Sword Art Online II – Episode 14

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Sorry I didn’t post this on Saturday! I’ve been absolutely buried in previews the last couple days, which I’ll link again later – so far, I’ve watched and written about fifteen new shows, including two double-length episodes, and all but two of those shows came out over the last three days. So it’s been a time! I’m also putting the finishing touches on a Zankyou no Terror piece, so that should also be in the near future, as well as my first ANN full show review.

Anyway! I actually really liked the conclusion to the GGO arc. It wrapped up both the themes and characters with a great deal of thoughtfulness and a lack of melodramatics. Nice to see SAO doing good.

Sword Art Online

Fall 2014 – First Episode Reflections

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The fall season has begun! For you guys, that probably means checking out what everyone else is watching, catching some sample episodes, and maybe sticking with whatever you were already planning on watching. For me, that means watching the first episode of every single goddamn show. Posts are already up for Terra Formars, Tribe Cool Crew, DENKI-GAI, Log Horizon 2, and Lord Marksman and Vanadis (my real-person name is Nick Creamer, incidentally). The preview guide will continue to be updated over the next week and a half or so as all the various shows premier, so feel free to check back and get my first impressions on basically every full-length show that isn’t a sequel to something I never watched. It’ll be fun! IT’LL BE FUN.

Terra Formars

Shounen Hollywood – Episode 13

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Holy shit, this show got a second season! Really wasn’t expecting that, but I guess it’s just another indication that whatever’s popular or recognized over here doesn’t mean a good goddamn for sales in Japan. Happy to hear about it, and happy to see the first season go out on a solid note. Until we meet again, ShoHari.

Incidentally, I don’t think there’ll be a Week in Review post this week, mainly because every single episode I’m watching/have watched is either already covered in a full episodic post or will be covered in the insane ANN preview guide. I’ll let you know what those posts start going up!

Shounen Hollywood

Hanamonogatari and the Crossroads

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“When they love you, and they will
Tell ‘em all they’ll love in my shadow.
And if they try to slow you down
Tell ‘em all to go to hell.”
– Japandroids

Kanbaru knew who she was, once. She was a runner. A basketball star. A girl in love. She was somebody, at least – a specific person. There were things typical of her; she knew where she stood and where she was running to. But at the beginning of Hanamonogatari, her path has shifted from a fixed track to an open field – her past offers no clues, her future holds no direction. She’s not a basketball star anymore. Her schoolgirl crush has shifted to respect for an absent friend. All that’s left now are hard choices, and a heavy rain of insistent, contradictory advice.

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Barakamon – Episode 12

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Barakamon’s ending is a little messier and less graceful than I’d hoped, but it still hits all the notes it needed to hit. A reasonable ending to one of this summer’s best shows.

Barakamon

Sword Art Online II – Episode 13

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GODDAMNIT SWORD ART ONLINE EVERY FUCKING TIME I CAN’T EVEN

Yep, this episode went back to the Bad Place. I had to keep it civil for the ANN post, but was somewhat less respectful on twitter. Goddamn you, SAO. God damn you.

[HorribleSubs] Sword Art Online II - 13 [720p].mkv_snapshot_19.41_[2014.09.27_17.36.27]

Zankyou no Terror – Episode 11

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Welp, here we are. In spite of everyone’s best wishes, the bomb’s been set – nobody wanted this, but this is where alienation has brought us. I’ve really enjoyed this show, and I’m confident it’ll end well, but I can’t say exactly what that ending will be. I doubt it’ll be happy – the context this show is stabbing at isn’t a happy one, and our actual world doesn’t offer any easy solutions to the questions of power dynamics and societal disconnect we’re dealing with here. All I’m hoping for is an ending that stays with you – I think one of art’s highest purposes is holding a mirror to the world, and I think Zankyou is as angry and driven a show as I’ve come across in recent memory. Let’s see it through to the end.

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Summer 2014 – Week 12 in Review

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I don’t even know what to say in this intro, because nothing else this week comes close to Aldnoah’s lunacy. Everything else was fine, good shows are good, yada yada. Let’s get to the show.

Oh wait, also, I’m apparently gonna be one of ANN’s staff reviewers now in addition to my streaming work. Meaning I’ll be doing regular full-show reviews there, along with participating in their completely insane Preview Guide. Meaning I’ll be watching the first episodes of basically every goddamn full-length show coming out this season, and writing some sort of reflection on every single one of them. Meaning my hands are probably going to be bloody stumps by the end of next week.

So that’ll be fun! Something to look forward to. Anyway, Aldnoah fuckin’ Zero.

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Shounen Hollywood – Episode 12

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Shounen Hollywood continues to chug merrily along as the sleeper flop of the season. Would this show be more popular if its central cast were girls, instead? Probably? I guess its current incarnation just doesn’t really give anyone what they want – it’s too idol-indebted to appeal to people who’d like its cynical edge, but too melancholy and understated to appeal to standard idol/cute boy fans. It’s a shame! I’m really enjoying this show – it’s earnest without being blindly optimistic. It’s a nice thing.

Shounen Hollywood

Barakamon – Episode 11

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I’m sad to see Barakamon ending, but I’m glad to see it ending well. It’s nice to see the show has decided to legitimately pull Handa’s various art-related anxieties into a legitimate finale, instead of the show just ending with a brief goodbye – that meant this episode wasn’t quite as endearing as they usually are, but the show’s always had compelling ideas at its center, and they deserve to be honored with a real resolution. In spite of that, I’m looking forward to the last episode hopefully bringing Handa home.

Barakamon