By the way, I’m dropping that book-burning show. I got about five minutes into the episode, and I couldn’t help but think, “Why am I doing this to myself?” I think that says it all.
Dances with the Dragons Ep. 3
Dude, I thought we’d be fighting dragons. The word “dragon” is even in the title of the anime. And yet, other than the first few minutes of the first episode, there have been no dragons. Instead, we keep hanging out with some crusty cardinal. Gayus even gets into a short theological debate with the old man! What is this show? What is even going on? The cardinal has an important meeting with the Azu Bita, “one of the right hand men of the Seven-City Alliance House’s Supreme Chairman Kai Kuyou, and the executive of the Democratic Liberal Party.” Look at that. That’s just word vomit. This author is getting off on their ability to string words together. Anyways, assassins crash the party, so Gayus and Gigina put their lives on the line to protect important people. All that I can perhaps discern is that someone wants some alliance to fall apart so that all out war can break out between humans and dragons… I think. But your guess is probably better than mine. Then in Gayus’s near death state, he sees his dead sister, but we don’t get to hear what she whispers into his ear. Great. Just great. But again, where are the dragons?
As a side note, Jiv’s voice actress is quite a busy woman this season. She’s also Pito in SAO Alternative and Rias in High School DxD.
Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory Ep. 2
Well, this ain’t your Fumoffu, that’s for sure. If you liked the wacky high school hijinks from that spinoff and the early parts of the first adaptation, run away. Run far, far away. The tone here is dead serious from start to finish, though I did find it somewhat difficult to take Tessa seriously when she tried to assert her authority. It’s just her voice. It’s so goddamn childish, man. Anyways, I’m kinda surprised that the enemies opened fire on Sousuke and Chidori. I thought they wanted her alive, so shouldn’t they be afraid that a stray bullet might kill her? Maybe not. Maybe a dead Chidori is fine too. I’m even more shocked by the ghastly 3D car chase. Good lord, it looks terrible. Absolutely terrible.
More importantly, however, is that poor Chidori finds herself completely shellshocked throughout most of this week’s episode. Hell, even her own friends are now in danger. There’s probably a happy ending for her and Sousuke at the end of the road, but they come from such wildly different backgrounds. He doesn’t hesitate to kill. It’s his job. He’ll leave a hurt civilian behind if he has to. That’s not Chidori, though. She’s just a normal high school kid. Let’s assume that everything is magically resolved, and these two get married. He’s still got a ton of baggage, and who knows if something from his past might come back to haunt him. It’s all fun and games at first, but once the universe starts taking itself seriously, you start to wonder if Sousuke and Chidori could ever really work as a couple.
Gundam Build Divers Ep. 3
Hah, famous last words.
‘Cause you get to be a Haru.
Onto more important things, cheaters in GBN are also known as “Mass-Divers.” They illegally alter their Gunpla data to gain an advantage, but this is causing bugs to crop up in the game? As a result, Kyoya has taken it upon himself to investigate this very issue. In his own words, he “want[s] to protect the GBN world.” Dude, that cracks me up. Is this not a game? Can you not just report these cheaters to the game’s support staff? Do the devs not have a team devoted to patching bugs? No, only the players can resolve this! He also apologizes to the kids for putting them in “danger.” In danger of what? Dying in a game?!
High School DxD Hero Ep. 1
This show has one joke. Just one.
I get it. This guy + boobs = ultimate power. What else you got for me? Judging by the first actual episode, not much. It was pretty boring.
Hinamatsuri Ep. 3
The first third of the episode with Anzu was a little too depressing for me. It wasn’t poorly told or anything, but it certainly wasn’t what I expected. There should be support groups for homeless children, no? I could be wrong, though. I don’t know much about Japan’s social programs. Anyways, I have no idea what Japanese hobos are like, but if this anime and the Yakuza game series are to be believed, they’re apparently harmless angels. Somehow, I doubt that…
Hisone to Maso-tan Ep. 2
Overall, the show is fine. I don’t have high hopes for it, but I think Hisone has a lot of charm. The storytelling is decent as well; I never felt bored at any point during the first two episodes. That being said, I couldn’t help rolling my eyes at this week’s primary conflict. It just felt so petty and childish, y’know? Yeah, jealousy is often petty and childish, but I guess I’m just tired of characters like Nao in fiction. Luckily, she and Hisone manage to patch things up by the end of the episode, so at least that’s over and done with. Nao will still always be somewhat prickly, but at least she’s no longer giving us her best Bakugo impression. There are, however, two things that I have qualms about. First, it doesn’t look like the plot will be very deep or thought-provoking. This might just end up being a show about cute girls in the air force. I wasn’t exactly thrilled to hear that Hisone might end up being a miko. Second, most of the guys on base are sexist pigs. A perverted uniform designer even shows up and creeps on Hisone. It’s too bad too, because his theme is pretty kickass.
Anyways, the OP puts me to sleep, but the ED might be my favorite of the season. It’s a French classic. The cover’s nigh impossible to understand without the subtitles thanks to the singer’s accent, but eh… I like the novelty and the dancing.
Also, it’s funny how Hisone’s flight suit is considered lewd, but it’s pretty standard for anime.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes – Die Neue These Ep. 3
Annerose’s eyelashes are wild in this semi-remake. Nevertheless. she always had such a tragic story. Not only was she sold by her own father to become the Kaiser’s consort, she probably blamed herself for Reinhardt’s fate. Sure, he ended accomplishing the impossible, but she didn’t know that at the time. All she knew and ruminated on was that if it hadn’t been for her, he might have lived a normal, peaceful life instead. As outsiders, we can clearly see that it’s not her fault, but look at those eyes. Those are not the eyes of a happy woman. She wouldn’t have asked Kircheis to protect her brother if she knew that her brother could succeed no matter what. She’s one of the more pitiable characters in anime.
Piano no Mori Ep. 2
I was afraid Amamiya would end up being bitter towards Kai, but we just get a friendly rival instead. I don’t have much to say about this show though, so I might drop it from the rotation. The story isn’t really engaging me, and if all I wanted was to listen to good music, anime wouldn’t be my first choice.
Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori Ep. 2
For me, this show is better foodporn than Shokugeki no Soma.
But it might be more accurate to call it dessertporn. The stories it tells, however, is not my cup of tea. In this week’s episode, the restaurant’s tea supplier has come to deliver the bad news: business has been poor lately, so he’ll have to call it quits. He knows of another good supplier, but they can be a bit difficult. Hah. “Difficult” is an understatement. The new supplier is a grumpy old man. In fact, he’s one of those insufferable gatekeepers:
“I’d rather have no one drink tea than let them drink half-mindedly.”
I hate that sort of attitude. Coffee is often treated the same way here. Yes, I would prefer to brew my own coffee, but that’s not always possible, is it? And maybe I do want a sugary sweet coffee-flavored milkshake every now and then. My point is, even if people like to drink tea out of a bottle, at least they’re drinking tea. Then from there, you can convince them to perhaps try something a little more special. But it doesn’t matter, because Sui conflates the old man’s elitism with commitment. I hardly doubt that it’d be difficult to find another supplier who’s just as good without the attitude, but whatever. It ain’t my restaurant.
Shokugeki no Soma S3 Ep. 15
Our heroes are forced to make a noodle dish without any noodles. They have three hours to source their own ingredients in the middle of a snowstorm. Meanwhile, the evil instructor smirks devilishly. Man, I just wish someone from the rebel faction would actually rebel. Oh, you don’t have enough ingredients for your students to even take this exam? Well, that must mean this is a shitty school beneath my standards. See ya. But that would never happen, so I just have to ignore these painfully contrived conflicts.
Anyways, Yukihara manages to pull noodles out of his ass by relying on potatoes. I’m kinda surprised that the instructor overlooked this. You can make noodles out of any starchy ingredient, honestly. For instance, I like sweet potato noodles. I love jap chae. I just don’t love walking all the way to the Korean supermarket for them. Nevertheless, you can even run a vegetable like zucchini through a mandoline and get “noodles.” That would’ve been fun to see. I think there was a Top Chef episode where you had to improvise during service. All of a sudden, you have a customer who is gluten-free, so what do you do? The team that bombed simply presented their pasta dish without the pasta. Obviously, that’s lame as hell. On the other hand, I think the winning team substituted their pasta with vegetable noodles of some sort. But let’s get back on topic. The rebels easily pass this silly noodle challenge, and Erina is seen as their Jeanne d’Arc.
In the second half of the episode, the kids get a brief moment of respite, so they go sightseeing. Mito ends up confessing her admiration to Erina, which is whatever. None of this stuff is all that interesting to me. When they go to board their train, however, they learn that everyone has been split up. Not only that, the third round involves facing off against members of the Elite 10. This is where the minor characters will probably get eliminated, so we’ll have to see how they also avoid being expelled. Unlike Yukihira and Erina, they don’t have plot armor. Still, it was cute for them to trot out Akira to be our hero’s first opponent. The moment is supposed to be all dramatic and everything, but in my head, I simply thought, “Oh, Akira’s going down.”
By the way, that’s a sorry-looking omelette.
Toji no Miko Ep. 15
This feels like a filler episode as we watch Kaoru and Sayaka run around a small town, looking for an aradama. The only important point of plot development occurs at the very end when the noro thief strikes. Maki then shows up to try to stop the apparent antagonist of the second cour, so we can safely rule her out. I never thought it was her anyways. Unfortunately, the noro thief flees the scene before the good guys return, so they’ll continue to suspect Maki. What a drag. Still, this episode is the perfect example of why Toji no Miko never should’ve been a 2-cour series in the first place. I felt like digging my eyes out during the first 15 minutes. Which odd pairing are we gonna focus on next? Hiyori and Mai? Ellen and Sayaka?
Okay, food time. Last Friday, I visited The Cavalier, a British-themed restaurant. Unfortunately, I did not leave with a very good impression.
For my starter, I had a Scotch duck egg. The yolk was perfectly runny on the inside, but I felt as though the pork sausage layer on the outside wasn’t thick enough to stand up to the sauce sitting underneath. The mustard in the sauce gribiche overwhelmed both the delicate egg yolk and the pork sausage. The greens are sadly not even worth mentioning.
Next, I had a ribeye steak with a braised short rib pot pie. The whole thing is swimming in a shallow pool of red wine jus. The pot pie is actually pretty decent. The steak itself, however, was bland and kinda tough. The red wine jus lacked depth, and as a whole, everything was missing a pinch of salt. I wish they had just served a larger portion of the pot pie by itself.
Last and very least, my dessert was this sorry-looking brownie with coconut ice cream (the best part). What you can’t see was how frozen the damn thing was. Brownies are supposed to be soft and gooey, right? I shouldn’t have to “saw” through it with my fork, right? The damn thing was like a hockey puck. None of my friends believed me until they found themselves digging through chocolate concrete. Plus, those orange segments look sad and anemic. Ah, what a disappointment. I think I’ve had better brownies from my local Safeway (it’s a shitty supermarket).
Moe Sucks 
Oh, it’s interesting to see British restaurant. You know, when I read some British novels, sometimes the food inside seems pretty good and I want to try them…But saying “let’s look for a British restaurant in our area” or and everyone laughs like I have just dropped a punchline…
It definitely took me a while to convince my friends to try a British restaurant. I think they all enjoyed their meals at least. I should’ve just went with the black cod dish over the ribeye.
If by “that book burning show” you mean Library Wars, you made the right call. I’m a librarian and a marksman and I hated that show. It was terrible. I watched it all, hoping it would get better. It doesn’t. Library Wars was idiotic masochism. It was like someone read the Cliffs Notes of Fahrenheit 451 by skimming the plot and ignoring the metaphor and meaning and then turned it into a manga and anime. Terrible.
Kaname and Sousuke’s relationship has been one of the most engaging parts of fullmetal panic for me so I’m anticipating how it evolves over the course of invisible victory. It’s nice to see characters who started off as archetypal and derivative (by today’s standards anyway) be optimally fleshed out over the course of three seasons, especially in TSR. Surprisingly enough, Fumoffu also does a pretty good job in fleshing out both Sousuke and Kaname’s relationship. One of the things I liked about Fumoffu was the implied “tragedy” of Sousuke’s impulsive actions during their school life and how it affected Kaname. Kyoko notes during the first FMP that Sousuke doesn’t go out of his way to make everyone’s lives difficult, to which Kaname remarks that it’s for that very reason that it makes dealing with him that much harder; because she knows it’s not his fault and yet she can’t help but lose her patience with him. As much as she’d like to hand-wave away all his actions, the reality of the situation is that at the end of the day, he causes LEGITIMATE problems. It’d be so much easier on her if Sousuke was being malicious, because it’d be easier to give up on him. Fumoffu mines all this for comedy mind you, but it never forgets to remind the audience that there are some serious implications behind these character dynamics. There are some that would argue that fumoffu has slight tinges of dark comedy in its DNA, an argument to which the underlining note of tragedy in Sousuke’s actions makes a case for. Sousuke almost always feels a bit of guilt for the trouble he causes, especially since he does it so reflexively; and in return, Kaname can’t help but feel guilty at times for losing her temper the way she does. You can’t help but feel bad for him. But as much as they both stress each other out, they need one another; they work well together. Fumoffu knows this and makes this clear in some cleverly subtle ways (like the second half of ep 2 where Sousuke and Kaname try to evade the crazy policewoman).
A story doesn’t always need to have perceived literary value like being some intellectual dialogue about humanity, philosophy, technology, romanticism, etc. to be exceptional. Sometimes, your story just needs to be able to maximize all its narrative mechanics to appropriately present everything it is trying to do and fumoffu does it so well. It’s comedic timing is on point; the directing is on point; the pacing is on point; the dialogue is definitely on point. The show is so capable of indulging in its erratic, and sometimes irreverent humor while still fleshing out its characters and crafting some genuinely heartwarming moments. The show feels really uniform, which makes sense considering Yasuhiro Takemoto (our man on hyouka) basically had full control– storyboard, scripts, directing; the whole nine. The end-result is a huge net positive of storytelling quality which is why it’s one of my favorite anime of all time. The second raid never reaches this level of brilliance in terms of the whole package but its still pretty damn good. What it does do better than Fumoffu is evolve Sousuke’s character even further, challenging him to make changes for his own betterment. We’ll see where invisible victory stacks up when everything is said and done. While i thought this episode was another solid effort from FMP, the cgi is not doing the show any favors.
Hinamatsuri was very sad this week, even when the focus shifted to the other girls and their funny antics it still wasn’t enough to wash away the sadness, I wonder why these homeless doesn’t even bother to contact Anzu’s parents, we as the audience know that’s impossible but they can’t possibly know, maybe they’re saving this plot point for later.
I just don’t think the show is equipped to handle serious topics. No one questions where she comes from. No one thinks to report her to the authorities so she can get proper help. They all just think it’s cool for a child to live with a bunch of homeless men.