Magic knight rayearth overview part four, attack of the filler

When we last left out trio of protagonist girls they had just gained their magic evolving Escudo swords but were left without any further direction luckily the show's mascot character is capable of projecting messages from the show's once ambulatory exposition fountain, Clef (fortunately being turned to stone doesn't stop Clef from fulfilling his role as exposition fountain). He informs dour protagonist girls that they need to find (either the Ma Shin or Rune Gods depending on whether you feel puns or changes made in a dub script are more heinous). Unfortunately this show needs to stretch three graphic novels into twenty episodes so the would be magic knights aren't going to get their in a timely fashion.

I know filler episodes tend to have sub par animation but come on

This filler parade begins with the reintroduction of Ferio, who runs afoul of Zagato's minion Du jour, Ascot. As Ferio is not the protagonist he is quickly overpowered and has to beg for his life by convincing Ascot to spare him if he can lure the magic knights into a trap. He tricks them only to have second thoughts at the last minute, where he then decides to sacrifice himself only to be caught by Ascot's friend cum monster of the week.

You aren't gross and slimy enough to be my minion

The magic knights are a bit disheartened by this turn of events, but Fuu decides that the best course of action is to sleep the whole thing off. This off course is a ruse on her part as she goes off to rescue Ferio on her own in the middle of the night. She has no real plan or reason to go off on her own rather than have all three magic knights attempt the rescue, other than possibly the fear that Hikaru or Umi would rescue Ferio and he would be their love interest instead.  What follows is a strange sort of battle which culminates in Fuu having some ill-defined moment of resolution which results in her sword evolving and her thus being able to beat the monster. Ferio bids farewell to our protagonists and runs off into the monster infested earthquake wracked wasteland.

Remember to check your pets for creepy glowing red eyes

The next episode begins with our protagonists wandering through Cefiro when they happen upon a bunch of dead animals. There is also a rock monster which the magic knights assume is the cause of the carnage. Quick work is made of the monster. There is also a wounded puppy-like animal found which Hikaru immediately latches onto naming it Hikari, the same name as her pet dog back in Japan.

The magic knights visit the tomb of the unknown monster of the week

However this is a trap set by Ascot, as Hikari is actually a beast whose real name is Viggur. One morning while Hikaru is picking flowers with her new friend Viggur transforms into his beast mode. Umi and Fuu show up but are quickly dispatched by the monster as they are not the focus of the episode. Hikaru looks on, wondering whether she should save her friends from an animal she met yesterday. Eventually she caves in and defeats the monster.

The episode ends and everyone is sad, the magic knights and Ascot who is depressed that sending his friends into danger seems not to be working out. However as this episode is essentially filler the events here are never spoken of again.

Secret Santa Review, Time of Eve aka Eve no Jikan

This holiday season there is a wonderful anime blog community event organized by those smart people at Reverse thieves called Secret Santa. Everyone involved chooses three anime recommendations to another anime blogger involved. Among the anime recommendations that I have received is an Oav called the Time of Eve (Eve no Jikan). Even though there is a movie version of this media I have watched Time of Eve as the six episode Oav on crunchyroll.

Misunderstanding are almost necessary in anime

In the near future robots have become commonplace and androids now live in many households. Rikuo is a normal student in such a house. He suspects that his houseroid is going to places that it is not commanded to. He and his friend Masaki become interested in this and end up learning about a cafe called the Tme of Eve. The cafe has one rule, that there is no discrimination between humans and robots and the holographic ring that denotes robots is invisible while inside the cafe. This is the story of what Rikuo and Maskai learn when they are in the cafe.

Now that's why she works here for eight bucks an hour.

The Time of Eve is by genre classification a pretty hard science fiction Oav and by usual assumption is one of those smart people kinds of shows. While oftentimes such material is often used to pad the ego of those who claim to watch it I found that Time of Eve is one of those Oavs that really walks it's walk in terms of being material that makes the viewer think. In this I think I chose rightly to watch this as a six part series and viewing each part separately as most of the parts are kind of short, being just long enough to give you something to think about. While The Time of Eve is usually about topics about questioning our assumptions but is slightly vague about the conclusions the viewer is supposed to reach. Thus it is a thought piece asking you to think as opposed to propaganda of some sort that tells you what to think.

Don't look and maybe tin can won't notice us.

Another point in the shows favor is the tone of the piece. While some of the more artistic shows might be a bit dry in order to bolster it's intellectual credentials I found that this is not the case with Time of Eve. The show knows when to crack a joke or two or go for an emotional appeal. The animation for Time of Eve leans heavily on CG but I found that it works in the show's favor given that it is a science fiction show.

Overall one of the taglines for the show is "Are you enjoying the time of eve?" The answer is I did and if you like science fiction in any medium you should really watch this.

Rating The Silver Motorad (Kino's Journey) for being a very enjoyable and enlightening anime show.

Review K On the movie

Yui being Yui

Since a long time ago I have been kit of where he of any franchise movies especially something called whatever the movie. Even so I decided to watch the movie and found it somewhat entertaining.

A music movie needs a good jam session

Well having a chat with girls of another club the members of Hokago teatime decide that they need to do something special for the graduation namely going on a trip somewhere. After some thinking about it and have fast deception on the part of Yui, they decide to go London. They also decide that they need to do something special for their youngest member Azusa, before they graduate.

Look it's overpriced food

If the previous paragraph made it sound like this movie is a bit short on plot then I think said paragraph did its job. However as with the television show K On has never been about plot. It is instead nearly 2 hours of being a charming slice of life show with some comedy.

The person in the middle is supposed to be white yet the person on the right is Japanese

Thus the question is if you do like K On at all sure you see this movie? My answer is a most emphatic yes. The general character antics which are the staple of the show are still present in this movie. Yui is still hurt air-headed self, Azusa is still the adorable but reliable underclassmen, and so on. On top of that the animation is quite good as to be expected from a movie and the plot finds ways to have the girls sing four times during the movie.

The movie crams as much music into itself as believeable

 So final review the K On movie is little more than a long episode but somehow I'm okay with that. This is a movie created entirely for those who like K On no one else.

Rating the bronze Hokago teacup (K On) for being a movie that is charmingly true to it’s television source material.

Non Non Biyori short people got no reason to live

 

Perhaps one of the most odd things about anime is the continued existance of certain kind of show which goes by many names but usually centers around for girls who don't do much of anything. It is the bane of certain kinds of anime fans but obviously the favorite of some others since said shows keep getting made. I think it is a type of show not well loved by English speaking anime bloggers for several reasons not the least of which is that they are often lacking much in the way of plot giving episode bloggers little to talka about. Non Non Biyori is the fall season's example of this kind of show and it is something that I kind of like.

 

I think we overdid the merchandise a bit

Non Non Biyori is about a young girl named Hotaru who moves from Tokyo to the countryside. There are only four other students in the shcool where she lives. They are the the Koshigayas, older (even if she is tiny) Komari and younger sister Natsumi as well as their brother Suguru who never gets any lines. To round out the cast is the cute first grader Renge who is also the little sister of the schools teacher.

 

A slice of life show needs lolis that are space

To be completely honest I am not the biggest fan of slice of life shows but I have found that Non Non Biyori is rather enjoyable and perhaps a bit better than many shows of this genre. Even though there is the normal four girls you find in almost every show of this type but it does a good job of mixing up the flow of the show by omiting some of the characters allowing the character dynamics to be shook up. Shows like this often depend on humor so having a large selection of dynamics for characters is a definite plus for the viewers.

 

But no catgirl statues

However I have noticed there is one thread that runs through most of the show it is that Komari is the eldest of the four girls in the cast but looks (and in some cases acts) younger than anyone except for Renge. Perhaps this is the show's way of injecting comedy, as this clearly subverts the usual social hierarchy that especially pronounced in Asian societies (and yes I know this happens in Asian cultures that are not Japan). In fact the authority figures in this show (other than the mom) have no real authority but if they did it wouldn't be the laid back slice of life show that Non Non Biyori is.

 

Coppelion and the temple of lesbian doom

 While I usually try to talk about shows that I like rather than trash shows I don't like but every so often I should post some negative reviews to remind everyone that I am not some Pollyanna sunshine who likes everything. This is especially depressing given that Coppelion is a show that looked liked it could be a genuinely good show but it turned out that this wasn't the case.

 

That winning smile

The show has several problems and not the least of the fact that even though there are three main characters only Ibara seems to be capable of anything. Aoi is particularly annoying and useless in this respects, perhaps to the levels of Willie from Indiana Jones and the temple of doom. Thinking about it while I am all in favor abolishing traditional gender roles turning Aoi into a typical love interest character would actually make her more useful to the show in general. It almost makes want to look into Coppelion Yuri (guess who is looking into Sakura Trick next season).

 

Like a less fun version of Outbreak company

In a more general sense Coppelion has a problem with matching the expectations that the show presented at first with the content the show has presented. To put it bluntly one should not expect a show that has a psychotic school girl with electric powers who plans to blow up the world with nearly as much seriousness as Coppelion expects the viewer to take said show. While I have heard several people complaining about the tone change of Samurai Flamenco, the tone dissonance of Coppelion is something that can not be explained by turning from a parody of a genre to a straighter portrayal of said genre.

 

It's not post apocalyptic until fashion sense goes down hill

As of this article Coppelion is clearly a tin rated anime show with few prospects of making it up to bronze. A lack of good characters and the tone of the show which presents itself as a hard science fiction show with the internal consistancy of a super hero comic.

Arpeggio of Blue Steel mid season review

 

The show so cool you have to wear a jacket

As it turns out the fall of 2013 is a rather strong season as I have found there are about a dozen shows than I am following and only a couple of them are shows I am even considering dropping. Arpeggio of Blue steel is one of those shows I am enjoying and perhaps more than I thought I would. Maybe you might enjoy it as well.

 

No one expects the yuri monocle inquisition

First of all I fully understand that the premise of battleship girls is kind of stupid and perhaps a bit pandering as well, with perhaps a lot of prospective viewers taking a look and dismissing it as just another harem show. I have watched the show and about halfway through it I can say that this is not really the case. Even though the female cast has grown It is actually kind of nice that only Takao acts like your traditional lovestruck girl as opposed to most of the cast.

 

The logical conclusion to defeat means friendship

This show seems to follow a pattern of one episode focusing on characters followed by a second episode that is mostly focused on a large battle, with episode eight being the exception so far. I have found these battles to be enjoyable as well.So far there has been two naval battles and  This is where the show's decision to go entirely cg has paid off the most in my opinion.

This brings us to the possible downfall of the show, that the fact that the show is animated entirely with computer animation. In truth I am finding it to be less of a problem than I thought. I think that part of this is due to the fact that everything is in cg thus making it less obvious than when it is contrasted with something else and partially because since everything is in cg the animators are getting more experience with how to make cg work well.

 

Hyuuga is every shipper ever

Overall I have found Arpeggio of Blue Steel to be a generally fun and interesting anime show. If I were to encapsulate it into a simple sentence I would say that it is "Like Infinite Stratos, only with less fan service.I give this show a solid bronze with the possible hint of silver if it gets even better.

Losing your head over Samurai Flamenco

(note this editorial assumes your have seen episode seven)

This wouldn't have happened if I was the star of the show.

This fall among my favorite anime shows has been Samurai Flamenco. It has been a rather fun comedic take on the Japanese super hero genre that can make you think from time to time. I did have one misgiving about the show, the question of where this show is going to go. Episode seven answered this in a big way introducing a villain organization, King Torture and whatever followers he has. However with one answered misgiving another arising, just how does one explain how a man can transform into a gorilla with guillotine in it's stomach.

Moe thinks the show will sort itself out.

In my mind one of the best comparisons to episode seven of Samurai Flamenco is the reveals in Madoka Magica. Both episodes radically changed how viewers think about the shows in question. However there is big possible difference in reveals in these shows. In Madoka Magica only two people knew about the true nature of what was happening before it was revealed to the viewer. In both cases made sense that they would hide what they were saying; with Kyuubey being truthful about the nature of a magical girl would have made his deal a harder sale and in the case of Homura it was shown that she already tried revealing information in another timeline and it didn't do any good. 

I like badguys with more guts.

So the question is who knew about Guilotine Gorilla and when? How Samurai Flamenco answers this will determine how the show will be viewed. There are currently a few factors in the shows favor. The first is than in the previous episodes the world has become slightly more fantastic, especially the heroes armaments. The show has evolved from a man being beaten up by middle-schoolers to a man with office supplies that allow him to mimic spider man. Secondly there is the fact that said gorilla transformation was only able to occur because of police interference. It is fairly understandable that King Torture wanted to keep his organization secret. So if most of the super science can be confined only to his organization some sort of plausibility can be maintained. At least as much as need for a sentai show parody.

See this drove our hero into a despression

Of course at this point all of this is speculation and hope. So far Samurai Flamenco has been a fun exploration of the human condition and morality. I can only hope that the last fifteen episodes. At least it can't be as bad a Coppelion.