Beastnode seems to have lost a server node, which has temporarily stopped me from playing MineCraft. So anyway, i’m watching several shows this season. Head below the fold to see what I think, as if you really cared. 😛
Top of the list is, of course, Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works. As usual, Rin is dominating the top tier of tsunderes. She’d be my waifu, except that I’d never meet her standards. Damn. One thing this adaptation is doing is filling in some of the blanks left by the two prior series and the movie. For one thing, it’s obvious this time around, that Illisyveal (sp?) has homonoculi caretakers, which makes a lot more sense that just her and Beserker being there. And we got a lot more background on Medea, and even got to meet her original master; the one that actually summoned her. I’m not bothering with a story synopsis, it’s too famous to burn space on it, so hit Wikipedia if you really have to know.
Plastic Memories is ok, but I couldn’t remember what it was reminding me so strongly of, until Steven mentioned Najica Blitz Tactics. Which prompted me to go “OH! Yeah, thats it! … .. … No, no wait, it’s not.” In Najica, the Hummarits were learning to be human and independent, and that’s what the story was really about. In Plastic Memories, the Giftia are already “human” and remarkably independent, though they’re designed to be companions to humans. Whatever constraints their freedoms have, are quite loose, but they are there. The problem is that the Giftia are time-limited; their software accumulates too many errors after nine years, and they have to be shut down. (Don’t ask why a backup can’t be made and reloaded. Future technology handwave.) Isla is a Giftia with only a few months left on her clock, and she’s teamed with a newbie human — and their job is to retrieve expiring Giftia. This show is screaming “bittersweet ending” at best. A human in her situation would probably go insane.
The absurdly named Is it Wrong To Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon? is, IMHO, blowing through the source material (light novels) entirely too fast. Granted, it’s kind of a thin source, but I think they’re halfway through the second volume in the second episode. The protagonist, a young boy named Bell, has become an adventurer in a city built on top of the world’s only magical dungeon. The many gods of myth (all the myths, but with a few twists), also have come to this city to live alongside the humans, who they find terribly interesting. Having sealed their divine powers away, they lead adventurer guilds (their “familia”) and provide blessings (which strangely, look exactly like RPG stats). Some, like Ganesha (a bombastic guy in an elephant mask), lead large and powerful guilds; some, like Loki (an androgynous female), have a few high-level fighters, others like Hephaestus (another gender-flip) lead skilled trade guilds. Bell is the only follower of the busty loli god Hestia, who is so poor she has to work multiple jobs and beg for favors to help support him. She’s also nuts about Bell, and highly jealous of the high-level girl he’s crushing on. And the bar/restaurant girl that’s crushing on him. And the lady at the adventurer’s guild office that is a tad sweet on him, and … you get the picture. It’s nothing special, but it’s kind of amusing.
Gunslinger Stratos looked good — for an episode, but it got a lot more pedestrian in the second episode. It’s 2115, and nation-states are no more. Everyone’s divided into classes based on their genetics and stuff (stuff being wealth and connections), and self-described “sheep” Tohru is Rank D, and fine with that. His Rank A classmate, the pink-haired Kyoka, disagrees and keeps trying to motivate him — there’s hints that he’s being screwed over, especially by her brother (Kyohma) who very much doesn’t like Tohru. Also, there’s rumors that people are mysteriously turning into sand
, and the government’s suppressing it. Hints of social stratification, news supression…not all is splendid in paradise. There’s some kind of battle royal simulation at the school involving paintball guns and lightsabers. Gym class is really not PC anymore. Kyoka wins the girls’ division, while Tohru comes in second to Kyohma — who believes Tohru threw the match. But on the way home, Tohru sees visions of a little girl he’s dreamed about; she’s being chased by crows and is writing complex math formulae on the sidewalk, ending in “Help Me!” Interesting value for x, that. Chasing after her, Tohru and Kyoko end up falling into 2015 Tokyo, where they’re attacked by…. Tohru? It turns out this is based on a game, and the second episode makes it obvious that there is no rhryme or reason to the craziness, the Rule of Weird is in control. (The RoW is like the Rule of Cool, only weirder.) Second episode, Kyohma, a freshman from the school named Remmy, and the 2nd place girl from the battle royal show up and rescue them. Turns out the crows are an alien race “helping” them fight a time incursion that’s causing people to turn to sand. But they’re doing it by aiding them in fighting alternate versions of themselves — not in the alternate world, but in 2015 Tokyo. Like I said, Rule of Weird. Once again, Japanese teens have to save the world.
This one’s on the bubble, and the first time director may pop it. Gen Urobochi did the scenario, but handed it off to hacks, like happened with Aldnoah Zero after the third episode. It’s showing, already.
Triage X: It’s got it’s own crazy vibe, and doesn’t take itself seriously. However, I was unable to take it at all. 2/3 of an episode and out. I only hung around that long for the T&A.
Food Wars may have been a long-running manga, and I may have read most of it. But in the end, it just wasn’t that interesting. Call it “slice of life at a ridiculously exclusive cooking school” with an emphasis on the food. Whatever, I’ll just order out.
Punch Line is the rarest of birds – a Noitamina anime that actually looks interesting and funny. And so off the wall weird, that I couldn’t possibly describe it. Fortunately, Steven already did. How off the wall? Yuuta discovers that if he sees panties twice in a row, his power will get so high that an asteroid will destroy all life on Earth. “How is that supposed to work?” he asks. Unhelpful expository spirit cat: “Enh, you’re over-thinking it.”
Edit: best lampshade joke ever — when Strange Juice transforms, she does a dramatic twirl and pose… and then changes clothes normally.
Oh good!
You’re OK.
Yeah, the only one I’ve made time to watch at this point is FSN but it has been stellar.