HELLO AND WELCOME to the GREATEST show on earth. I’m your host Bobduh – proud president of the Commentary Club and humble student of our mighty Academy. We have a tremendous show lined up for you tonight, and a great crowd of students, thirsty for blood, thirsty for glory. LET’S HEAR IT FOR HONNOUJI ACADEMY! PRAISE BE TO LADY SATSUKI!
Yes, praise be. No time for chit-chat – you’re all settled, so LET’S ANNOUNCE OUR FIGHTERS!
Well I for one am ready for some crazy shit to go down. The last few minutes of last week’s episode seemed to imply Mirai has actually been a crazy assassin this entire time, what with her admission to Hiromi and taking off the glasses and all that. Would her being a secret assassin save this series? No, of course not, the show’s emotionally sterile and wildly inconsistent. Would it allow for some crazy plot shenanigans and epic showdowns between our protagonists? Hell yeah. Plus it might even make Mirai more interesting, and god knows the girl needs it. Back to our star-crossed lovers!
Nothing too out of the ordinary this week. The season has settled – the good shows are very consistent, the bad shows have been dropped, and those in the middle are 2-cours, hopefully building towards something noteworthy. Running it down…
Last episode was great. Kaiki and Senjougohara are the best. I don’t want to jinx this episode by assigning any expectations to it. Let’s roll!
Management: Spoilers ahead for Madoka, Gargantia, Psycho-Pass, and Fate/Zero.
It’s not a complicated question. You hold the gun, target in the sights, finger on the trigger. An innocent, no question. But the stakes could not be more clear: one or one hundred. Either you kill this one person, ending their life and putting their blood on your hands, or you do nothing, and one hundred die through your inaction. Is it morally permissible to fire? Is it morally permissible not to? You could ask them first, I suppose – are they willing to die for the sake of one hundred strangers? That would certainly be noble of them, and possibly clear your conscious. But what if they say no? What if the stakes are one thousand strangers? One hundred thousand? One hundred billion?
Oh man am I ever ready for this one. The prologue flash-forward has been reached, Koto has been devoured, and we’re well on our way towards new, uncharted material. This is a delicate stage for any show actually seeking emotional truth – the search for a resolution that doesn’t invalidate the poignant, complex nature of the feelings presented so far. “Koto’s back! Everyone’s happy!” wouldn’t do it – that would basically end Yase’s arc without any growth whatsoever, and wouldn’t be particularly meaningful for either Kurama or Myoe. “Everyone escapes the Mirror City!” certainly wouldn’t do it either – both Kurama and Myoe need to learn from this place before they can be given their rewards. However narrative victory is achieved will be somewhat beside the point – this is a show about people, and waving a wand to fix characters’ problems renders any story about people emotionally meaningless. The key here is obviously young Koto – she’s the new variable, the person who’s already succeeded in giving Myoe something worth protecting, with the potential to change the other two as well. Her return from her visit with Mom should herald some serious shifts – though as I said in my week in review post, I’m hoping that return doesn’t cometoo quickly, because I’m eager to see Myoe legitimately angry at his siblings. In fact, I’ll take more of Myoe however the show feels inclined to show him – he’s easily my favorite character of the season. So let’s get to it!
Well that was a long seven days. Fuck you guys, no preamble. I wanna see this fight!
It’s kind of pointless to talk about this week in anime without addressing the gorilla in the room, so let’s get that out of the way first.
Time to Get Calm, everybody (or, if you’re awful, Everybody Stay Calm). We’ve got one battle already underway and a whole lot of protagonists running from places towards various other places. Meanwhile: Akihito is asleep. I’ve heard this episode is kind of absurdly flush with key animators, meaning action scenes ahoy. I’m hoping this one maintains the visual flare of the earlier scenes while adding a little more sense of weight to the back-and-forth, but honestly I’ll settle for visual flare either way. Let’s get to it!
Wow! This season looks awful!
…yep, that’s pretty much all there is to it. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been spoiled the last few seasons, or maybe Winter seasons just really are always that bad, but dear lord this season looks weak. Let’s run down the bright spots!
