(found this on Fandom!Secrets)

Every season, I usually have one show I devote a lot of thinking and writing to. For this current season, that show is Ano Hana. For the rest, I usually just write a couple of short impressions; this post is for those said impressions. I’ll be covering the latest episodes of Tiger & Bunny, Hanasaku Iroha, and [C] after the jump.

Tiger & Bunny Ep. 6

Three familiar prisoners are making a whole lot of noise in the middle of the night when they are suddenly engulfed by blue flames. Their bizarre death make people think that a NEXT must be the culprit. Putting two and two together, the powers that be interrogate Fire Emblem first, but his flames aren’t quite flaming enough (real subtle, Sunrise).

This sets off a bit of private eye sleuthing mostly featuring a red herring, but then the real culprit shows up:

Finally, a plot that spans more than a single episode takes shape. A couple observations…

The parallels between Barnaby and Batman continues. Like Batman, Barnaby is consumed by his parents’ murder; their death irrevocably shaped his future. Batman’s parents was shot by a criminal; Barnaby witnessed his parents being shot amidst a burning house. Barnaby plumbs the depths of his painful memories while overlooking cityscape not unlike a metropolis like Gotham City.

I wonder if I’m the only one, however, who finds this aping of Batman’s origins actually rather hilarious. Maybe others find Barnaby’s past heartfelt and tragic, but to me, I think it’s deliberately overwrought and over-dramatic. As Barnaby gazes out of the window, a shambling of piano notes makes the whole affair feel like a cheap silent horror film. We then cut to the murdering of his parents, but cheesy opera singing defuses any seriousness whatsoever. The end result is a subversion of Batman’s story rather than an embracing of it, especially when you consider their day-to-day persona. The real Bruce Wayne is a playboy; Barnaby, on the other hand, has a massive stick up his ass. Considering that the rest of the show is rather tongue-in-cheek about the superheroes motif, I don’t think what I’m saying makes little sense. All Barnaby needs now is his “Joker” and judging by the end of the episode, he may have gotten just that.

Other Bits and Pieces

• So why are random prisoners being killed? The red herring professes ignorance when questioned about them so the new villain is just going around flaming people to death. Is he taunting Barnaby and/or the NEXT?

• Is anyone else disappointed that a lot of characters having seemingly disappeared? What happened to Tiger’s commitment to his daughter?

• Fire Emblem’s gayness doesn’t need to be a caricature.

*****

Hanasaku Iroha Ep. 6

I’m not going to spend too much time recapping this. Just a few notes then I’ll dive straight into my thoughts about the episode. An ailing inn needs to boost business, so Enishi enlists the help of Takako, an old classmate.

She suggests upping the sex factor of the inn by dressing its female workers in skin-tight Chinese-ish dresses. I don’t really appreciate sexing up 16 year old girls either, and I guess the anime reluctantly agrees despite having a big to do about the whole thing. In the end, Sui rejects Takako and the young lady unceremoniously departs from the inn with a dejected Enishi in her wake.

Understanding her uncle’s frustrations, Ohana tries to argue his case to her grandmother to no avail. Beanman, the janitor, leads Ohana to a hidden room full of old garments and by putting these dresses on… voila~ a saved business! Customers will somehow feel so amazingly nostalgic about the inn and its poorly-clad employees that business will certainly pick up!

Not exactly, Ohana admits: “…but maybe things don’t work out that easily.” That sounds reasonable, but then she goes on to say, “But doing something will at least cause something else to happen.” Well no shit, Sherlock. I can see how this move bridges the generations gap between Ohana and her grandmother, but I’m not going to pretend I didn’t roll my eyes when every damn customer lighted up at the sight of the girls dressed in those ugly ass aprons.

Let’s get back to Takako for a bit. Why is it that every middle-aged and somewhat successful woman in anime must be painted in such similar and damning strokes? She’s always going to be somewhat rude. She’s always going to think in terms of appearances and come across as a shallow, callous bitch. Often times, the middle-aged business woman will broach the topic of sex and make everyone blush. Most silly of all, she’s often set up to be a villain who wants to destroy the traditions of old Japan with her modernizing ways. I will find anime a little more credible if it can stop demonizing and strawmanning a subset of the female population while infantilizing the hell out of high school girls like Ohana.

*****

[C] Ep. 4

Kimimaro’s next opponent is his university professor. Of course, our hero wins and he fears the worse. Seeing his professor in class the next day, Kimimaro breathes a little easier at first until he finds out the truth: they took the professor’s children away for losing the battle. Despite all of this, the professor encourages Kimimaro to not lose:

Kimimaro continues to consult with Mikuni; he’s not pleased that other people’s lives are being ruined by the Financial District. Mikuni tells him that he can only win. Even so, he can win in a way that the effects on the real world is negligible. Kimimaro then observes a duel between Mikuni and some old man with serious clout in the real world. Mikuni deliberately cuts it close so that he only wins by a mere 1% over his opponent. I guess the old man represents entities in the business world like the failing US banks in 2008, i.e. too big to fail. How utilitarian of Mikuni…

I still don’t understand how people win or lose in the Financial District. I don’t understand how one entre is stronger than another. Maybe the lack of internal logic in these fight scenes are supposed to mirror the inner workings of the stock market! That would be convenient for the anime, wouldn’t it? I’ll just chalk it up to the creators having no sense on how to construct an action scene. Whatever’s the case, Kimimaro resolves to fight! — so that no one will ever have to suffer. Ah, the familiar battle cry of every shounen hero across anime.

For an episode of [C], this one was passable but my grievances regarding the previous three episodes still stand.

*****

Your “What the hell?” moment