaba STOP THAT

8:15 – “You had a terrifying face… but I sure do like bread.” My god you guys, I care so little about this character’s development. I think I actually negative care, in that the more they develop her, the less I’ll care. Tsundere big sis can’t-get-attached Instead-san is like a red-headed black hole of dull and uninteresting cliches. Please, please bring back the fishwoman. I’m sorry, I was wrong, I won’t vomit at her scary eyes anymore

8:46 – AH EYES FUCK. Actually she looks kinda adorable with her hair down – like a sad meth-head puppy

9:09 – Lady, she forgave someone who literally brainwashed her own boyfriend into attempting to kill her, I think she’ll forgive you for tugging on her hair

10:00 – STOP WITH THE EYES

10:26 – You know, I never really envisioned myself reaching a point where I’d think “FINALLY we get to the fucking needle-play,” but I guess life is just full of little surprises like that

12:27 – “Onee-chan, your face looks so gentle today.” And yet I don’t think this scene even cracks the top ten of weirdest scenes so far

12:50 – Kiri, what the FUCK are you doing hair-cheating on Iwai with that rage-maiden

13:11 – “I’m doing you a favor by cutting your hair. Can’t you show some appreciation?” That’s right, rage-maiden. IT MEANT NOTHING TO HIM

13:48 – “I’m just remembering the first time you came here…” wibbly wobblyNO. FUCK YOU, Crime Edge. I HAVE NO INTEREST IN THIS FLASHBACK. You can develop your shitty tertiary characters ELSEWHERE, thank you very much

15:13 – Oh god. Has this younger, primal Kiri-kun learned to keep his raging hair-beast inside him? This could get hai… no, I won’t.

15:56 – “I haven’t touched such beautiful hair in a long time” HE SAYS, FORCING HER BODILY AGAINST THE WALL. Okay, now THIS scene is top five, easy. Also, this is one of her FOND KIRI MEMORIES? Japan, we have a problem

16:47 – Ooooh, it was the Goods making him all rapey back then. Silly me!

16:56 – …nice work, translators. “Friscalating,” huh? I actually called bullshit on that, and looked it up – Wes Anderson invented that word for The Royal Tenenbaums, to describe the exact quality of wavering dusky sunset that last scene took place in. I don’t know whether to applaud or sigh a translation choice that will make 98% of the audience say “that’s not a word” and the other 2% spend a minute on Google determining that’s… still not really a word

17:23 – “Even still, sometimes it feels like we’re growing apart.” Yeah, we were never closer than that one time you almost assaulted me. That’s… there’s no other way to interpret this, right? They’re saying she found that super-hot, right?

20:26 – “Are people are going to stare at me like I’m some kind of freak?” It’s hard to applaud a show for having such earnest views about sexual freedom when that show also has such freewheeling views about… you know…consent

And Done

FUCK YOU, Crime Edge. I start off this episode pondering what the show will do with half its runtime remaining and all but one Author introduced… and then it turns out the answer is absolutely nothing. “Today on Crime Edge, Kiri and Iwai receive an invitation to a party, and decide to go to it. TUNE IN NEXT TIME.”

If you’re going to be bad, at least be bad in ways that are amusing to me – don’t spend three quarters of your runtime developing characters that are never going to become more than cliched scenery anyway. You disappoint me, Crime Edge.

Fortunately, next week promises to be ridiculous in all the ways I like, so I can’t be too mad at you. And with any luck we’ve run out of entirely vanilla characters for the show to pretend to care about for a few minutes

Serial Experiments Lain – Episode 9

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Episode 9

2:15 – “If you want to be free of suffering, you should believe in God.” – Yeeeeeeeeeeeep. Either live in the divided pain of the real world, or join the sea of free information

2:47 – “A strange craft…” Wait, aliens? ALIENS??? [RES ignored duplicate image]

4:40 – Seriously, aliens, you guys. You guys, aliens. [RES ignored duplicate image]

5:54 – “Named as a member of this secret organization blah blah” This episode is doing SERIOUS DAMAGE to my thesis

7:27 – “If a being is remembered, that proves it’s part of a record” – how can I even articulate how lines support my interpretation of how identity works on the Wired when they just introduced ALIENS? [RES ignored duplicate image]

9:16 – Oshit the chip’s got the Knights symbol shit gonna get craaaaay

10:02 – Why am I watching a slideshow about dolphins WHAT IS THIS SHOW DOING

11:17 – The funny thing is, I find the interwoven stuff where Lain’s actively trying to fight her way out from Lain of the Wired’s shadow fascinating. That disconnect between very good thriller and very clumsy philosophical lecture is coming up again

12:28 – “I don’t know if there are other Lains in there… but I’m the only one with a body in the real world.” Yesss, Lain. Fight it! Fight!

12:58 – Hm. They say the other Lain has only appeared in the club, but what about Lain in the intersection? What about Lain in the sky? Were all those just in our Lain’s head?

15:51 – “Fighting to make the only truth there is into reality.” Because it’s not like there’s any way to manipulate information or “truth” on the internet. So yeah, nice try, Seele

17:13 – It is kind of weird to hear them discussing the internet as something that had to be painstakingly constructed one breakthrough at a time. It feels pretty goddamn indestructible and ever-present to me right now…

19:00 – Finally a little information about Lain’s backstory. So it looks like the G-Men did indeed set up this situation to basically quarantine her – why her “father” destroyed that quarantine by introducing the Wired into her life, I can’t say

And Done

So is that the Wired remnant of the guy who was attempting to add some kind of singularity protocol to the 7th generation?

Anyway. This episode had a ton of exposition that I frankly could have done without – the show itself has explained basically everything that is relevant to either Lain’s story or the themes, and it’s not like talking about the history of the internet makes the sci-fi elements of this show any more tangible. I honestly don’t know what value any of that history lesson really provided… personally, I’m far more interested in Lain’s process of defining her own personality almost in opposition to Lain of the Wired, as well as the actual experiment that resulted in Lain being who she is. Also, they brought up aliens, and then an alien appeared in her room, and then they never mentioned it again. Weird.

That said, the stuff that was actually relevant to the story in this episode was great, as were the two previous ones – I’m very impressed with how well they’re maintaining a coherent thriller storyline despite the ambiguity of everything we’re being shown. And I actually like Lain as a character now, whereas I felt she was more of a prop working in service of the ideas earlier on. So I’m excited to see this one through.

Serial Experiments Lain – Episode 8

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Episode 8

2:00 – Just realized that between the physical Lain, the crows, and Lain of the Wired here, this OP could basically be the story of the show – whether that pause at the end means Lain has become god (singularity) or rejected the merge, I dunno

2:15 – “If you want to feel pain, don’t look away.” That’s right, Shinji. What did the real world ever do for you?

3:34 – And now Wired/non-Wired Lain are working together, with that persona actually representing her will. So maybe she actually did control the persona switches earlier

6:38 – “They asked if you were my real parents. Don’t people say the funniest things?” Welp, she’s not looking away, and this seems pretty damn painful!

7:23 – Arisu touches her shoulder. They keep indicating the reality of this connection with that physical contact she can find nowhere else

8:20 – And Lain immediately tears up at being threatened by the one person who matters to her. SAVE HER ARISUUU

8:54 – That statue has a tiny head

11:30 – “God makes his grand entrance,” eh? And claims that he is her? And that her real world self is a hologram? I’m guessing this is more meddling by the Knights, but at this point, if he says he’s god and god is her, it could very well be true

12:17 – Wait, whaaat? Why is the class all staring at her – what is she actually doing? Or has she not even gotten back to the physical world? Or… bleh, not worth hypothesizing, shit’s just happening

13:15 – So at this point, I’m guessing everyone knows her as whatever Lain of the Wired just did. So obviously she has to find the one person who believes in the value of Lain outside of the Wired

16:35 – THE BORDERS OF HER EGO ARE BREAKING DOWN. Man, if ever there were a post-Evangelion show…

Not that that’s a bad thing – Eva’s my favorite show, after all. But dem parallels be crazy

17:00 – Looks like Lain’s isolation and trauma have jumpstarted her merge, and now she can speak with Lain of the Wired directly

18:56 – “As long as I’m aware of myself, my true self is inside me.” Well that’s just, like, your opinion, man

19:47 – “Deleting.” Oh god Lain what have you done

And Done

What? Did she go too deep, and have her physical terminal permanently stolen by Lain of the Wired? Her AT Field’s looking pretty ragged at the moment…

Serial Experiments Lain – Episode 7

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I swear, starting with our next show I’m just gonna be posting reaction gifs. I need a vacation.

Episode 7

2:32 – “Society.” Damnit, I should probably have been noting the episode titles, I’m sure they’re relevant too. Ah well

2:37 – This shot kind of made overt the fact that her house sits at a crossroads/intersection. There’s been a great deal of imagery related to that, mainly in the constant pedestrian crossing stuff (which has ended with both Lain and her sister sitting in the middle of the crossing) but also recently in Lain’s Wired representations, where she was lit up at the center of a white X crossing. This could be relevant to either the gateway of information flow she seems to represent (like the walk/don’t walk sign), or even thematically to the fact that her choices here will decide the future course of the Wired and physical world

3:03 – Apparently the reports of her room’s explosion were greatly exaggerated?

3:15 – “The me in the Wired is becoming less and less like me.” Alright, so that seems close enough to confirmation that separate personas have their own will within the Wired – or at least that Lain specifically has a representation with its own goals

6:46 – Are these various characters Knights, and the program they’re looking at their next target for cross-integration? Not enough info, but it seems more likely than them adding a new element seven episodes in

7:10 – “Lately you’ve been slipping again.” As in the last few days, or from some time ago?

8:20 – Very nice scene. From the perspective of “the real world isn’t real at all,” to her immediate, surprising fear at offending her one real-world friend, to the elation of maintaining that connection, capstoned by the physical contact the Wired can’t replicate. Maybe the real world isn’t so bad.

Arisu might have just set Lain’s assumption of divinity back quick some time

8:45 – Information Bureau announcement is complimented with scrolling red banners, making me think that’s the organization the red-eyed G-Men represent – and their goal would be represented by the red “don’t walk” sign, a cordoning of the information flow with the hope of preventing the merge

12:10 – FINALLY the G-Men actually talk to her. You’d think they’d have tried that before the Knights had already spent weeks on their crazy-ass integration projects…

12:17 – “We have no intention to harm you physically” – I appreciate the specificity of that line

13:34 – This guy’s desperation to join the Knights makes me think the Knights are all actually personas, and have no presence in the physical world anymore. Also I like how his VR ensemble has an umbrella sticking out of it

15:28 – Hah. “Can you fix my computer for me?” A very cute riff on the “We must test the potential hero to see if they are the one from prophecy” trope. Also, another sideways allusion to how the youth are the first to merge

17:47 – Okay, so it seems like there might just be the one additional Wired Lain (sneering, extroverted), and then there’s the differences between physical Lain’s own natural and assumed personas – timid and unsure, sunny and inquisitive.

19:42 – “Are your parents your real parents?” Yeeep. Here we are

It’s interesting that her sister at least was recently replaced, though. And I’m not sure who set up Lain’s little clockwork world

20:15 – Yep, and here’s the primary Wired persona jumping onboard

10:55 – “We believe this to be dangerous… you’re what’s dangerous.” So yep, they’re the faction trying to maintain borders, and Lain’s own tampering/affinity for the Wired is accelerating things. Check check check

21:06 – “Something interesting is happening. We should just watch from the sidelines.” – IT’S A GOOD THING THAT’S YOUR FUCKING SPECIALTY, G-MEN

And Done

Wow, the Knights didn’t accept VR dude? Who could have seen that coming?!?

But yeah, this episode made explicit a bunch of what I was assuming at this point, though it didn’t really answer my last couple questions – they still haven’t confirmed Lain’s origins (though the fabricated nature of her home life was something I was glad to have confirmed, and I’m fairly certain she’s the end result of the experiment from 15 years ago – a living bridge with one foot in each world) or if Deus is what both the Knights intentionally and Lain naturally are moving towards becoming (though this also seems extremely likely). I’m surprised the G-Men took such a laid-back stance here, though I guess they can’t really do anything to contain Lain of the Wired – if they imprison corporeal Lain, Wired Lain will just not check in at the terminal for a while.

It would appear that the housewife actually is one of the Knights, and that their new game has just been released. I guess we’ll have to wait until next… oh wait, we don’t have to wait for shit.

Suisei no Gargantia – Episode 6

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Gargantia!

So, last week I learned for the first time that Urobuchi is in fact only scripting the first and last episodes of this show… and suddenly everything made sense. The weird storytelling ticks, the massive shifts in tone, the unwelcome sudden homophobia… it’s all different writers. Of course.

With that in mind, I’m gonna try to keep my expectations in check going forward, and just try to enjoy this show for whatever it happens to be week-to-week. It’s created a beautiful world, and I like the tone and characters, and if itfeels like discussing its societal themes some more, I’d certainly love to hear it – but I’m also fine with it being a warmhearted adventure story, since it’s also quite good at that.

Just… no more transvestite molesters, okay? Please?

Episode 6

0:46 – Butt

More importantly, I really like how the immediate implication here (“I only worked one day, and can buy over a hundred meals? I must have been overpaid…”) is both a great articulation of Ledo’s narrow value system, as well as a fantastic indication that to the Gargantians, basic necessities such as food are pretty much a given, and not something you have to expend all your effort in earning – the amount of work you do should not earn you the right to live, it should earn you the right to decide what actual pursuit you funnel your effort into

2:09 – “Objection repeated: Inefficient.” Chamber can’t comprehend the desire to be useful and gain pride as a valued member of this community.

See, I love this stuff. It’s only because I’m so fascinated in this show’s articulation of a utopian society that I get antsy when it does something else – there just aren’t other shows I can go to that have ideas as smart as this one

4:52 – “We don’t got that. Use your own eyes to make decisions.” I wonder if we’re gonna reach a point where Ledo just turns off that Chamber analysis screen

8:57 – “Want to go home?” “But I have no map” Sadly life is a little more complicated than that, Ledo

9:52 – Butt

13:11 – Huh. That scene was… very interesting. It set a very strange mood between the chanting, the dancing, and Pinion/Bellows bartering for Ledo’s support. It built in a sort of hazy, ominous way towards that reveal of the octopus, and Ledo’s increasing distraction, as well as Pinion and Bellows getting increasingly personal in their bargaining, worked really well. It actually makes perfect sense to me that it would take something as blatant as that for a person like Ledo to realize, “hey, Amy’s a woman.” The sex stuff, I dunno – I mean, it was their dance, it’s intended even from an in-universe perspective to be voyeuristic, but it was also just so obviously sexualized that it came across as not necessarily true to the characters. I think it could have been handled differently… but then again, this scene seemed very intended to put the viewer strictly in Ledo’s very claustrophobic headspace, and the dance was a key element of that

But yeah, interesting scene overall

15:20 – Neat little arc in this episode – Ledo going from eating strict seaweed since it’s most efficient, to simultaneously realizing the enjoyment he can get out of more elaborate food and watching Amy dance, to fully understanding how Chamber failed and resolving the issue. Now we just need a scene applying that growth to the Amy side…

15:32 – Bingo

19:10 – Wow. Gargantia, you have some beautiful moments

And Done

Damn squid!

I really, really liked that episode. In fact, I think it pretty much struck the absolute perfect balance for this show – some nice dashes of their philosophy illustrated through the natural turns of the story, some more exploration of their world, and some beautiful moments between the characters. I think overall I actually really liked that central bar scene, mainly because it was both interesting structurally and definitely intended to really trap the viewer with Ledo’s point of view emotionally in a way the show hasn’t really done before. And then later on… well, I’m obviously a sucker for the romance stuff, but that night scene was almost certainly my favorite one yet

Aku no Hana – Episode 6

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Well, it can’t be more uncomfortable than last week.

Episode 6

0:10 – The lilting school bell fills me with unearthly dread. Uuuugh…

0:25 – Now there’s an appropriate freeze-frame

1:17 – Oh man those classmate reaction shots. This show can be really funny when it wants to – Kasuga’s screaming derp-run, Nakamura’s airplane-noises stalking…

2:06 – What a lovely song this is

3:20 – It’s a great show in its own right, but every part of this really does play like a cruel perversion of a classic romcom, even down to the demented OP sung by the MCs

3:46 – Yamada’s definitely got a spine – he’s gone against Nakamura’s wishes plenty of times now, and here he’s immediately calling out his asshole friend for abandoning him when the class turned against him. This makes me both more aware of his frank dim view of people and more inclined to think he’s putting up with Nakamura’s bullshit at all because he likes the romantic tragedy of being abused like this

4:38 – Another great moment – Kasuga pausing mid-prance in horror

6:30 – Jeez, middle schoolers are dicks. I like how they just resort to make weird bird noises at them as they leave the room

7:59 – “Are you and Nakamura friends?” “WHY WOULD YOU ASK THAT, PRAY TELL?!?” God, this show doesn’t need the soundtrack to create an uncomfortable atmosphere – Kasuga’s perfectly capable of doing it all by himself

9:23 – “It’s a bit embarrassing to hear someone say that, huh?” Oh, Saeki. Saeki Saeki Saeki. That’s embarrassing?

11:27 – I like how you just get the shots of the desks being put together – “That’s right, shitheads, it’s time for an awkward lunch scene”

15:24 – “If you really loved her, you’d want to look at the whole picture” – Holy shit, Nakamura’s totally right for once! Kasuga is creating a fabricated version of Saeki to fit his own warped delusions of idealized platonic love. Unfortunately, her proving him wrong on this obvious truth will probably make him start thinking some of the othercrazy things she says are true, and then we’re gonna have a problem

16:45 – C’mon, who wouldn’t trust that face? [RES ignored duplicate image][1]

17:41 – “…spend eternity bound in noble and sublime love…” It’s like Nakamura is making Kasuga even more stuck in his delusions, since he has to articulate them all the more fervently to counteract her influence. Healthy!

18:32 – “I sure hope it wasn’t you… here are today’s printouts. You should take them to her.” After six straight episodes of middle schoolers being terrible to each other, it’s nice to get a brief glimpse of someone actually worried about their friend in an honest way

19:00 – This is it Kasuga! This is the moment. Walk in there, explain that you took her gym clothes, and it was stupid, and you regret it, and since then Nakamura has been abusing you, and that yesterday didn’t mean anything, and that you wish none of it had ever happened, and you hope she can forgive you! And she likes you, so she will, and the show will end at 6 episodes and we’ll all live happily ever after and I won’t have to live in this nightmare world of insecure middle schoolers any more

And Done

Man, Nakamura just makes this show. Well, I actually think both her and Kasuga are playing their roles to perfection, but her bouncy, silly enthusiasm for all of her cruel pranks is just great, and keeps the show from ever feeling dreary. She’s definitely one of the most entertaining villains I’ve seen

Attack on Titan – Episode 6

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EREN WHAT ARE YOU DOING THAT IS NOT HOW YOU PROTAGONIST.

Well, now that Eren has failed in understanding even the most basic requirements of Main Characterdom (don’t get eaten by fucking titans), it looks like Mikasa’s gonna have to save everybody. You might even say she has to do it…singlehandedly . EHHH? Armin?  Anybody?!?  Goddamnit, that was… well, thank you , Potato. At least one person has a sense of humor around here.

Anyway. Here’s hoping for some Mikasa in berserker mode. Let’s roll.

Episode 6

3:17 – I really like the tone of this scene. Each of them dealing with the stress of their first battle in a different way, trying to maintain their usual personalities even though the world is going to hell around them, with shell-shocked Armin sitting there as an example of what will soon hit all of them. Chilling stuff!

5:48 – Another effective scene. No soundtrack cues, no melodramatic camera angles – in fact, the camera does its best to obscure the situation. Hannah’s hopeless attempts to ignore a situation too terrible for her to comprehend, a tidy little parallel for Armin’s lesson of the day

9:02 – Mikasa: kills titans, saves townsfolk, good with kids

Also, I wonder what other “abnormals” we’ll be dealing with – so far they’ve had this derp-run one, the leaping one, and the armored one (along with the megatitan), but I’m sure this writer has more evil tricks up his sleeve

10:02 – “Ackerman, what the fuck made you such a badass? …never mind.”

11:07 – Oh god, lighthearted family time flashback. The darkest omen

12:10 – Subtlety, again! The violence of the situation shown through half-glimped splatters across the door and window, letting the viewer’s imagination do the rest. Damn, Titan!

12:20 – Even as a kid, Eren apparently already had those crazy-ass “gotta kill em all” eyes

16:00 – DEAR GOD EREN. YOU CRAZY

16:28 – Our Hero 

19:07 – Okay, dunno if we needed the “electric realization” powerup pan

20:15 – “I needed to act – look how late the guards arrived.” “I’m criticizing you for not considering your own safety.” It’s nice how both Eren’s strength and Eren’s downfall are encapsulated in this little exchange here

21:44 – Very nice tidy flashback. Basically her whole personality, as well as her connection with Eren, are completely and believably established

And Done

Well that’s an awkward closing line.

I liked that episode a lot! I think the tragic and dramatic stuff was handled really well here, with a lot of tact for an action show, which lent it more solemn emotional weight. I liked the stuff early on, with the recruits basically acting tough or happy or mad to keep the panic away. I liked Mikasa being a huge badass, and I liked the very efficient flashback.

I also like that next episode promises to be totally crazy, what with Eren’s death now pretty much guaranteed to be revealed to Mikasa, and Mikasa assisting our beloved squads in their retreat. Exciting times in our favorite blood-soaked hellscape!

Serial Experiments Lain – Episode 6

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Episode 6

1:58 – A question just occurred to me – is there someone the audience is supposed to “root for” in this series? Does it have a “protagonist” in the traditional sense? The original Lain is a cypher – she’s curious and lonely, but exhibits only the slightest traces of personality. The other Lains have more personality, but they seem like intruders, since the original Lain doesn’t seem aware or in control of them. Is the amalgamation of these various personas supposed to amount to a single person/identity we can empathize with? It seems difficult, since the personas seem so willfully constructed – normally, you empathize with characters because you understand them, and how their experiences led to them being the person they are. In this case, those personas seem fabricated to serve various purposes, and not honest reflections of anyone’s actual experiences

Outside of Lain’s continuous sinking into the Wired, the narrative here is also pretty loose as well – last episode this was taken to an extreme, but often the events on-screen seem to exist in service of the underlying ideas. And even earlier on, before this show’s philosophy was overtly established, it was more of a mood piece than a strict narrative, both because of the pacing and because of Lain’s minimal presence as the central character. It’s honestly normally not my kind of thing (character and storytelling generally take precedence over theme or aesthetic for me, though if the characters are the theme  we’re really getting somewhere), but I’d like to think I can appreciate any well-articulated piece of art, and I’m enjoying this so far

Anyway

3:43 – He steps into her room and show actual concern for her sinking. So it seems like her father is still here, at least

5:30 – All hail our wire overlords!

6:26 – “Everybody comes to see me… no, that’s not right, maybe I go to see them.” A cute allusion to the line getting blurrier here

8:20 – Unsurprising that it’s the younger kids who are first to adopt the new reality

9:53 – Thrilling discourse between zombie mom and zombie sis

10:20 – Another cute extrapolation of the themes – her Navi is secured by voice recognition, but that really doesn’t mean much when it comes to Lain

10:58 – Okay, so this talking mouth confirms my suspicions from last episode – those figures that appeared in her room (the mask, the doll) were almost certainly Wired avatars

13:47 – “Experiment data from fifteen years ago.” Oh man, are they giving me the final piece? All I needed before was Lain’s personal significance, and this is looking promising

15:11 – In case you’re wondering, yes, I repeatedly paused the episode to read that scrolling text. Most of it was just experiment jargon, but it mentioned recording a variety of “utterances” across several months using the phone lines. So, basically just noise. I regret nothing

16:24 – Our collected mental energies forming an energy independent of our bodies, eh? Hm…

17:14 – “That’s all you can think about? What about those children?” “Talk about self-centered.” You’re contradicting yourself, Lain! He’s thinking about the information – about our collective self. You’re the one bringing self-generated values and empathy into the equation!

17:50 – “The rogues that run this simulation.” You’ve been running with a tough crowd, Lain. I think you just figured out why those Knights are all so nice to you

20:24 – Ohey, just realized the red of their tracers is the same as the red of the “Don’t Walk” sign. I’m sure that’s just a coincidence

And Done

Whew! I was worried for a second there, when she was accusing them of being the Knights, that my whole understanding of the series was about to come crumbling down. But no, Lain’s silly, obviously they’re a separate group working against the Knight’s plans for singularity or interconnectedness or general mayhem

I think that’s enough chaos, guys. The Knights. An experiment from 15 years ago that led to many children being subsumed into one unit. Lain, a girl of about 15 years of age who seems to contain multitudes, and be strangely fluent in manipulating the Wired. The power of thought to form a kind of energy, which could then be used to affect the real world. Yes… [RES ignored duplicate image] Yesss… [RES ignored duplicate image] YESSSS

Ahem. Anyway. There are still details to iron out (whether this “God” is a fabrication of Lain, the Knights, the children, or its own thing, who specifically was responsible for Lain’s sister’s lobotomy, who the G-Men represent, etc), but we’re getting there.

Oh right. What I thought of these episodes.

Pretty good! I think when it wants to be atmospheric, it can be incredibly atmospheric. I really liked the stuff with her sister, as well as the ways the show portrays Lain interacting with the Wired. I like that it actually has a coherent central story now, and isn’t too wedded to its ideas to maintain a valid mystery. I like the various ways it plays with the pedestrian traffic motif, and I liked some of the questions about what defines something as substantive or real in the information age

On the negative side, I think the show has a few issues with pacing, and one fairly large one with exposition. Most of the time, its themes and ideas are being continuously portrayed visually and through the pieces of the mystery that are handed out to us – I wasn’t a fan of the moments when the show sat Lain down and talked to her directly about what the Wired might represent. I mean, we’re all watching the same show here – it exists as a narrative exploration of those ideas, it doesn’t have to outline and underline them on top of that. Those segments also worked against the pacing and mood of one of the show’s best sequences so far – her sister being broken down by the Wired – which was a shame. This show’s philosophical elements and sci-fi thriller elements are both strong, but I think at that moment they were working at cross purposes

Aside from that, I don’t really have any complaints – it’s a very enjoyable show with a great aesthetic, some interesting ideas, and a generally keen understanding of how to pace a mystery/thriller. Any other complaints I might lob (that it’s impersonal/lacking in character, for instance) are basically wishing it was a different kind of show entirely, which is not a fair complaint. This show is quite good at doing what it is trying to do.