Lost in America: Anime & More

Chihayafuru 2 - 20

2013-05-25T15:25:00.000+09:00

For a while there, I thought the purpose of this episode was to induce as many heart attacks as humanly possible among the audience.

This was so close to being one of the classic Chihayafuru episodes ever. It had almost everything - drama, humor, long-awaited interaction with Arata, classic lines of dialogue, heartwarming emotion. I think the series greatly benefited from a break in the non-stop Karuta action, and a return to the character-driven style of the first season. But no episode with a needless 4-minute recap in the middle can ever be considered a great one in my opinion. I was all set to praise Madhouse for abandoning the pre-credits recap clips, but at least those are generally two minutes or less and don't disrupt the flow of the episode - this one came just at the crest of a huge emotional wave and acted like a breakwater. It's a shame, but it is what it is.

There was so much happening in this ep, on so many levels, that in a way it almost felt like it was paying debts that had been building up for 44 episodes. The episode started out in emotional sixth-gear, showing us the awards presentation for the team tournament - the reward for all the hard work Mizusawa has been putting in (and to the audience for staying connected through one of the longest tournament sequences ever). Yet it switched gears in a heartbeat - just as the BGM did - disrupting the awards ceremony with a jolt of pain from Chihaya as she held the victory banner aloft. In hindsight might have been better to have Chihaya hold the certificate and Taichi take the flag...

Once again this week, we saw Sumire take the role she took early on in the season - as the outsider who can say what the audience is thinking because she has enough remove from the situation to see the obvious and enough connection to it to understand the implications. She was the one who blurted out Taichi's obvious love for Chihaya what feels like years, ago, and here she's the one who says what the rest of us know - there's a love triangle between our three main characters. Except that none of them has done what she did and said it aloud - indeed, based on the evidence we've seen the only one who even says it internally is Taichi, though it's implied strongly that Arata feels the same way. It's been so long since this dynamic was on center stage that it's easy to forget it's what drove the series for most of the first season, but it all came flooding back this week - having lost none of the narrative firepower in its arsenal. This is still the big dog from a dramatic standpoint, and when it's in focus it sucks all the oxygen out of the room, leaving any other thread gasping for air.

The scene between Taichi and Arata will probably be the most-discussed of the episode, and it was like a hot electrical cable from the first moment - danger was crackling through the air. The dynamic between these two is really just as interesting as that between Taichi and Chihaya, and it's so rare to see Arata actually interact physically with either of his old mates that it feels surreal every time it happens. It's Arata who drops the first verbal bombs here - his "The only team I ever wanted to be on was the one with you and Chihaya" being one of the most memorable lines of dialogue he's ever uttered. He also drops the bomb on Taichi - with spectacular results - that he plans to attend college in Tokyo (wherever he can get a scholarship - a gentle reminder that he doesn't have Taichi's money).

It's remarkable how different these two young men are, physically, emotionally, temperamentally. While Arata drops his bombshells verbally Taichi's are internal (or muttered so quietly that only he can hear them). "Chihaya wants to be on a team with you, but I don't. You're my enemy." (note: this is a perfect example of why translators can impact the interpretation of a work significantly. "Teki", the word Taichi used, can be translated as "enemy" - which Crunchyroll did - "rival", or "opponent" - all are correct in this context, and in common usage. How different does this scene feel if it's translated as "rival"?) It's startling to hear Taichi utter these words (only we do hear, not Arata) but, unpleasant as they are, at least they're honest. I think it's quite possible to feel that someone is both a rival and a friend, and I think Taichi does feel that way here (the opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference), but his complex over Arata must be dealt with before Taichi can move forward in his life. Arata isn't Taichi's problem when it comes to Chihaya, Taichi is - until he makes his feelings known to her, he can always use Arata as an excuse for why he doesn't act. Part of that is no doubt the implied code of honor that both boys are observing - Arata as much as told Taichi he was interested (he flat-out asked if Chihaya and Taichi were dating) in S1, and it seems as if both of them are holding back partly because neither wants to act unless both of them are present and able to fight for their cause. But it also gives Taichi an excuse not to move forward, and delays his quest to be "a person who doesn't run away".

What this conversation implies going forward is hard to say. If Arata's request to his parents was to attend college in Tokyo, he could indeed join his Fukui "teammates" on a team for his final year of high school - but what of his comment that no team matters to him but that with Chihaya and Taichi? It's important to note that Chihayafuru almost never gives us any insight into Arata's inner thoughts, yet does so with Taichi over and over - with the impression that leaves being that Taichi is a person who internalizes his true feelings and that Arata is transparent. Yet the truth is surely deeper than that, and Arata is surely more than the collection of what he says aloud. We don't know the full truth about what he feels about Taichi and Chihaya, only what he's said openly (mostly to Taichi) and probably won't know it until the three of them finally are together for an extended period (assuming Suetsugu evert stops torturing us and allows that to happen).

Meanwhile and not at all incidentally, Chihaya's injury is providing drama of its own. Her casual "Is there a hospital open late?" is her first aloud admission that something is seriously wrong, and The Empress treats it with the seriousness it deserves. The X-ray reveals a chip fracture, though the doctor seems surprised there's not more pain and swelling and recommends a second opinion. She also recommends that Chihaya not play in the individual tournament, a recommendation I heartily endorse - and Chihaya's ultimate choice to try and compete using her left hand seems the product of good intentions and fighting spirit, but poor judgment. What is there to be gained in doing so? She can't possibly win that way - though it's certainly better than trying to win with her right hand, the damaged finger in a splint. My fear is that's exactly what Chihaya is going to do once it becomes clear to her that she has no chance to win with her left against Yuube Keiko, who destroyed Nishida in the semi-finals. There's no telling what kind of damage she could do to herself if that happens, and with Taichi in another room for the Class B fevent and Arata engaged in his own match, who will be there to save her from herself?

When she returns from the hospital - with The Empress gamely but futilely trying to hide the seriousness of the issue from Sumire and Kana - Chihaya stumbles into the boys' room by mistake. Taichi is asleep by himself, the others presumably in the bath. It's here that the aforementioned recap sequence occurs and it's a real shame, because it interrupts the narrative at a very touching and revealing moment. Rather than immediately retreat Chihaya crawls into the room and lies down next to the sleeping Taichi, which says so much about her feelings. As she reflects back on what's happened and worries about her injury that's where she wants to be - lying next to Taichi, which at the very least expresses her complete trust in him.

In the complicated triangle among the three leads Chihaya's romantic feelings are the greatest mystery of all, because while unlike with Arata we do see much of her inner thoughts, they betray almost nothing of where her heart lies. It reminds me intensely of the moment Taichi fell asleep in the car, and Chihaya cradled his head on her shoulder. It's another gut-wrenching twist of fate for Taichi, who seems cursed to sleep through all the moments when Chihaya most openly expresses the depth of her connection to him - if he knew, perhaps his own resolve would be that much stronger. And perhaps it does reveal something of Chihaya's heart that she might be more willing to openly express it with Taichi when she knows she can do so in secret.

There's certainly drama to be had everywhere as the stage is set for the tourney to begin, with Chihaya's stated aim to have Mizusawa win every class (Sumire's "What? We count?" providing one of the episodes few light moments). That goal is surely one of the reasons she's pushing herself, as Nishida surely can't win the Class A event. Will Tsutomu and Kana meet again in the Class C final, a group where both of them should be among the top competitors? Can Tsukuba win in Class D (seemingly a very real possibility)? And we have Arata and Shinobu briefly interacting before the matches, with a fascinating exchange between them that she clearly regards as serious, and he seemingly as a joke. She has eyes only for Arata - in Karuta at the very least - and with Chihaya not a threat, it's hard to see anyone else breaking up their seemingly fated meeting.

And then there's Taichi in Class B, as usual fighting himself more than the opponents. His forlorn "Why am I here?" expresses his dilemma and his penchant for self-defeat - as Arata and Chihaya (hopeless and misguided though it may be in her case) stride into battle in Class A - finally "on the same tatami" as she says, which is surely the biggest reason she's playing at all - Taichi is off on his own, an outsider to their club. There can be no question Taichi is strong enough to play in Class A - he's defeated a number of Class A players already in this tournament. Yet his "even if I never have my card read in a luck-of-the-draw again" promise of last week continues to hang in the air and cast a pall of foreboding on the Class B final. In so many ways Taichi exorcising his demons has been the most consistent narrative thread in this series, and it's rarely been on display more prominently than it was this week.

Kakumeiki Valvrave - 07

2013-05-24T21:46:00.001+09:00

Ah, that's how I like my Valvrave - extra crazy with a side of absurd.

No half measures for me - if I'm going to connect with Kakumeiki Valvrave, it has to go all-in. Last week's ep was almost sensible by Valvrave standards, and that's why it didn't do much for me. The thing that separates this series from the Guilty Crowns of the world is that it knows how far over the line it is, and makes no efforts at being profound or making sense. As long as it remembers that Valvrave can offer up rousingly entertaining episodes like this one was, even allowing for the occasionally harrowing drop in animation quality.

This ep was full of the whiplash plot twists that Valvrave tosses out with alarmingly regularity when it's on its game, starting with a whopper before the OP even rolled - a 200-year timeskip into the future, showing a Saki quite unaged from the one we've been watching talking about a 200-year old promise as she does battle in her Carmilla. We also see the caption "Year 214 of the Galactic Reich", which implies that the current situation doesn't end happily for JIOR or the good guys in general - but given the level of asspull we've already seen in just seven episodes, I'm not taking anything as gospel when it comes to that episode prequel.

The meat of the episode is pretty much straight-up blood and guts and melodrama. L-Elf has been relatively quiet for a couple of weeks but he's very much the alpha dog in this ep, staging coups and kicking ass. The former he executes when the girls are naturally all in the kitchen working on a feast, and after promptly doing some aforementioned ass-kicking on Saki (hey, Elf is no sexist) and Renbokouji he lays a trap for Haruto in the armory. Alas, even L-Elf's best-laid plans can go off track when an invasion takes place at the same time, and he quite unsentimentally uses Haruto as a ~~human~~ valvampire shield when A-Drei opens fire (turns out he was on official - if secret - Dorssian orders after all).

When the rest of Yama Arashi shows up that's when things get really Valvrave-y. Q-Vier bursts into the armory in full Kaji Yuuki scenery chewing mode, blasting the hell out of the place in "death to traitors" glee, despite A-Drei's orders to the contrary. L-Elf manages to dodge the bullet (many hundreds of them in fact) but poor Aina isn't so lucky. Turns out she's an important enough character to kill after all, and I guess I should have seen her death flags waving when she seemed so much more prominent than usual early in the episode. Unlike the Shouko incident in the premiere we have a body this time, and it doesn't look at all unambiguous in its state of not being alive ever again. I like this willingness of Valvrave to pull anything at any time - it really does give you the feeling that nothing is off limits - and while Aina seemed nice enough, she only made enough of an impression for her death to be a little shocking, rather than truly sad. Harsh - but that's just how it is in anime. It may be enough, though, to push Kyuuma over the edge into joining the ranks of Valvampires to seek his revenge for the death of his crush.

My favorite part of the episode, though, was L-Elf's decision to voluntarily give up his body for Haruto to use in piloting his Valvrave after the latter is stuck under a convenient fallen beam. A very practical move (and one that will no doubt delight the fujoshi) and it has the desired result. Saki and Carmilla are in serious trouble against an army who came prepared, but Haruto-Elf storms the field and takes care of business pretty quickly. This is thanks, in part, to L-Elf having left helpful post-it notes in the cockpit telling him the tendencies and weak points of all his former allies in the band. In fact there's even time for Haruto to notice the picture in L-Elf's pocket and for L-Elf's body to shed a few tears over it, though why he has a picture of Alvis Hamilton (Lisolette? Is that you?) in there I'm not sure. Hell, it's Valvrave - does it really matter?

Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince - 08

2013-05-24T21:40:00.000+09:00

Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince continues to be full of surprises.

After the Yin of last week's interior, reflective episode (that's actually been close to the norm) GKMP goes completely Yang this time with an episode that's wall-to-wall action. This series has certainly lagged behind Gargantia and Valvrave in terms of visual flash, but for an episode that was almost completely space combat it was a surprisingly impressive effort. The CG was well-integrated and didn't overwhelm the moment, and the conventional animation was quite fluid. In terms of choreography things were enough of a mess that it was often hard to tell what was happening - but to a certain extent, that was likely intentional.

I'm glad we don't see eps like this every week, because I think smaller-scale drama is Majestic Prince's forte, but as a change of pace it was very effective. This was easily the longest and most intricate battle we've seen Team Rabbits involved on, and they altogether did quite well. Tamaki was her usual loose cannon self - repeatedly getting in the line of fire from the not-so-loose cannons, especially Suruga's. Apart from that though everyone held their own quite nicely. The big pressure was on Asagi, who had to step up as leader after Izuru was (again) ordered away from his teammates in the midst of battle. This was interesting on both fronts: Asagi (still nursing the hole in his gut) pretty much choked at first, and it was surprisingly obvious how much the team had come to depend on Izuru's presence. But once the latter gave him a pep talk, Asagi gathered himself and proved he was quite deft with tactics - more assertive in battle, in fact, than Izuru, though Izuru seems temperamentally better suited to the role.

As for his battle, Izuru ended up going one-on-one against Jiart - a fight Jiart clearly came in searching out. The connection between Izuru and Jiart - and Theoria, who seems likely to be a sister or close blood relative - is mysterious, but obvious nonetheless. Izuru's visions of Theoria (who looks like Jiart's twin) have obvious implications given his memory wiping, but for now it's all circumstantial evidence. Jiart manages to keep Izuru occupied as the entire main battle rages on around them, until finally he rips the cover off Izuru's cockpit - leading to a very interesting moment that's hard to decipher. Both are shocked to see each other: in Izuru's case it seems likely it was because he didn't expect his enemy to look human (and familiar, at that). Jiart's reaction is much more mysterious - why was he so surprised? Did he recognize his opponent or was he, too, merely surprised to see someone who looked so much like he does? And then there's this, which I assume was part of Jiart's bio-mechanical mecha but as we never see it in context, it could conceivably be part of Izuru's, which would imply that the JURIA system might be Wulgaru in origin.

As for the larger battle, I have some issues with the way it's being portrayed. mainly because the sheer incompetence of Komine is a little over-the-top. There are certainly incompetent military commanders out there, but this is pretty broad stuff as portrayed here - Komine is a complete narrative straw man and his level of buffoonery is a bit of a cop-out device for the script. And we continue to see the ugly spectacle of the press covering the battle live, which I suppose isn't unrealistic if you're going to announce every detail of your attack plan in a press conference to begin with. With Komine's performance broadcast in real-time his fitness to lead surely can't remain unquestioned for long - I certainly hope not, as I'm tired of him and the role he's playing. As for our old friends Team Doberman (now dubbed "The Comic Three") they managed to dodge their screaming death flags for one more week, anyway, though it's surely only a matter of time. This seems like the sort of series where named characters are going to die, and it's too early yet for rabbit stew.

Hataraku Maou-sama - 08

2013-05-24T11:36:00.000+09:00

I continue to be amazed at how well Hataraku Maou-sama executes the basics.

I've said it already, but this is just a damn good show - plain and simple. There are flashier series out there, but in a sense Hataraku is anime boiled down to its essence. Casting, animation, pacing, comic timing - it just gets it right. An episode like this one is a perfect illustration of that, because it seems so breezy and effortless yet managed to be hilarious while advancing the plot and character dynamics substantially at the same time. It's hard to make it look this easy.

Of course, like most good shows, Harataku starts with character. In addition to the stellar cast here (Itou Kanae makes a fine addition) the characters themselves are well-crafted, and placed in a legitimately interesting premise. It's not as if they or the situation are especially groundbreaking, but neither the plot nor the characters are textbook examples of the tropes they represent. They're not parodies of those tropes, either - instead, they're tweaked just enough that, coupled with the intelligence and wit in the writing, everything seems fresh. It's not that we're seeing these things for the first time - we're seeing the familiar in new ways, and that's just as much an accomplishment.

For example, we have the "romance" between Maou and Chiho. She's certainly a genki girl and he's a sort of clueless male lead, but both are more than they seem. It's always nice when we see a crush dealt with as directly as this one was this week - Chiho (with some nudging from Emi, it must be said) had her "come clean" moment with Maou. She slipped in the "fell in love with you" quite off-handedly, and it was clear from Maou's reaction that contrary to what one might have thought he was well-aware of her feelings - there were no spit-takes. He simply didn't quite know what to do about it - he's got no experience in such things, after all - so he's been more or less leaving it alone, treating Chiho kindly and respectfully but not pushing the romance angle. It might be argued to be cruel on his part not to definitively respond one way or the other, but in this instance I don't think there was really any way he could respond definitively. I think the odds of any romance here are pretty slim - I think that'd be the case even if Maou weren't Satan - and I think even Chiho knows it's mostly a fantasy on her part. But the fact that Maou is kind enough to maintain their current friendly but fraternal relational is a sort of consolation prize.

The driver for this step forward is, as mentioned last week, Suzuno - or Christia Bell, apparently her true name. She's definitely been the catalyst for a major change in the chemistry of the main cast, and while some things were clarified about her this week she remains a bit of a wild card. Indeed, she and Emi were at crossed signals when it came to being "after" Maou. She's an Inquisitor for the Church - indeed she apologizes to Emi for the Orba Mayer fiasco - and she's in-town to, among other things, kill Maou. She also arrived to check-up on reports Emi had teamed up with him, but she's cleared Emi (perhaps a bit too hastily) of that charge and even invited her to team up on killing Maou. Suzuno also happens to be utterly clueless, having taken her cues about what Japan is like from period J-dramas and the like. This provides the spark for some of the best humor of the episode, the classic fish-out-of-water type. Again, we've seen this kind of wide-eyed rube in Tokyo gag a thousand times - but rarely with the verve and cleverness displayed here.

I have many questions about Suzuno - as does Emi - starting with whether she's been trying to poison Maou, Ashiya and Urushihara. It seems likely, but why is Ashiya the only one ill - and why does he seem to be getting better? Emi in fact warns her not to try any "petty tricks" on Maou, because - ostensibly - killing Satan is her turf, not Suzuno's. But of course, this is really the biggest question posed by the series at this point - is that really the reason Emi said no to teaming up on murder? Emi is the least fresh and interesting character to me, but that's partly a function of how great the rest of the cast is - she still represents an interesting twist on both the tsundere and stalker model. She's been witnessing Maou's kind, decent and honorable behavior day in and day out for months. Meanwhile, she's also seen first-hand that a Church-affiliated attempt on his life (and her own, not incidentally) would have killed hundreds of innocents if Satan himself hadn't intervened and saved their lives. She's certainly asking herself who she should be trusting, and why - and you can't blame her. In effect, then, that big question is really two questions and they directly set up both major threads of the plot - has Emi come to believe Maou is who he's claiming to be and thus deserving to live? And has she fallen for him?

There are many other questions still out there - like the issue of the konbini assailant, who this episode seems to make clear was not Suzuno (could it have been Urushihara?). And then there's the matter of the fast food wars, with Sentucky Fried Chicken having taken a serious bite out of MgRonald's business). This too gives us some of the funniest moments of the episode, such as Manager-san's warning that the last manager to lose a war was sent to manage a franchise in Greenland. It also gives us Sarue Mitsuki (yes, he looks exactly like James from Team Rocket - they should have gotten Shinichiro Miki, just to close the loop) as the oily SKC manager who comes over to introduce himself. I'm not a big believer in coincidences with this series, so I'm presuming there's something suspicious about him besides his slimy vibe - perhaps he too came to Tokyo to make Satan's life a living hell (and not in a good way).

None of that really does justice to how entertaining this episode was, but good comedies are often like that. The facial expressions were again wonderful, and there were very funny moment peppered throughout the episode. It's always interesting to see how many ways anime can come up with to depict Starbucks ("Moonbucks" in this instance), where we got another good sight gag in Suzuno imitating Emi exactly, down to spilling her creamer on her tray when she opened it. My biggest laugh probably came from Suzuno's comment about Tokyoites using "smart gourds" to pay for travel expenses (we'd need bigger ticket gate machines, for sure, and it would be messy). Like many of the best comedies Hataraku can mine gold in many ways - character humor, sight gags, puns - it's something of a comic powerhouse that way. I hope this series sells well on Blu-ray, because there's a feeling of enormous untapped potential here - this premise and these characters have a ton of miles on them before they'd start feeling tired, I suspect, and I would love to see more Hatataku Maou-sama down the line.

Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge

2013-05-23T12:45:00.000+09:00

This series can be as hard and cold as a steel blade - or scissors - when it wants to be.

I've spoken about the almost peerless ability of Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge to juxtapose the beautiful and the terrible to great effect. Darkness and light, tenderness and depravity always seem to co-exist in a tenuous balance in the universe it's created, the presence of each making the other that much more powerful to perceive. But this episode is almost wholly given over to the dark side of the emotional spectrum, and it's quite a jarring experience.

Things end up going in a quite different direction than might have been expected given where last week's episode left off. The first sense is that awkward feeling of being the center of attention, with all eyes turned in your direction. Of course the Hair Queen and her "Little Knight" are known to all in the ballroom, filled with Gossip's invited guests. While in the larger sense Gossip is still mostly an unknown quantity, there's an overwhelming sense that these are not good people. It's almost as if Iwai and Kiri are being violated as the nobs stare at them, whispering (and not even having the decency to whisper) their crass and shallow judgments. To be called "adorable" by people such as these is no compliment for Iwai; it's palpably condescending.

Judgment is definitely the theme of the episode, although this is really only the hors d'ouvre. Who the hell are these shallow, wicked souls - most of whom are presumably mired in their own cycle of co-dependent dysfunction or motivated by sheer greed - to pass judgment on anyone? In a world peopled by such as these the relationship between Iwai and Kiri seems that much more an outlier, something pure and driven by compassion in a sea of sado-masochism and sheer lust. We know it's not as simple as that, of course - but that element of the bond between the two leads seems quite human and relatable compared to what we see surrounding them every week.

Into this mire steps Seigi (hardly a surprise given the tone of the episode). When Kiri and Iwai were asked by a bellman to "help out with the entertainment" and don oni horns (Iwai) and a strange fur (Kiri) I was outraged enough - the notion that they should have to dance for the entertainment of such as these was appalling in its own right. But Seigi was behind the whole thing, apparently using the party as an excuse to set Kiri up for another dose of his own brand of judgment. What we can't know yet is whether this was done in complicity with the Gossip people or on Seigi's own accord - indeed, it's not impossible that the entire party was a pretext to lead to this moment, and eliminate the Queen's protection.

Whoever was behind it, the reality on the field is another confrontation between the two strongest Authors we've seen so far. And while you wouldn't necessarily have guessed it from the synopsis, Crime Edge has proved itself probably the best series of the season when it comes to staging action scenes. Every fight in this series has been a marvel of choreography and art (notwithstanding that some viewers dislike the monochromatic lens effect) and this is one of the best (though I confess I wondered why Kiri didn't try to cut the rope - perhaps being a spiritual one, it would be impervious to a physical blade, even Kiri's Crime Edge), with Kiri and Seigi duke it out alongside the offensive spectacle of Iwai, wearing horns and caged. It was suspenseful and quite scary - Seigi's method of killing is quite a dramatically chilling one - and for me, fueled by genuine rage. I especially despise those of Seigi's stripe - hypocrites who stand in judgment of others based on nothing other than their grossly distorted opinion of their own worth. I really grew to hate him this week, more than any character in this series and as much as any character for a while. He represents an especially reprehensible side of human nature - and in a sense, it seems as if each of the Authors and their Killing Goods are symbolic of their own wicked human impulse.

On that score, it's worth noting that even when Seigi gave Kiri (not that it would have mattered in practical terms) an opportunity to plead innocent, he declined - even when Iwai pleaded with him. Of course Kiri is guilty of what Seigi charges him with in the broad sense - he does enjoy inflicting physical violence on those who attack Iwai. He does have impulses which, if unchecked, would lead to disastrous results. In fact, so do we all - we're human beings, and flawed creatures. The difference - so far at least - between Kiri and the other Authors is that he acts only when the person he loves is threatened, and he has a sense of restraint. He's never killed, including Seigi - though he cuts him deeply. Seigi by contrast indulges his killing lust at every turn, just as he's trying to do with Kiri. We all have a dark side, and think bad thoughts sometimes. But just as courage isn't being fearless, but rather being afraid and acting anyway, so it is with goodness. It's not the absence of evil thoughts, but the conquering of them that makes good people good. And it represents the difference between Kiri and Seigi.

Is Kiri dead, hanging on-stage from Seigi's noose? Of course not - this is the 8th episode after all - but it's a hell of a cliffhanger. I can't help but be a bit disappointed that the Byouinzaka Sisters watched everything play out on stage, yet did nothing to assist - though they can't properly be called allies and might not have been able to do much. And there's the matter of the blonde in the extravagant party dress who watches the events on-stage with disdain. She seems to have something to do with Gossip, as she says she was "ordered to treat the guests with courtesy". Perhaps this is a clue that Seigi acted as a rogue element rather than with Gossip's blessing, though it's hardly conclusive. There's strong evidence that someone interferes in the end, though who, how, and why are left to next week to be revealed.

Mix - 13

2013-05-22T22:07:00.000+09:00

"Of Course it Does"

13 chapters in, we have our first major timeskip (an Adachi specialty) in Mix. With the Nikaidou business settled and done with, it's seems as if the third year of middle school is going to be breezed through pretty quickly, and Meisei High School is where the meat of the story is going to be.

Speaking of which, we still don't have a really good idea what that's going to be - in fact, we don't even know what the title means (at least I haven't figured it out). Apart from the setting and the obvious resemblance in faces - which you can't read too much into with Adachi, as he doesn't offer up much variety in this area - the links to Touch are still very much an open question. On that front, we got another visit at the end of the chapter from Ooyama Gorou - who's apparently moved back to Tokyo, next door to the Tachibanas - but even there, he doesn't appear to be a character from Touch so his own connections are cloudy at best.

On the field, Sou has taken the role as Captain and Touma as the Ace, but the rest of the team is a ragtag bunch of first and second-years, with a clueless math teacher (boning up on baseball by reading Adachi manga – as usual, Adachi-sensei is the master of self-promotion) as substitute coach. Sou initially orders Touma to throw nothing but breaking pitches because the team needs work on defense (no one would be able to hit his fastballs) - and possibly so as not to make Nikaidou and his father look bad too soon (not that they don't deserve to). When Touma gets serious he tosses a no-hitter with relative ease, though he remains unimpressed with doing so in a 7-inning game.

Touma seems to have more of a surety about his own talent than Uesugi Tatsuya or Kou Kitamura, sometimes bordering on cockiness. While Touma is a classic Adachi lead in many ways, this is a bit of a shift for him, and an interesting one. Other possible plot complications are Nishimura's continued interest in Otomi (I think she's ticketed for Touma, but what I haven't figured out is whether Sou is pushing them together or will be horrified when it happens - if he lives) and the fact that Ooyama has a daughter, one who has love interest written all over her.

Mushibugyou - 07

2013-05-21T11:35:00.000+09:00

The bugs are getting bigger, right alongside the plot.

No Haiyore! as a dance partner for Mushibugyou this week, but that's fine - I'm more than happy to give this series its own post. Occasionally I get one right, and I think I did when I pegged this series as a keeper despite a generally poor reaction to the first episode from manga readers. Mushibugyou still has the things going for it that sold me on the premiere - a terrific soundtrack, attractive visuals, and a great sense of fun. And it's added a deceptively genius hand with plot and character development. I really love the way this series has patiently parceled out exposition, expanding then plot only after it had introduced the cast and given the audience some buy-in with the characters. In terms of pacing, most far more touted series could take a lesson from this one.

As for that plot, it's really picking up, and all of the elements teased in the first six episodes are starting to come into play. One of them is the Insect Magistrate herself (I'm assuming it's a her), who up to now has only been a mysterious figure behind a bamboo screen who communicates with Kotori via a tinkly little bell. Well, she finally has a face - a very odd one - and the voice of Megumi Han. The character is still shrouded in mystery, but it's interested that she chose to leave her cloistered space and walk about the compound only when she assumed everyone was gone. Whether this means no one is ever supposed to see her face I don't know - she says herself later that no one is supposed to touch her, but she doesn't seem all that upset that Jinbei has now done both.

Jinbei has systematically converted everyone in the cast to his friendship harem with his preposterous levels of earnest cheerfulness, and the Mushibugyou is the latest to fall under his sway. He's off on a sake run while the others are called into battle to face the biggest insect we've seen so far, a "fortress insect" - a rhinoceros beetle, naturally. Thus, he's left behind and in fact, never at any point has a clue the "Summer War" is going on in Edo. Instead, he sets himself to finding a good spot for the Magistrate - who says she can never leave the compound - to watch the famous Sumida River fireworks which mark the start of summer. As a reward for his efforts she eventually gives him one of the tassel bells off her hat, which I assume is going to be a significant moment going forward.

As for that beetle, this is apparently a ritual in Edo - every summer a fortress insect descends on the city, and the Insect Magistrate's office has a well-established plan in place. Effectively, Mugai fights the bug while everyone else evacuates the populace - many of whom, it seems, take to enjoying the ritual as just another part of Edo's summer pageantry like society swells watching a Civil War battle from a nearby hilltop. Rhinoceros beetles are practically big enough to feature on this show in real life (up to 6 inches long) but basically harmless - though certainly impressive (they're popular pets for young boys in Japan, who can even buy them from vending machines). The mountain-sized one here provides Mushibugyou a chance to deliver its most impressive set piece yet in Mugai's battle with it, which eventually sees him cutting off its horn and absorbing it into his katana, which he then uses to cut the beetle in half. Mugai seems pretty much indestructible at this point, though I wonder if that's going to be put to the test before we're done. And just who's going to cart away a carcass the size of a small town?

The last piece of the plot puzzle - that we've been teased with, anyway - is the blonde who's one of Mugai's old cohorts, and it seems we're finally going to get her story next week. She's excessively interested in the Magistrate herself, who's informed her retainers that the insects are behaving strangely this year, and that she's going to follow the summer tradition and "seal herself away" early. I'm not sure just what this means but it's clearly more than significant, and tied in to the central mystery of just why these giant mushi came into the existence in the first place - which not even the son and heir of the Shogun himself has any answers to.

Game of Thrones - 28

2013-05-20T22:27:00.001+09:00

"Second Sons"
I know I've had the odd bit of criticism for Game of Thrones over the last three seasons - as a fan of the books it would be almost a miracle not to - but more than anything, I think you have to marvel at how this series consistently brings it. In many ways I think it could be argued that this series is even harder to adapt than the supposedly impossible-to-adapt Lord of the Rings - it certainly has more characters and storylines to balance, and much less of a conventional good and evil narrative to cling to. But GoT manages to tell a cogent and compelling story, week after week.

I think it's also worth singling out the adaptation for the way it reworks the novels into a form that works with episodic television. I love the artful thematic structure it gives to many episodes - we saw it last week with "The Wall", and "Second Sons" is an even better example. Of course it's the name of the sellsword company Danerys is dealing with in Yunkai, but trace the episode from start to finish and you see it repeated over and over:

The Hound, Sandor Clegane
Tyrion Lannister
Stannis Baratheon
Samwell Tarly

In the world of Game of Thrones (and indeed, most any medieval setting) being a second son is a considerable burden, both for rich and poor. Second sons generally don't inherit their fathers' lands, titles or business - and very often, don't see much of their affection, either. This episode (which thematically could and perhaps should have included Jon Snow, for that matter) was a tale of these outsiders, cast aside and disrespected if not outright disdained by fate.

"Second Sons" was also the most tightly focused Game of Thrones episode since "Blackwater", with the entire episode spent on three storylines apart from short bookends at either end of the episode. But those bookends were important, starting with Arya's meeting with Sandor Clegane. Of all the characters in GoT, The Hound is among the most misunderstood - though be brings much of it on himself, no doubt. In truth it's a stretch to call him a good man, but as he tells Arya, "There's far worse than me." She's stunned when he says he plans to take her to The Twins, and her family rather than King's Landing ("Fuck Joffrey. Fuck the Queen."). And even more when he reveals that he saved Sansa from rape and violence on many occasions. I'm saddened that the excellent Rory McCann hasn't been given a chance to shine, as the Hound isn't as prominent as he was in the books, but he's likely going to get his opportunity now.

The first of the three major settings this week is King's Landing, where Tyrion is preparing to wed Sansa. This entire scenario is every bit as dreadful and uncomfortable as it should be, but the sad thing is Tyrion is a far better man than the one Sansa was almost forced to marry, if only she could see past her shallow prejudices. He wants this no more than she does, and Shae's constant presence only makes things that much worse (and more uncomfortable for the viewer). There's one moment in the episode where Tyrion makes Sansa laugh - when he asks her if she drinks when and she replies "When I have to." his respons is "Today you have to."

Tyrion was probably the standout of the first two seasons, but he's been somewhat flat this season, outshined by other characters - but this was his breakout moment. There was never any doubt of Peter Dinklage's ability to be as good as the material he's given to work with, and the wedding day is pretty brilliant stuff. There's the white-hot venom from Cersei to Margaery, with whom she shares the cautionary tale of "The Rains of Castermere" - the story of the Reynes family, and what happens when you cross Tywin Lannister. There was the wedding itself, with Joffrey in his finest cruel and vile humor, taking Tyrion's step-stool away and threatening to rape Sansa on her wedding night. Tyrion grows increasingly drunk as the hideous occasion drones on, finally threatening to cut off Joffrey's cock - though he's sober enough to step back from the edge and laugh it all off at his own expense.

Best of all, though, is the scene in Tyrion and Sansa's bedchamber - tragic, tense, brutal to watch. Tyrion's skin may be thick but he's not above being hurt, and seeing Sansa's obvious disgust cuts him deeply. As she slowly undresses and he stares at her the tension mounts, until finally he stops her - promising they won't share a bed until she wishes it. "What if I never wish it?" she asks. Tyrion doesn't respond, only smiles and offers "And so my watch begins." Sansa doesn't realize how lucky she is, truth be told.

In Yunkai, Dany has her first meeting with the Second Sons (this sequence is much rearranged from the books), a sellsword company hired by the slavers to protect them from Dany's Unsullied army. There are two Captains and a third man, a Lieutenant named Daario Naharis (Ed Skrein, channeling a young Fabio). We continue to see Danerys' evolution as a leader, but there's no question that she's often helped by the power of her beauty - and so it is with Daario Naharis, who also sees in her the potential for many future successful battles and riches to be won. Dany is at this point a curious blend of naiveté and cunning, of idealism and raw practicality. She's very much a work in progress, and cutting a swathe through the slave states beyond the Narrow Sea is a graduate-level training program for the task she has before her.

Getting some much needed screen time is Stannis and his thread, as Melissandre welcomes Gendry to Dragonstone. I'm not a huge fan of the way this storyline has been changed for the adaptation, and of the fact that it finds a way to mine yet another needless kinky sex scene out of it. But it does offer us a terrific scene between Stannis and Davos, still in his dungeon trying to learn how to read. Davos is a really compelling character, a profoundly decent and courageous man who never loses sight of his duty to speak his mind to his Lord. Stannis knows full well what Melissandre has in mind for Gendry, and Davos catches on quickly enough. He also catches on to the fact that the reason Stannis chose this of all days to visit him and offer him a chance at freedom is because there's a part of Stannis that's as horrified by what his sorceress has planned as he should be.

This is the sort of scene that's desperately needed to give some balance to Stannis' character, which has been somewhat one-dimensionally pathetic in the TV version. He, like Dany and indeed all who seek to rule Westeros, is faced continually by hard choices, of trying to justify means by the end in sight. Davos' undying faith in Stannis and his willingness to speak his mind even when it might cost him his head ("Bordering on none" is how he describes his regard for his own life) are like the last lifeline connecting Stannis to the ideals he started this struggle with. In a sense I think Davos sees Stannis as the person Stannis would like to be, and usually isn't. And it's apparently Davos' intervention that spared Gendry temporarily from being sacrificed ("I'm not a learned man. Is there a difference between killing and sacrifice?"), though his actual fate is hardly a pleasant one. Stannis instead asks Melissandre for proof of the power in a King's blood - and as a test, he utters three names as he tosses the leeched filled with said blood onto the fire.

Finally, we have a short but truly superb visit North of The Wall, where Sam and Gilly are making their way with agonizing slowness towards Castle Black. Sam is another one of those characters who stands out like an odd sock in this cast, and his conversations with Gilly about baby names and such are both funny, sad and rather moving. He can't even get a fire started or properly explain the concept of given and family names to Gilly, but when he pleads with her not to name her baby "Randall" - his father's name - it's clear she understands Sam on some level. The climax is a gathering of crows on the snowy night, as Sam and Gilly huddle inside a ruined hut (she ends up starting the fire). In a marvelous slow build of suspense the crows outside become louder and louder, prompting Sam to investigate, then stop in an instant - as a figure appears in the trees, slowly making its way towards Gilly and the baby.

This is a moment readers of the books have been waiting for - and for a while worrying we might not see - and it doesn't disappoint. It's scary as hell when the White Walker appears, and shatters Sam's sword before sending him flying. As he closes on Gilly and baby, Sam turns to the one weapon he has left - his small Dragonglass dagger - and to his astonishment one blow from it causes the White Walker to shatter like glass and scatter like snow in the wind. Yes, Sam the Slayer has arrived at last - and he showed great courage when he had to, considering he had to assume his attack would be a futile one. As Mark Twain said, courage is simply the willingness to be afraid and act anyway, and we've seen courage in the oddest places at times this season.

(Note: Game of Thrones is on hiatus next week for Memorial Day)

Suisei no Gargantia - 07

2013-05-20T11:41:00.000+09:00

The main plot may have been deferred, but the debt has started to come due.

I don't want to take up this post rehashing the last two episodes, but the two subjects are linked pretty closely and I think the question of what was accomplished in episodes 5-6 is an important one. In one sense it seems like a very odd choice to have fully detoured for two episodes (minus the last 10 seconds of episode six) and then jumped back into the story as if nothing had happened. And, well - it is. But I think the issue isn't that what happened was beside-the-point - the issue is with the execution. Those two episodes should have been one episode (#6) and the transition between the Hideauze storyline and what happened should have been smoother, in both directions.

A lot of this comes down to what kind of series you think Suisei no Gargantia is, and a lot of that comes down to the involvement of Gen Urobuchi. Absent hard evidence to the contrary I'm assuming his role is the conventional "Series Composition" one - write a few eps (usually the first and last), and supervise the general direction of the story. It's only unusual because that's not the way Gen usually works, but then, thematically Gargantia as a whole isn't either. Again, I'll take him at his word when he says this is a different sort of series - one directed towards teenagers and young adults just beginning their lives.

As such, I think what happens with Ledo (especially last week) is quite relevant because I think to some extent Suisei no Gargantia is intended to express the alienation of the current generation of young adults in Japan. In this instance quite literally, as Ledo is an alien on his ancestral home world - but I think that symbolizes the way many young Japanese feel. They have no connection to the world their parents made for them - their parents struggles and their prejudices mean little to them, and they enter a world where the virtual guarantee of lifelong economic security their parents and grandparents had is denied them. Of course they feel alienated - they're forced to make their way in a world someone else made, and they don't share its values. Japan is perpetually a struggle between the old and the new, between tradition and change, and I think the way Ledo feels as he struggles to make a life for himself is meant to express that. The frustration at the way he's "mismatched" to this world, the first feelings of serious romantic love, loneliness, intellectual curiosity - I think these are different themes for Gen to be putting on the front burner, and I think he should be taken at his word about what he hoped to accomplish with this series.

So where does that leave us now, as the plot has kick-started again? I think those expected a quick turn towards conventional Gen brutality, nihilism and despair are going to be disappointed - not least because I don't expect him to write another episode before the finale, but also because I don't think that was ever his intention. I do feel as if the way the two-episode meander was handled has robbed the show of some of its magic, and I didn't find this episode to be as gripping as the first four (the last of which remains the best anime episode this year, probably). Nevertheless, I think the series is in very interesting territory and I think the questions it's posing are genuinely interesting, and worthy of a Gen series. As we all know Gen loves to pose moral and ethical questions in all his works, and he's very good at doing so - it's my personal opinion that he generally punts on trying to answer them. What will be the case here?

The fundamental practical question is the underpinning of the moral one - just what are the Hideauze? The Gargantians call them "whale squids" and to them, they're something between a sea monster and a Kami. They're feared, yes, but also worshipped and revered as Gods. Chamber has confirmed that, genetically, they're identical to the creatures the Galactic Alliance has been fighting in space. So while it's hard to blame Ledo for killing one on his salvage expedition with Bellows, it's equally hard to blame the Gargantians for being horrified when he does. After all, they have no reason to attack the whale squids, who apparently never bother humans unless they're attacked first. And being a relatively primitive culture technologically, they're susceptible to real harm if the squids do become hostile (as we see hard evidence of later in the episode).

What's the truth of the matter? At this point I don't think we have enough information to say. It would be easy to say the Gargantians are right and it's unwise to pick a fight, but Ledo's theory that the Hideauze simply haven't attacked the humans because they're too primitive is not unrealistic. The Commodore's response when a shoal of squids come at the fleet (which suggests an intelligence at work) is to kill all the engines and declare total silence, which suggests the squids are attracted to energy or artificial light. And then there's the seemingly rampant belief that the whale squids' territory is loaded with "treasures" from the ancient world - which in this instance could be conjectured to be technological advances (weapons or otherwise). On the other hand, Chamber informs us that the language of the Galactic Alliance has no words for "co-existence" or "prosperity". Perhaps they started this fight in the first place, or perhaps the squids somehow left Earth when humans did (some kind of "arc" project?) and evolved into the enemies we see in the premiere.

What all this leads to is the alienation issue again. This is not Ledo's home, and these are not his people. He sees the world differently than they do - for him, it's survive or be destroyed, and peaceful co-existence is a concept beyond his comprehension. The Garngantian way of thinking has worked adequately for them, but they seem to be running in place, and it's the human way to want to move forward and expand (for better or worse). The conflict over the whale squids brings this to a head, and the Gargantians' feeling that Ledo has brought them big trouble is quite justifiable from their circumstances. It's only Ridget's gun pointed at his head that keeps him from attacking the squids when they approach the fleet, and the implication seems to be that he's reached a point where he can no longer stay with them without compromising his ideals to a degree he finds unacceptable. But can they simply turn a blind eye and let him leave if his intention is to destroy as many whale squids as he can before they destroy him?

Worse still, Ledo's presence seems to have fundamentally altered the dynamic in Gargantia and shattered their unlikely stability. The designated asshat character, Pinion, has a more sinister role than it appeared - his brother was likely killed by whale squid, and in Ledo's hatred of them he sees a natural ally in exacting some payback and getting rich in the process. And this has emboldened Flange (Tsuda Eizou), who controls enough ships so that his departure would cripple Gargantia's defenses, to likewise petition to leave. In this we see how tenuously Ganrgantia's survival is balanced on the head of a pin, and how little it would take to effectively destroy it as a collective body. It's been telegraphed for a while that the Commodore, in failing health, would give way to Ridget at some point - and the crisis seems to have brought us to that moment. She's going to effectively face the dissolution of her country if she allows the others to leave - and it all starts with Ledo, who she likely could only prevent from departing by killing him. It's going to be very interesting to see how Gargantia manages to tie the larger plot in with the central theme over the next few eps - more than in most series, they're quite distinct from each other, and we've already seen evidence of the narrative difficulties that's caused.

Doctor Who Season 34 - 08 (Season Finale)

2013-05-20T00:28:00.002+09:00

"The Name of the Doctor"

Bring on November 23rd.

It's been an uneven season (or half-season) for Doctor Who. Let's just be honest - it's been a mediocre one. Only "Hide" and Neil Gaiman's "Nightmare in Silver" were solidly above-average episodes by the standard of the Tennant/Smith era. And Clara has turned out to be a bit of a disappointment as Clara - her chemistry with The Doctor never materialized, and there was something in Jenna Louise Coleman's performance that was a bit off-key, a false note. Amy and Rory have been terribly missed.

Thankfully, then, the season has capped off with a very good finale - making the last two eps of the season arguably the best. It seems pointless to warn of spoilers when they've been floating around the internet for a week thanks to the Blu-ray blunder, but for the record - I'm about to talk about the ending. To get the two big questions out of the way: yes, we do get a definitive answer about who Clara is, and no, we don't find out The Doctor's name. And thank goodness for that, I say - I never especially wanted to know it, as finding out would surely be an anti-climax and it would seriously dent his mystique.

Clara's secret nature is, in fact, somewhat anti-climactically for all intents and purposes revealed in the first 30 seconds of the episode. She's "the impossible girl" who goes goes throughout space and time, always saving The Doctor. The rest of the episode is more or less a discourse on how that came to pass, with significant supporting roles played by Vastra, Jenny and Strax (who I wish was The Doctor's full-time traveling companion). We also get another appearance by the scenery-chewing Richard E. Grant as The Great Intelligence, who's behind the major events of the episode, this time backed up by "Whispermen". They're quite scary but eerily reminiscent of a certain demon from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Oh well - Joss Whedon is a fan, so he probably won't sue.

I'm not going to talk too much about the plot, which isn't the strength of the episode and doesn't really hold water from a logical standpoint. Suffice to say it involves The Doctor visiting his own grave on Trenzalor (never take Trenzalor without consulting your Doctor) - a problem, as apparently for a time traveler visiting your own grave is as far on the wrong side of the tracks as you can go. T.G.I. has it in mind to enter The Doctor's "tomb" - a writhing mass of light strands that represents the "scar" his time travels have caused over the Centuries - and rewrite The Doctor's history, turning all his victories into defeats. It actually turns into Grand Central a bit - first Clara follows T.G.I. in there to foil the plan by saving The Doctor from all the times he's about to be screwed, and then The Doctor follows her inside to save her from, well - dying and stuff.

As premises go it's pretty far out there, but it's a fairly respectable explanation for why Clara has had the strange journey she has. What really stands out is Clara's "interactions" with the previous 10 Doctors (sorry, no Paul McGann, sadly) which bookend the episode. This is all done through the magic of stock footage, and the effects people do a nice job matching Clara's appearances to their respective eras - though it's just possible that Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant were actually present. It feels a bit like an early 50th Anniversary special - it may be as much of the first 9 Doctors as we're going to get. We also get a dose of River Song, which I never really look forward to. There's been much debate of late over what constitutes a Mary Sue, but I can't imagine anyone arguing against River being one. Apart from one or two grimace-inducing moments, though, she manages to stay out of the way of the good stuff.

The big whopper comes at the very end, the last thing The Doctor and Clara see inside his time stream. It's a man who's apparently The Doctor - except he isn't. Smith's Doctor says "I said he was me - I never said he was The Doctor." This man is played by no less than John Hurt, a huge name that was miraculously kept out of the press until last week, and he's cleverly introduced as "Introducing John Hurt as The Doctor". Just who he is - Twelve, or The Valeyard, or someone else altogether - we'll have to wait until the 50th Special to find out. Depending on the answer to that question, it doesn't take a math genius to figure out we're going close to a very important number in Doctor Who mythology.

All in all this was a very good effort. Murray Gold's soundtrack is his best work of the season, and it was a treat to see geeky stuff like Clara telling William Hartnell which TARDIS to steal. I'm generally not a fan of Steven Moffat's inclination to constantly deconstruct the series mythology, but this one felt on-point - philosophically, spiritually, it was a Doctor Who episode. And if the goal was to stoke interest in the 50th Anniversary Special, mission accomplished - though for me, the notion of seeing David Tennant back in the role was already more than incentive enough.