Karen's Gaming Blog

Because they made good RPGs in the '90s

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  • Dan Da Dan Episode 16

    Dan Da Dan Episode 16

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    Last time, Momo killed the Great Mongolian Death Worm with a little help from the local fire department. Now, the volcano has erupted, and the Kitos are livid. Mom Kito is screaming at Momo that the Great Serpent Lord protected the village from the volcano, but Momo thinks otherwise: she thinks the fountain she saw at the hot spring was the protective “dragon” that the legend of the volcano referred to. The Kitos just got confused and started sacrificing people to a completely unrelated entity.

    I’m not entirely sure how Momo figures this out. She did go to the shrine before the haunted house hijinks and hear about the legend of the great dragon, but what made her realize the fountain was the subject of the legend? Then again, we did see some good logical thinking from her in season one, so I guess she’s just good at this sort of thing. She’s not good at storing large amounts of info in her brain like Okarun is, but she’s good under pressure.

    Then things get crazy: Momo uses her psychic powers to pick up the entire body of the worm and gives it a huge toss, throwing it down the mountain. The Kitos freak out that she’s now desecrating the corpse of their god, and I can’t really blame them for that. She puts the butt of the worm on top of the fountain, then uses the worm’s body as a giant firehouse to douse the lava. The water is still filled with the worm’s mucus, so that makes it extra sticky. This…really should not work. I did have a thought after last episode that maybe they would use the gunk from the worm to somehow stop the lava, but I did not foresee this.

    JENNIFER ANISTON SCORPION! (No, she doesn’t actually say that, but she should.)

    Mom Kito has had enough of Momo’s antics and plans to sacrifice her to the volcano. Momo points out that they seem to have changed gods rather easily, but I guess logical thinking is not Mom Kito’s strong suit. Things look bad for Momo, but then she’s rescued by the priest from the temple we met in episode 13. Apparently Seiko is his “master” and he was charged with protecting Momo’s group all this time. Better late than never, I guess.

    Momo goes back to doing her fire hose routine, but it’s not long before bursts of energy start slicing up the worm’s body; Evil Eye/Jiji is back. How the hell did he get back up from the bottom of the cavern? I guess he must be able to jump really high. Interestingly, Momo pulls Mom Kito out of Jiji’s reach, less to protect Mom Kito and more to keep Jiji from becoming a murderer. Under the circumstances, Momo and Mom Kito need to work together to fight off Jiji, which is not a team-up I expected to see. Some crazy action that I really can’t do justice to with description occurs. I’ve heard talk that Science Saru is struggling with the production of this anime, but even if that’s true, you would never know it from this episode. The fights are just so dynamic and downright cool.

    JULIA ROBERTS PLATYPUS!!!!

    Momo’s psychic powers start failing her, and that makes sense to me; she doesn’t have infinite MP, so to speak. She’s rescued from Jiji by an alien called Mantisian, and wow, I really did not remember this guy from the first season. In the next insane twist, a UFO delivering Seiko and the anatomical model mannequin shows up. I wish they hadn’t spoiled Seiko’s return in the next episode preview last week, because it would have been awesome for her to show up out of nowhere.

    Seiko begins fighting with Jiji, and at first I’m confused because I thought she said her psychic powers only work in the town she’s stationed in, but she actually isn’t using psychic powers; she’s just going to town with a baseball bat. I guess she must have a triple black belt in Grandma Bat Jutsu.

    When Seiko starts having trouble, Taro, the anatomical model, takes her place, only to be shattered into a hundred pieces by Jiji; joke’s on the Evil Eye though, because with the help of a talisman and some praying from the priest, the pieces of the model adhere to Jiji’s body and shut him down. I guess with the Evil Eye contained, Seiko can remove the yokai from Jiji when they get home and she has access to her spiritual abilities. In theory that should remove the yokai powers from Jiji too, but I have a sneaking suspicion that he’s keeping those.

    Dan Da Dan: The only show where “Grandma” and “Fanservice” go together.

    The UFO, piloted by the Mantisian’s kid, uses its tractor beam to resume spraying the lava with the Worm’s body. Momo is off looking for Okarun, and things look bad: the whole cavern is filled with lava. How could anyone have survived that? Momo freaks out and makes plans to submerge into the lava somehow; she’s grieving Okarun so hard, she can’t even think straight. The UFO lifts out a giant pod of the Worm’s mucus, and Okarun and Turbo Granny are inside. Okay, as cool as this episode is, I straight-up don’t believe this: I can’t believe that the Worm’s mucus was so powerful that even lava didn’t effect it. Well, who am I to say what an occult monster can do, I guess?

    Momo burns her hands opening the pod, and I have to think this is an homage to Gendo Ikari burning his hands to save Rei in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Turbo Granny drags Momo for not rescuing them earlier, then Okarun and Momo embrace. Awwww, I feel bad for doubting the manner of Okarun’s survival, I just want my little occult teen couple to be happy.

    What ever happened to Mom Kito? Ah, Momo and Okarun are hugging, who even cares about the Kitos and their stupid religious nonsense.

    Next time, it looks like we’ll be getting something of a breather episode, which I am definitely ready for after all of this craziness. This whole arc was amazing: well-animated and unpredictable, but with enough emotional beats that it never became a basic shonen punchfest. I may have to start reading the manga, which I pretty much never do with shonen series, but do I want to give up on being surprised by the anime? Tough call.

  • First Look: Let’s Go Karaoke!

    First Look: Let’s Go Karaoke!

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    This one has a pretty ridiculous premise, and I don’t want to spoil it: just know that a yakuza gets a middle school choir boy to give him singing lessons at a karaoke bar, and the details as to why are priceless. You definitely have not seen this premise before.

    This was a nice first episode, and the two mains, Kyouji and Satomi, have great chemistry together. That chemistry is actually a little bit of a problem though, because it seems like things are going in a romantic direction at times, and that’s a no-go given the age gap. I’m actually not as anti-age gap romance in anime as a lot of fans seem to be these days, but with Satomi not even being out of middle school yet, it would be too much in this case. I’m pretty sure nothing sexual will actually occur, but the show is definitely baiting the audience a bit with the romance vibes.

    The most engaging part of the episode for me dealt with Satomi alone and his feelings about going through puberty, so I hope this series will mostly feature Satomi and just use Kyouji as the comic relief. I guess Kyouji could serve as a model of adult masculinity for Satomi, but would you really want a strangely goofy member of a crime family as your model?

    Daisuke Ono plays Kyouji and pretends to sing badly, which is definitely a plus for fans of the actor, because listening to him intentionally sing off key is funny. To be honest, I didn’t think Kyouji’s singing actually sounded bad enough for him to need a singing tutor, but I guess it was bad if you actually understand “pitch” and “tone” and all that good stuff. I sang in choir as a kid, but I never actually learned all that much about music, so I don’t trust my judgement.

    This show is only slated for five episodes, so the premise doesn’t actually have to stretch that far. Hopefully it will remain a charming, if slightly strange tale of inter-generational friendship, and leave all the creepy stuff as barely discernible subtext.

  • Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander The Dungeon S2 Episode Four

    Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander The Dungeon S2 Episode Four

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    Last time, our intrepid vending machine hero helped close the gap in the village wall for Clearview Lake Village, and the constant monster attacks have died down. Now, everybody is working together to rebuild the village, despite the heat. Hulemy is working on getting the transportation circle back up and running, while Lammis helps by clearing debris. Shirley drops by, and I mention this only because the anime seems to have decided this season that 99% of the fanservice will now only feature Shirley, which I approve of: she’s clearly in at least her late 20s/early 30s and a more appropriate target to sexualize than Lammis. Lammis is a sweet kid, they treat her right.

    Shirley fans of the world unite! Let’s hear it for Sensible Sexualization, a new trend I am hoping to encourage the growth of.

    The giant hole that Boxxo made in the ground when he dropped his giant ice vending machine form last episode has become a problem and needs to be filled. However, Boxxo can’t let it go without trying out one grand idea: making a temporary swimming pool for everyone to enjoy. This is what I like about this series: the fact that Boxxo basically provides major quality-of-life improvements for people who would otherwise be living close to a subsistence-level existence. I love seeing the joy of all the people who have never seen a pool before, and the way people get really excited when they try Boxxo’s canned udon or something for the first time. Finding new ways for Boxxo’s abilities to translate into combat is interesting too, but the opening few episodes of this season focused a bit too much on that and lost what I enjoy about the show. I’m glad to see it back to doing what it does best.

    Note that the show had the opportunity to provide creepy little kid fanservice with Suori and pointedly DID NOT GO THERE.

    The village decides to hold a summer festival, because Director Bear understands what it means to keep morale up. The Band of Gluttons want ice cream from Boxxo, but Boxxo has other plans: shaved ice, in three flavors. I’ve had shaved ice and I’m actually not that keen on it. It’s fine, but it doesn’t measure up to good ice cream or froyo for me. Now if you watched mono last season and saw the girls do that Shaved Ice Road Trip where they sampled all this crazy gourmet shaved ice, that I could probably get into. Boxxo adds some fruit to his, changing into a fruit vending machine and repurposing some apples and strawberries, so I guess it’s not a bad swap for a sundae.

    Okay, I have to admit, when you have a huge pile of ice like that it does look very refreshing. Always happy to see the Band of Gluttons, they’re adorable. They should get a spin-off anime for kids.

    After all the fun and games, we get a serious mood shift: Lammis and Boxxo are by the lake having a somber heart to heart. Lammis relates that, according to Director Bear, the guy that destroyed Lammis’ village all those years ago has been given “the punishment he deserves.” I assumed that they would just have him killed off-camera, but did the writers purposely leave his punishment ambiguous like that so he can come back? I hope not. Now, Lammis feels like she’s lost her purpose. We don’t think of it often because Lammis is usually such an upbeat character, but she’s really been motivated by revenge all this time, and she doesn’t know quite what to do without it. Director Bear did her a favor by taking the grim duty of killing the guy off of her hands, but just hearing that he was killed doesn’t provide much closure. Really, if Lammis hadn’t found Boxxo and become invested in improving the town with him, she would have been in a bad place mentally– especially because, without Boxxo, she might not have ever gotten to see Hulemy again.

    The next day, it’s time to start helping the other strata. Director Bear organizes an expedition to the Origin Stratum, but he can only send three people until Hulemy further repairs the transport circle. Director Bear decides to send Hulemy, Lammis, Mishuel….and Boxxo. Isn’t that four people? Does Boxxo not count as a person for the purposes of the transportation circle? Is his personhood being denied right now? If I were Boxxo, I might be a little miffed about that.

    Origin Stratum. The Menagerie of Fools are still leading the defense against the monsters, who haven’t been driven back yet. Mishuel jumps in and takes out a bunch of monsters, and I wonder if having such overpowered characters actually hurts the show at all. Usually they’re overrun by a gazillion monsters, so you need characters who can take out twenty lizardmen with a stroke, but now I’m wondering about it. Boxxo doles out tons of food to the survivors, and I continue being the only person watching this show who’s stupidly concerned with Boxxo’s points total– I think it’s an OCD thing with me at this point.

    Happy people eating happy food. I’ve cut soda out of my diet nowadays, but damn that cola looks refreshing -____-

    Director Origin drops by and thanks Boxxo for his help, then tells the assembled masses that they will be evacuating to the Clearflow Lake Stratum once the transport circle is working again. Wow, an amazingly huge amount of people would be screwed if they didn’t have Hulemy around to fix the damn thing. A group including our heroes goes to a prison to see if any survivors are squirreled away there, and then…and then the episode gets weird.

    We are introduced to Hevee, a clergyman with a shoe fetish. Not a foot fetish mind you, a shoe fetish. He collects shoes and smells them, and that is his whole deal. Hevee is locked up in prison for countless acts of shoe-related mischief, and he seems to have let the other prisoners out. Shui recognizes him, and we learn further that he used to be part of the Menagerie of Fools, providing healing and mind-manipulation magic. A pervert with mind manipulation magic is a scary thought indeed, but I guess– worst-case scenario– he would ask you to take off your shoes and then he would be done with you.

    “I know, I’m creepy, but when you consider the amount of outright sexual assault happening this season, is my whole shoe fixation really that bad?”

    I question the wisdom of introducing a character with such a weird kink, but all is not as it seems; Hevee used his magic to camouflage and protect a whole bunch of villagers who would otherwise have been monster chow, so he’s won his freedom back. Director Origin even offers him a pair of her boots, but rescinds the offer when Kerioyl whispers to her what he plans to do with them; the audience is kept in blissful ignorance here.

    The episode ends with Hevee buying a drink from Boxxo and…drinking it out of his boot. I am already so tired of this gag. Hevee does mention that he can sense a similar spirit in Boxxo, referring to the vending machine fixation Boxxo had when he was a human, but Boxxo swears he will deny that “to my dying beep.” Hah.

    Nice episode other than the shoe business, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens once we finish with this rescue-and-reconstruction storyline.

  • Clevatess Episode Four

    Clevatess Episode Four

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    Note: Crunchyroll’s subtitles keep switching between “Clen” and “Klen” for Clevatess’ human form. I’m going to stick with Klen because I like it better.

    Last time on Clevatess, Alicia got a whole bunch of bandits eaten by fish monsters while she sunk to the bottom of the lake in pursuit of Khordwar’s sword. Now, she emerges from the barrel she came down in and notices that constantly suffocating is very uncomfortable. I used to swim underwater a lot as a kid, so I’m familiar with that running-out-of-air feeling, and I can’t imagine tolerating it for more than a few seconds. Alicia is made of sterner stuff than me and recovers the magic sword she’s looking for, but unfortunately, there’s a very, very big monster at the bottom of the lake– an Ancient One, in fact. This monster tries to eat Alicia, which proves to be a big mistake.

    Nice try, Ocean Cthulu! You’ll need to fight harder if you want to eat Alicia, the Zombie Hero.

    Alicia uses Khordwar’s sword to rip through the monster’s mouth and makes her way back up to the surface, slicing a fish monster or two as she goes. I was wracking my brain wondering how she was going to defeat this thing, but actually, she doesn’t have to; she just has to get out of the water and out of range. What’s left of the bandits ask her for help, which she declines to give– cold of her, I guess, but what could she really do for them at this point, even if she was inclined to help? The remaining bandits get crushed and/or eaten, and Alicia muses that she’s fulfilled Klen’s command to get rid of all the bandits, in a kind of roundabout way.

    Klen contacts her telepathically, annoyed that she didn’t tell him about this whole “magic” phenomenon. He asks her to come find him so he can punish her for it, but he never actually does. We do see that he took out Betty with one hit; poor Betty, we hardly knew ye. I said last week that there was no way Betty was going to be a real threat.

    It’s the little hair bows that make it sad:(

    Vroko is running like hell and trips over Nell. He sees Luna, and the crying baby makes the aranacite in Vroko’s lantern react so that the glass explodes. Vroko, who we do have to admit is good at deduction, realizes that Luna must be Hidenean royalty to have such a strong magical talent at such a young age. Meanwhile, Alicia catches up with Klen, and the two of them have a pretty long conversation, considering the fact that Luna is in danger and they don’t know where he is. Klen is troubled by the aranacite smoke which, while it wasn’t enough to stop him from taking out Betty, is messing with his supernatural senses something fierce.

    At Klen’s request, Alicia explains how magic works in this world: some people can manipulate aranacite, some people cannot, and she personally cannot. Notice she can use aranacite Regalia like Khordwar’s sword, but I guess that doesn’t count as using magic itself. Klen goes off in search of Luna and Nell, noting they might already be dead; if Luna is dead, Klen says he will “lose his interest in humanity.” Alicia thinks otherwise: Klen has already planned to exterminate humanity, and Luna is the only thing slowing him down.

    The two chase after Luna and Nell, only to find the tunnel floor covered in blood. Nell, still clinging to life, grabbed onto Vroko’s ankle after he snatched Luna and won’t let go. I appreciate this display of how dedicated Nell is to protecting a baby, but I think there’s more blood on the floor than she could have stored in her actual body at this point– oh well, details.

    Considering he’s letting Luna play with a sharp knife, Vroko’s childcare skills leave something to be desired.

    Alicia and Klen meet up with Vroko and there’s a standoff: our heroes can’t get close, or Vroko will hurt the baby. Alicia throws Khordwar’s sword into the wall behind Vroko and offers Vroko a choice: he can keep Luna, or he can put him down and pick up the sword. Unfortunately, now that Vroko knows Luna’s true origin, he knows the baby is worth more to him than the sword. He asks for the location of all the other Regalia that Alicia’s squad lost in battle with Clevatess and she tells him– but seriously, what good is that information? That area is crawling with dark beasts– it’s not like Vroko can just mosey on through there by himself and pick up the weapons, and he should be smart enough to know that.

    Thinking he’s outsmarted our heroes, Vroko uses one of his powders and makes himself invisible, only to be quickly killed by Alicia: being invisible doesn’t completely erase your presence, especially when you’re holding a crying baby. So that’s the end of Vroko; I think some viewers wanted a more dramatic end for him, but to see Alicia easily cut him down seems appropriate.

    After Vroko dies, there’s still the question of what to do with Nell. Alicia lobbies hard for Klen to revive her, since not only did she slow down Vroko’s escape, she fought hard to protect Luna practically down to her dying breath, so Klen agrees and revives her. I’m a little confused about what goes on mechanically here: Klen says he can only control one human with dark ichor at once, so he takes the stuff out of Alicia (temporarily killing her) and puts it into Nell to heal her wounds, after which I assume the ichor returns to Alicia? My interpretation is that even though Nell is on death’s doorstep, she’s not literally dead yet, so Klen is healing her, not reviving her; if she was already dead, he would have to choose between having her or Alicia animated, since he can only have one Super Zombie at once.

    Because Nell’s body is incomplete, Klen has to shuffle her mass around a bit and we end up with a thinner, more traditionally attractive Nell. Hmm, isn’t that convenient?

    New adorable Nelluru, statue by Good Smile coming soon.

    Look, if you’re a TV critic of any sort and you have problems with the fact that TV likes to focus on attractive people, you’re going to have a bad time. I like Nell’s cuter design, but it would have been nice to have the novelty of a character that looked like original Nell in the main cast.

    Klen hands Luna off to Nell, who he has now christened Nelluru, and Luna’s joy at being reunited with his nurse is charming to see. Alicia wakes up from temporary death and has a moment when she realizes she still has Khordwar’s sword; it seems like the sword has become her binky. A nice end to this first arc, and I look forward to seeing what this foursome has in store for us next week.

  • Turkey! Time to Strike Episode Three

    Turkey! Time to Strike Episode Three

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    I’ll level with you guys: I am not enjoying this anime. Right now I’m liking Necronomico and the Cosmic Horror Show more than Turkey!, and Necronomico…is not a good anime. There is something uniquely tedious about Turkey! though, with how it’s managed to take a completely batshit insane premise and make it a stultifying bore. This episode featured a ton of people standing around talking, and while the romance shows I’m watching do a lot of that too, in those shows the conversations actually feel productive somehow; here, it just seems like the same points and character beats being rehashed over and over.

    First, we have to talk about the time travel premise. They seem to be taking a Back To The Future spin on it where they– or at least Nanase, who appears to be the brains of the operation– are assuming that everything they do impacts the timeline, and if they do too much, they’ll cease to exist. The other girls seem to agree with this, yet they all constantly do stuff that both endangers the timeline and gives away to contemporary characters that they’re time travelers– even at one point saying, “Remember when we learned about this in Japanese history class?” At the end, it’s supposed to be a cliffhanger that Sugiri’s sister Sumomo has somehow figured out that the girls are from the future, but really, all she had to do was listen to their conversation for a minute or two. I’m sure there will be some more way plot-twistier reason revealed that she has that knowledge, but regardless, this kind of behavior just makes the girls seem super-dumb. There were hints in episode two that they weren’t the brightest crayons in the box, but this is going pretty far in that direction.

    Sure, give the girl from the 1400s mass-produced candy from the twenty-first century, I’m sure that won’t do anything to give your status as time-travelers away.

    Next, the main source of drama is Rina, and Rina is completely insufferable. She was rude in the first two episodes, but she usually at least had a point: now, she’s putting herself in danger because she has to make everything about her. She decides, based on the fact that one of Sugiri’s sisters hates traveling performers, that she doesn’t want to stay in a house where she’s hated. So despite being given the invitation to stay the night by Sugiri, the lord of the estate, she wants to go out on her own and find her own place to sleep, in an area with bandits and wild animals. I guess being very nearly raped and murdered in the last episode didn’t drum it into her head that Sengoku-era Japan is not all fun and games.

    Mai: “What’s wrong? Do you want to get assaulted, and maybe eaten?”

    Rina: “Actually I do, that’s my kink; don’t tell the others.”

    And what’s so messed up about this is that Rina isn’t a traveling performer in any sense; that’s just the cover story the girls came up with to explain their strange clothing and bowling balls. So her argument is “Anzu hates traveling performers, for some unexplained reason. Even though I’m not a traveling performer, I don’t want to exist in her house while she erroneously thinks I’m this thing that I’m not, because I respect her preferences on house guests– it’s totally worth risking my life for this.” The other girls eventually talk her down, but it was a stupid thing to even waste screen time on.

    This anime just isn’t any fun. Watching stupid people make stupid mistakes isn’t fun, unless the characters are so effortlessly charming that they can carry that off somehow, which is not the case here. Right now the only characters I like at all are Sayuri, for being the emotionally intelligent one, and Nozomi, because she called out Rina for being “passive-aggressive.” Actually, I think Rina is more aggressive-aggressive, but still, glad someone called her out. The rest of the characters are different shades of blah, with Rina just being a charisma black hole.

    Nanase tells all the other girls to do absolutely nothing to draw attention to themselves, then whips out her smartphone to take a picture of her dinner. Sure, just use tech from 600 years in the future, what could be the harm? And why even take the picture? It’s not like she can upload it to Instagram!

    As much as I’m not enjoying it, I hesitate to stop covering this show, because I still feel like it’s an important show to be discussing, even if “enjoyment” isn’t really part of the package. If it doesn’t do something more interesting in episode four though, I probably will just drop it.

  • The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity Episode Three

    The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity Episode Three

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    Last time, Rintarou and Kaoruko decided they weren’t going to let the beef between their two high schools interfere in their friendship, but this episode shows that becoming close may be more difficult than they thought.

    Chidori Public High School. Rintarou and Usami are excited for the upcoming Sports Festival, except there’s a problem: the two of them won’t be able to participate. Apparently, students who fail the midterm will have to sit out the festival, and their teacher is just assuming that they will fail, because they failed last year. Now, hang on a minute. I understand that the two of them may have serious academic challenges, but to assume they’re both going to fail in advance is wrong. To some extent, you get the results that you prepare for, and if you’re already assuming students are going to fail, you can’t really complain when they meet those expectations all too easily. Bad practice, Chidori Public High School.

    “What? The next thing you’ll tell us is that we can’t have a Maid Cafe for the cultural festival!”

    Usami wants their friend Saku to tutor them, but he’s had enough of them after tutoring them last year. Usami defiantly claims the two will study on their own, but it’s not clear how that’s going to work when neither of them understand the material.

    In other news, Rintarou’s mom reminds him that it’s Discount Cake Day at Plain and he should invite Kaoruko over. A nice gesture, except Rintarou is agonizing over how to word a text to her about it during class, when he should be paying attention. This is why you fail tests, Rintarou! I’m so glad cell phones virtually didn’t exist back when I went to high school. Surprisingly, Kaoru says no to Discount Cake Day. How can this be?

    Rintarou and Usami head to the local library to study, but it doesn’t take long for Usami to run out of steam. Bolstered by Rintarou’s claim that Saku is just playing hard-to-get, Usami runs off to apologize to Saku and bring him and their other friend back to the library with him. Rintarou stays a little longer, but ends up giving his seat to two girls who need a table; the girls aren’t from Kikyo, so they don’t look at Rintarou like he’s some kind of plague-carrying worm.

    Two studious boys, studying hard for the sheer love of knowledge. Oh so studious.

    Rintarou is walking towards the exit when he hears Kaoruko’s name, and peeks around the corner to see Kaoruko helping a classmate study. He smiles at hearing her use informal language, since she’s always so formal with him. He also overhears that she’s in the top of her class, which he didn’t know. Of course she is, all that cake she eats is good for brain development: I will happily die on this hill.

    Rintarou goes outside where Kaoruko meets up with him. The two chat, and Kaoruko mentions her part-time job, which Rintarou is surprised to hear about because he assumed she was a rich girl; she lets him know that she’s actually not rich and got into Kikyo Academy on a scholarship, so she needs to keep her grades up. This is interesting to me, because I’ve noticed that whenever one of these elite academies appears in anime, the character attending is usually a scholarship student; Yumeiro Patisserie and Uta No Prince-Sama immediately come to mind. There’s this idea that wealthy people are inherently worse people than poorer folks who have to work hard, and though there’s some truth to it– it’s easier to be lazy when you have a lot of resources at your disposal– it still kind of bothers me a little. What if Kaoruko actually was a rich girl? Would that be so horrible?

    Anime Food Watch: Delicious Rice Ball Sighted.

    Rintarou asks Kaoruko if she would teach him how to study, and she agrees. I actually really appreciate this about Rintarou: that he actually was willing to ask for help. So many male protagonists in anime would have a mental breakdown over this, like “Should I ask Kaoruko-san to tutor me? No, I mustn’t, she must be so busy! How could I dare impose upon her that way!”

    Everything is going swimmingly, then Kaoruko’s dumb silver-haired friend Subaru comes over and everything gets complicated again. “Stay away from Kaoruko, you Chidori swine” blah blah blah bitchyness. Naturally Rintarou’s friends come by at exactly the right moment for everything to get heated. Usami gets close to Kaoruko, likely because he recognizes her from last episode, and Rintarou pulls him back without thinking; he’s wired to protect Kaoruko now and doesn’t even realize it. Saku makes a comment about Subaru’s hair color, and she blanches; I bet her hair is naturally silver and she’s been sensitive about it for her whole life, not that her problems matter to me when she’s being such a twit. That’s going too far though, and Rintarou calls Saku out for it.

    Rintarou tells the group that he was just apologizing to Kaoruko for scaring her the other day; he claims he spoke to her first, which is a lie, but he’s just trying to defuse the situation. Usami apologizes to Kaoruko for how he acted towards her last episode, which leads to Kaoruko apologizing to him, which surprises the hell out of everyone. Kaoruko even asks Subaru to apologize, but of course that’s not happening. Subaru gets going rather than endure this weird situation a moment longer.

    A Kikyo girl apologizing! That’s against the law.

    Back in the library, Subaru thinks of how Rintarou called out Saku for insulting her, and asks Kaoruko what Rintarou is like; Kaoruko responds “A very kind person.” I think Subaru is also developing a bit of a crush on Rintarou, which is inconvenient for her because she hates all men and treats them like dirt. What’s she going to say to him? “Go out with me, you pitiable waste of space who doesn’t deserve to breathe the air on this planet.”

    Kaoruko calls Rintarou later to apologize for Subaru’s rudeness, and to apologize for making him lie on her behalf. Argh, there’s too much apologizing on this show. They make a study date for Saturday, and Rintarou asks her to start addressing him more casually. Go Rintarou! Keep asking for what you want like a boss.

    That’s all for this week. I’m looking forward to the study date, which I assume will be next episode. I hope Kaoruko picks a place to study where all her obnoxious “friends” aren’t going to come find them and attack Rintarou just for existing.

  • My Dress-Up Darling Episode 15

    My Dress-Up Darling Episode 15

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    Last time, Amane promised to show Gojo and Marin some boobs, and in this episode, he delivers. He takes them to a huge cosplay specialty store with a dizzying array of supplies, including fake plastic boobs. Amane puts the plastic boobs on Gojo, so of course Marin has to squeeze them, then Gojo reacts like a shy eighteenth-century maiden getting the vapors. After finishing with the part that everyone is going to screencap, Amane goes on to show our favorite couple what other supplies the cosplay shop offers, including professional makeup and pre-styled wigs.

    Is the fandom really prepared for Sexual Predator Marin?

    Honestly, I’m not that interested in doing cosplay– I cosplayed once as Rin Tohsaka from Fate/Stay Night at Otakon alllll the way back in 2010, when I was a wee little Karen– but I do find it academically very interesting. It’s not as simple as just putting on a costume, it’s really transforming your whole look including your hair, eyes and build to perfectly mimic that of a fictional character at a very high level. I bet a lot of people who were kind of on the fence about trying it are going to take the plunge after watching this anime.

    Cosplay whatever character you want, just be prepared to spend about a billion yen on product first.

    The trio get into talking about make-up details, and Marin starts talking about what she does for her “daily make-up,” and wow, that is so beyond me. I only think to put on lipstick or something if I’m going to a wedding. I guess as a model, Marin has to be pretty looks-conscious. Amane lets slip that he bought his Subaru costume at the shop, which is a good reminder that not everyone has an experienced craftsman like Gojo on hand to sew original costumes. Because Gojo is so self-effacing, I think it’s easy for viewers to take his contributions for granted.

    They go outside to take some pictures, and two girls dressed as characters from Space Idols Cosmic Lovers stop by and ask for a pictures with Amane. Amane informs them that he’s a guy, which they are totally cool with. I wonder though, is Amane actually being more considerate than he really needs to be here? I understand feeling the need to tell people he’s entering into any kind of relationship with that he’s a guy, but does he really owe that information to random cosplayers who want to snap a pic? I’m curious about the ethics here.

    They get some Starbucks and sit down for a chat. We learn about how Amane got into cosplay, starting with his sister putting make-up on him just for fun. As a small, skinny guy, Amane had body image issues, but when he started to cosplay, the freedom of being able to become someone else allowed him to like himself. I think I understand that, but it’s kind of counterintuitive: after all, if you really want to become somebody else all the time, doesn’t that mean you still don’t like yourself? It’s a complex feeling, enjoying the freedom of being someone else enough that it gives you a new perspective on who you are normally.

    When Amane had a girlfriend for the first time, she found his women’s outfits and demanded that he stop crossdressing, so he just dumped her. In My Dress-Up Darling, they seem to be saying that people who don’t understand your non-standard hobbies should be kicked to the curb, but in reality its not always that simple. What if the person who had given Amane trouble wasn’t a girl that he had just met recently, but his mother, or his sister? I don’t expect the show to deal with every possible scenario, but I can’t help but feel that Amane was quite lucky that his family was supportive.

    After the cosplay event, Gojo and Marin say goodbye to Amane, and he’s totally unrecognizable dressed as a man. I hope we see him again at another event later this season.

    How did he make his eyes look twice as big when he was cosplaying Subaru? True cosplay talent.

    Some time later, Gojo is making lunch for his grandfather. Even though it’s not important, I’m going to screencap the food, because I love anime food.

    ~~NOM~~

    Gojo heads out to a photoshoot of Marin, and we see her doing modeling work for a fashion magazine. What I don’t understand is that an employee of the magazine calls Marin an “amateur model,” when it’s clear from the money she has to spend on her cosplay that Marin is getting paid. Maybe modeling works differently in Japan and she’s still called an “amateur” because she’s still freelance or something. Anyway, Marin is a great model and the employee wants Gojo to help convince Marin to become exclusive to her magazine, but Gojo isn’t going to pressure her like that. She also makes the mistake of thinking that Gojo is Marin’s boyfriend, and Gojo always has to completely freak out whenever anyone does that, so he says “Our relationship is based on money.” What? Not a good job there, Gojo.

    Model Marin looks different from Cosplay Marin. I think it’s because fashion models always need to have that resting bitchface going on.

    Gojo and Marin leave at the end of the photoshoot to go to a birthday party, and we the viewers assume they must be going to a party for an actual person; Oh no, how naive. They’re holding a birthday party for Shizuku from Slippery Girls, and Marin is totally into it. Gojo muses that even though Model Marin seemed like a very different person, he can see that she’s still the crazed otaku he makes outfits for. And credits.

    Wearing his Shizuku mask, Gojo starts questioning his life choices.

    Bit of a weird episode, with the cosplay event taking up most of the runtime and then the photoshoot/party tacked onto the end. Still, I’m looking forward to seeing Gojo and Marin grow closer, and hopefully for him to stop fumbling the ball every time someone assumes they’re dating– because it is GOING TO HAPPEN more.

  • Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus Episode Three

    Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus Episode Three

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    This is the conclusion of Uzuki’s arc. We start at a Sweet Bullet concert, pre-show: the girls get some snacks to eat. I’d make a bad joke about idols not eating real food, but I don’t think Japanese celebrities have the same problems with starving themselves to death that we have in the US– I mean, I certainly hope they don’t. Uzuki asks if Sweet Bullet will make it to Budokan, and the rest of the group gives her shocked expressions. I don’t think the question itself was weird, just out of character for Uzuki. Credits! Boy, Sakuta sure can run when he’s motivated.

    “Did Uzuki just ask a question that like, a real person with a functioning brain would ask? Terrifying.”

    Benny’s. Apparently Sakuta is still working at the family restaurant while also putting in hours at the cram school; he’s a busy bee indeed. He goes outside only to be met with a surprise: Mai can drive, and has a car! Boy, a lot happened during that year gap between Sakuta finishing high school and going to college.

    Mai was already the best anime girlfriend, and now she’s the best anime girlfriend that can drive you around. There’s no upper limit for Mai.

    Mai asks him about his date with Uzuki from last episode, which Sakuta at first tries to deny was a date, but the facts of the matter are clear. Sakuta admits it was a date, and then Mai apparently…lets it go? If she gave him a stern talking to, we don’t get to see it. It would be funny if the next scene was Mai tossing him out of her car, but this isn’t that kind of anime. I kind of want to see it anyway though.

    The duo get to the concert hall just in time for Sweet Bullet to start their set. All is going well until it’s time for Uzuki’s solo, but no sound comes out of Uzuki’s mouth: she’s lost her voice. Sakuta and Mai catch up with Sweet Bullet at the hospital– Uzuki’s mom takes her home, but the rest of the band is arguing with their manager. Apparently there’s been quite a lot of interest in Uzuki as a solo gig ever since the earphones commercial became a viral hit, and it’s not clear if Sweet Bullet will continue as a group of five. If Uzuki is considering becoming a solo performer, that’s all the more stress that contributed to her losing her voice at a gig.

    In Mai’s car, Nodoka talks about how Uzuki asked them about Budokan before the gig, and while they always used to say “Let’s get to Budokan together!”, none of them could say it today. Everyone’s used to Uzuki being the one lending her support, so for her to ask for support took everyone by surprise. I like how this show gets into the nitty-gritty of human relations.

    Sakuta + Aquarium, two things I appreciate.

    The next day, Mai has work so Sakuta heads to the next Sweet Bullet gig by himself. It seems like the event is being held at an aquarium, and I’m so glad Clover Works has gotten the memo that I love aquariums. Sweet Bullet begins singing, minus Uzuki. The group does a little sketch about Uzuki not being there, and it’s impressive they can pull that off so smoothly when they didn’t have much time to practice it. Two guys immediately leave when they hear Uzuki’s not going to be there, which just goes to show that some of the group’s fans are really just Uzuki’s fans at this point.

    They may be a member short and facing bad weather, but that’s not enough to keep Sweet Bullet down.

    Unfortunately, the power cuts out, and the concert is stalled. Sakuta looks around and notices a sweats-clad Uzuki standing in the crowd and watching. One weakness of this show is that a lot of the female characters look alike, so I didn’t even realize it was supposed to be Uzuki until Sakuta and Uzuki started talking. I guess the purple eyes really should have been a giveaway.

    Uzuki and Sakuta talk a bit about the history of Sweet Bullet. As they chat, people in the crowd are peeling off; I guess it’s a lot to ask for people to stay to watch a show while it’s raining and they’re waiting on a power outage. Uzuki confides in Sakuta that there’s a part of her that laughs at Nodoka and the others’ ambitions, and she’s ashamed of herself for that; that’s why she doesn’t feel like she can go onstage with them again, even though her voice has returned. I guess now that Uzuki has broken through to the next level of popularity, she can’t help but see herself as superior, even though she knows that “superiority” is based on something fickle. Sakuta lets her know that Nodoka and the others realize that they aren’t going to get mega popular at this rate; they know that, but they work hard anyway.

    Sweet Bullet resumes singing without mics or speakers, and Uzuki wonders why Sweet Bullet is trying so hard when it’s probably futile for them. Sakuta says “This is when you need to read the room, Zukki,” and we finally get confirmation about why that’s so important. Uzuki starts singing in the crowd and runs up to the stage, and wow, the people who left the show early are going to be so pissed when they find out they missed this. Now complete, Sweet Bullet continues their show as the sun comes out.

    This is why you should never leave a concert, even if it’s raining. You might miss the lead singer’s surprise comeback.

    The next day, Kaede is watching a replay of the concert on her laptop. Kaede’s mom walks by in the background, and does this mean that she’s out of the hospital for good? I think it was implied that Kaede was staying with their mom and not living with Sakuta– good for them. Uzuki says she’s going to accept the solo offer and still stay with Sweet Bullet, so she’s going to have a lot on her plate. She drops by Yokohama City University to submit her resignation, and that’s kind of a shame– college is such a unique experience, I hate to think of anyone that age missing out on it, but her career has to take priority. Idols have a limited shelf life, and she can’t assume that her popularity will wait for her while she finishes school.

    Sakuta and Uzuki have a brief conversation about leaving college, and Uzuki reveals that she chose to study statistical science– the same major as Sakuta– because she wanted to understand people better. Well, I hope the two months she spent studying it were illuminating. Uzuki runs off, but the drama doesn’t end there! Oh no, a woman in a Santa suit laments that she spent all that effort making Uzuki able to read the room; she’s Touko Kirishima, the mysterious singer. Does this mean that Touko is actually the one causing puberty syndrome, since she seemed to have caused Uzuki’s case? And why is Sakuta the only one who seems to be able to see her? Does Sakuta have some kind of special ability to see people who puberty syndrome, since he was the only one who could see Mai at one point? I’m so confused.

    Tell us your secrets, confounding invisible Santa woman!

    And so ends the Uzuki arc of Rascal. Honestly, this hasn’t been my favorite, although there was some nice banter between Sakuta and Mai and Sakuta and Uzuki. I’m curious to see what Touko has in store for us in the next arc.

  • This Week in Anime: July 20, 2025

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    Watching television can be fun, but it sure does take time– time that you likely no longer have in the fast-paced world of today. Instead of laboriously tracking the output of the frighteningly prolific island nation known as Japan, we now provide this exquisitely-curated service to give you the main idea of everything remotely important that happened in the programs called “anime” this week. Now you can spend all that extra time petting your cats, knitting a sweater, or playing a dating sim where you can date an orc.

    This Week in Anime:

    1. This fashionable young lady just ate a huge bowl of spicy noodles and is not going to be able to eat her dinner when she gets home.

    2. Nozomi helped herself to some of Sayuri’s gummies because when you get suddenly plopped onto a battlefield during the Sengoku era, you need to keep your blood sugar up.

    3. A contestant on a game show run by Cthulu got an artist killed by a blade-wielding, toothy moving vagina because he didn’t like the way his manga ended. To be fair it didn’t sound like the manga was very good.

    4. A witch with heavy social anxiety got pushed down the stairs, but that was okay because she’s really good at math.

    5. A psychic high-schooler defeated a Giant Mongolian Death Worm, with a little help from her demon boyfriend and the local fire department. Unfortunately, the situation with her other demon boyfriend is fraught.

    6. Shizuka is all set to enjoy summer vacation. Now all she has to do is find her dead dog and not think too hard about the nine-year-old boy she just got to take a murder rap for her. Her pink octopus friend is really out of his depth by this point.

    7. Alicia learned that being immortal really, really sucks. But she fed a bunch of scummy bandits to a pod of fish monsters, so that’s a check in the win column.

    8. A woman with uniquely terrible fashion sense tries to rope a man into being her surrogate father; so far, against all odds, it’s working.

    9. Two students who have a Romeo and Juliet-type situation going on get to study at a pretty freakin’ awesome looking library.

    10. A boy in a sleepy mountain town is quickly falling in love with the demon who body-jacked his dead best friend– there are numerous boundary issues.

    11. Yuu is a bad girl who does very bad things like beating up cops. Her girlfriend is not convinced.

    12. Anti-social novelist takes her “dog” to the beach, having somehow failed to notice that her dog has special powers and is not at all a dog.

    13. A girlfriend told a cross-dressing man to stop dressing as a girl; he told her to go pound sand.

    14. A college student who works part-time at an arcade decided to start dating a twelve-year-old girl because…why exactly….

    That’s all that happened in anime this week! Come back next Sunday for more hits from the world of Japanimation!

  • Takopi’s Original Sin Episode Four

    Takopi’s Original Sin Episode Four

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    This was a really well-directed episode; practically every shot was cinematic, and the facial expressions showed a lot of nuance. It was a bit of a retread though– we already knew that Azuma’s mother is terrible and this episode spends a lot of time showing us that she was even worse than we thought. If it wasn’t for Marina’s dad being an absolute zero of a human being, Azuma’s mom would win the Worst Takopi Parent Award…hell, maybe she still should win, I can’t decide. Let’s just say it’s a field with a lot of very strong competition.

    We start with Azuma, Shizuka and Takopi (as Marina) hanging out. Azuma sees on his phone that Marina’s body has been found, so no more playing Marina-dress-up for Takopi. The class is shocked to hear that Marina is dead, and the police start questioning the students. I’m a little curious how this would work in reality; would the students’ parents need to be present for the police to question them? Because here it just looks like the police are interviewing them in small groups. Questioning obviously leads to Shizuka’s door, and frankly, the police should take her into protective custody just by virtue of what the inside of her house looks like. We don’t see the conversation between Shizuka and the police, which would be very interesting, but it’s all part of this show’s strategy of keeping Shizuka distant from us.

    We can’t see Shizuka’s eyes, so we don’t know how she’s feeling about the body being found. Takopi, who appears very little in this episode, is freaked out enough for both of them.

    Over the course of the episode, we see Azuma’s guilt begin to affect him, while Shizuka’s mental state remains mysterious. Azuma is so bothered by the murder that he fails a test, leading to another encounter with the Pancakes of Punishment– this time, it’s even worse, because his mother claims to have given up on him. So now he can eat the pancakes, because his mother has just essentially told him that she doesn’t love him anymore. How could anyone be so cruel to their own child? I don’t get it. Like I can even understand when your kid has driven you up the wall and you spank them in a moment of frustration; it’s horrible, but it happens, even to otherwise good parents. But to be this cold-blooded about it, essentially torturing your child as part of an ongoing program to make them into something they’re not, is just completely alien to me. Yet this part rings true because some parents do treat their children this way.

    Enjoy the pancakes, you underachieving disappointment since birth! Psychological beatings will continue until morale improves.

    Then we get Shizuka doing something absolutely shocking: she wants Azuma to take the bloodstained Happy Camera– the murder weapon– and take the fall for the murder. This is why Shizuka is such a mystery to us in episodes 3 and 4, so this event hits like a freight train. We simply don’t know what’s going on in her head and whether she feels guilt, or if she is even fully cognizant of what she’s doing. I’ve seen some comments that all the kids are reflections of their parents and Shizuka’s mother is an escort, so she knows how to manipulate men; an interesting idea, but unless Shizuka’s mother is bringing men home (which we haven’t seen any indication of), Shizuka hasn’t learned from her directly. Yet kissing Azuma on the playground does indicate that she knows what she’s doing.

    For Azuma, even though he didn’t murder Marina, the guilt of being involved in the cover-up is destroying him, and he feels like he needs to be punished. In perhaps the only show of proper familial love in this show, Azuma’s older brother Junja notices that his little brother is in pain and offers to help. Ultimately, Azuma does go to the police, though it’s clear the police don’t think he actually murdered Marina; the truth will likely never come out. How could it? The actual murderer is a pink alien that only a select few people can even see or hear.

    At first glance, the scene with Junja isn’t that significant, because Azuma had already decided to turn himself in at that point, but I think it’s ultimately very important. Looking at the extreme long term, I think Azuma is going to come out of this alright, by which I mean he will be able to live a normal life as an adult. He has Junja’s unconditional love, despite his mother’s best efforts to tear the two of them apart, and being placed in a youth facility will at least get him away from his abusive parent. The police know he didn’t really murder Marina, so I have to imagine that’s going to effect how he’s treated by the system. Maybe I’m grasping at straws to find the positives here, but I think his life hasn’t been totally ruined.

    Shizuka though? Shizuka, who seemingly has no cognizance of what she’s done and is betting her entire happiness on her (dead) dog being alive? I don’t see a good outcome for Shizuka. Either she continues living and becomes more of a monster, like Marina was, or she tries to kill herself again and this time, Takopi doesn’t stop her; perhaps he wouldn’t even want to stop her, at this point.

    “I bury my enemies and eat ice cream like a boss. Ready to hit Tokyo?”

    Huh, anime is fun, right? All giant robots and magical girls huh? Forgive me while I eat a whole bag of cookies and cry for the next fortnight straight.