The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya: Review

I will try to keep myself from writing out every single description because it is worthy of it, I will try and cover the main stuff and not end up making a ridiculously large post.

After watching both seasons of the anime and having a general good impression of it, I did not expect a movie to be made of this caliber. The movie sticks to it's roots (which I enjoy) with no new characters randomly popping up only to meet their obvious demise. It's about 160 min long, and makes for a very interesting plot involving all the main characters, but mainly focused on Kyon's further development. The main thing that I loved about this was how well they portrayed Kyon's emotions; we get a real feel for his character and how he is dealing with the events surrounding him. This move was fantastic, everything was done well and made sense, plus a great tie-in to one of the episodes where they go back in time. The animation was top-notch quality and if you enjoyed watching the anime at any point, or even the characters, then I think you would enjoy this.

Just as always.

Kyon's usual expression when it comes to Haruhi.  Priceless!

We start off with a typical day in Kyon and Haruhi's universe as December rolls in with Christmas nearing. The story takes off from the end of season 2 where the "endless" summer has ended and classes have begun. The group meets up in the club room with Haruhi announcing big plans for a Christmas Party. Shockingly enough, everyone is of course available. The rest of the day unfolds uneventful and we wake up to December 18th, the day everything changes and the story begins.
WARNING! do not read on if you haven't watched the movie!

Epic Miss!

The day starts off slowly, but sure enough the tension is built after noticing the odd occurrences.
While all these small things built up a few questions for us, the tension hits it's high moment as Asakura returns in an awesome build up of suspenseful music, slow motion camera angles, and of course, Kyon's expressions.

We find the ironic situation we're in as Kyon learns that everything appears as a "normal" day, meaning a world without Haruhi's god like powers. Kyon finds himself alone in the world with the S.O.S Brigade non-existent. We see Kyon in a confused and panic state as he struggles to cope with the current situation, a much more frantic emotion than we have seen during the episodes. It seems we have entered an alternate universe, or world line as described in Steins;Gate, without jelly of course.

Mikuru Punch!

As we continue to follow Kyon's emotional roller coaster I couldn't help but laugh at this moment when Kyon asked to see Mikuru's mole on her chest. After realizing everything has changed, Kyon collapses mentally as he doesn't know what to do. Kyon's emotions are quite awesome as we get to see every stage of this shock and realization of his situation.

It was pretty obvious to us

 It was the perfect moment to roll in the clues that would help Kyon fix everything. The computer as well as the note found from the original Nagato telling him to gather the keys and activate the program, which seemed pretty obvious once we found the answer. When we come to meet Haruhi again I never realized how much different she was, she was a totally different person and this was appropriate since she never met Kyon or had the S.O.S Brigade and thus was bored with the world, additionally, the altering of each character was done very well. 

Skipping ahead, after Kyon gathers everyone up and executes the program Nagato sent him, Kyon finds himself 3 years in the past when we had helped a younger Haruhi, and talked with future Mikuru. This was tied in very nicely with the actual episode as we find out the purpose was to make sure Kyon first go back in time with Asahina in order for him to currently arrive here once again. Finally we find someone who understands Kyon and remembers the previous time-line, err, in this case future time-line since we are 3 years behind Kyon's time.

The entire time-line is quite something, but it all makes sense in the end and I have left a thorough explanation of it in case you got lost along the way while watching. Kyon and Asahina talk for a bit and it seems she is the only person with knowledge of the original time where Kyon is from. The two meet Nagato at her apartment, right after their past selves arrive to sleep in the next room in frozen time. Another funny moment when Kyon wants to sneak a look at their past selves while Asahina becomes embarrassed at the thought of Kyon watching her sleep. We also learn that Kyon hasn't entered a parallel universe, but that the current time line was altered on December 18th 3 years from now, meaning it can be fixed.  

This shocked me and made me happy that the movie isn't revolving around Haruhi as all the episodes did

Now that we have learned the exact time of the alteration, Kyon and Asahina time-travel there, armed and ready to fire, and ultimately fix the time alteration cause by non other than Nagato herself .Once again awesome sound effects, colouring, and camera angles with Kyon's expression really high-light this scene. Originally I thought the culprit would be Mikuru, however learning that it was indeed Nagato, things became a little clearer and I was so happy to see the movie revolve around Kyon and Nagato and not be based upon Haruhi. 

We learn the reason behind Nagato's decision to alter the world, a "bug" had developed of unknown origin, but really Nagato was developing emotions and because she has no idea what emotions are, she reacted drastically to it at the point where she wanted to re-create the world. Nagato had wanted Kyon to make the decision. This was an amazing weight on Kyon's shoulder to choose which world he preferred, this scene where he has an internal battle with himself, questioning which world he would choose was awesome, we finally see a Kyon who does something to make a decision rather than the normal Kyon who leaves things to others, the movie really captures Kyons progress to being able to dive in and take charge, being mature and responsible to make a decision like this was what made this movie so great for me.

The gun looks so futuristic.

This is the moment where we are once again shocked and stare in awe at what happens when Asakura comes from nowhere stabbing Kyon. This scene was too epic for words and very well done.

What a shocker, I know this should have been obvious but they intentionally left her out of the picture for the entire movie besides the intro so it would slowly fade from our memory that she was even here to begin with,  in case you don't understand how she got here Nagato did just recently change the world and brought her back. If you want to know why she was brought back read the description after the review below.

Cute, but deadly.

This scene was the best moment in the entire movie, mainly due to the sudden change of mood, only installment of violence and blood, and amazing sound and slow motion effects with great shots from the camera angles. 

This moment really confused me as to how on earth does it all make sense, but if you read on it actually completely fits in to the entire time travel issues. 

Waking up in the hospital was a return to the normal time, with everyone thinking Kyon fell and hit his head, when actually we can assume that Nagato's program changed everyone's memory while keeping the seriousness of Kyon's injury relevant. The end was done pretty well with no holes that I can think of at this point, again read down below for full explanation. I absolutely loved the way Haruhi was sleeping beside him the whole time, showing more subtle glimpses at their relationship and how neither of them wants to admit it as it is pretty obvious they like eachother. The only thing I didn't fully understand was the "phantom girl" who apparently pushed him down the stairs, I suppose that would be a better explanation than just falling down by himself and more believable to the others.

Another great scene with Nagato and Kyon, this time Kyon threatens the intergrated data sentient entity that he will tell Haruhi that he is John Smith if they were to take away Nagato. Which would certainly bring utter chaos to the world, this was quite a nice moment to see that Kyon would look after his friend. Again more mention of Haruhi, why doesn't he ask her out or something? I really wish we got to see them get closer. 

Kyon-kun!

I absolutely adore his little sister and how she manages to pull Kyon and Shami off the bed like its nothing.

A great happy ending, Kyon has definitely changed and now enjoys his world with Haruhi and the rest of the Brigade a little more, he ends it with the notion of planning to go back in time to save himself to complete the string of events, but first, he wants to try Haruhi's cooking.

This Movie was awesome, watching it over again for the post really showed how well thought out all the events were which was something I did not expect from this show. 

Characters: Kyon and Nagato were awesome, with Koizumi, Haruhi, and Asahina being minor characters this time around was a nice twist. 8/10.

Story: The plot was great, it made sense and tied together with a few episodes nicely. The story was something you wouldn't expect at it's performance in comparison to the show. One of the best movies from a series I have seen. 9/10

Animation: I would have to say great quality, amazing scenes were done with the colour/audio/camera effects to create amazing moments in the movie. 9/10

Personal Satisfaction. Kyon's character progression was what made this movie for me, the great moments and scenes were well done and captured each moment. This was spectacular in comparison to the episodes of the series. 10/10

Overall a 9/10 is a given from me. 

Now I have explained the entire sequence of events in relation to time travel and the altered time space and made sense of it for you. It is quite the read and I hope I have explained it clearly for you, let me know if anything doesn't make sense.  

Let me break this down,  

Nagato used Haruhi's powers to change a period in time and it's events, however the past and future still remain true because Kyon had already chosen his world with Haruhi and thus no change in the past or future can be created. There is no alternate dimension or time-line, just an altered time period with everyone but Kyon's memories being altered. 

Now for future Asahina, she is from the future, and so Kyon had already gone through these events, you can call it fate. Since Kyon has already chosen his world with Haruhi, Asahina retains her memories from these times and remembers saving this Kyon when he was stabbed. Asahina cannot however travel directly to the altered time-line without altered time line Kyon, hence the reason for normal Mikuru taking episode Kyon to younger Haruhi's time, enabling a meeting ground between future Asahina and the current Kyon in order to travel to that Kyon's altered time line. I really hope your still with me since this took a bit to wrap my head around.

Carrying on, everyone else's memories were altered, and so Nagato wished to create a different world, giving Kyon the choice between the two, however when she does this she knows she will be changed to this shy and rather cute Nagato, she brings back Asakura to protect her and to seriously injure Kyon. [Ill explain this in a bit but it is super important.] In order for Kyon to choose between each world, Nagato placed the clue in one of the books telling him to gather the keys and input the program, since Nagato has used the computer before to save Kyon, she knew this would need to act as the link between worlds. Once Kyon gathers everyone and inputs the program, he is purposely sent 3 years in the past, also, Nagato's warning about it potentially failing is just to make sure Kyon understands his situation and chooses with his heart. 

Kyon is sent to this moment in the past in order to meet up with future Asahina and talk with past Nagato, the original and normal Nagato who will now send them both back to the altered time with the solution to shooting time altered Nagato and return everything back to normal. Also both of them have a protective field to shield them from any possible effects due to the time travel and place in time they were travelling. Notice how this also ties in nicely with the shoes, if you paid attention at Nagato's apartment during the episodes, there was an extra 2 pairs of shoes when Kyon and normal Mikuru awake from their frozen sleep, these are the shoes that current Kyon and Future Asahina leave behind. I am very happy that they payed attention to these small bits of detail. Now you might be wondering why this Nagato simply cannot fix everything here and now, well the Nagato of December 18th erected that barrier so that this past Nagato cannot fix anything but can only help Kyon so that he is able to make the decision himself. 

Now we have arrived at the moment where everything gets fixed, Asakura MUST injure Kyon because if Kyon is not injured then there is no reason for "future" Kyon to arrive and save himself, remember how Mikuru was with him? well this is needed in order for future Asahina to have any memory of this event and have the knowledge to meet up with current Kyon and to take him to Nagato's in order to get back together to this particular scene, it also explains why Asahina looks sad while at Nagato's since she knows she must witness Kyon's stabbing. Now it's safe to assume that "future" Kyon shoots Nagato with program gun and all is returned to normal, however in order to explain the apparent fall and hospitalized Kyon, that's pretty easy, Nagato had altered everyone's mind, but still its nice to see the seriousness of the injury was kept, the only thing I don't fully understand is the "phantom girl" who pushed Kyon down the stairs in everyone's mind, but I just assume this was done to add a more serious and mysterious effect to the event, since falling down on his own seems ridiculous, plus Kyon was saying that this seemed consistent. 

Wow, reviewing a movie is harder than I anticipated, especially when it carries off a series.

~Djr7

Kamisama no Memochou Ep09

After a marathon today of the last few episodes of this anime, I'm really hoping to finish it up. The Fall 2011 Season is already beginning; I don't want to drag too many Summer 2011 series into it just because of time constraints. Hurry, hurry~

This episode was a one-episode "filler" in the middle of arcs, although the end of it led quite obviously into the next one. It featured a "dog days of summer" setting, with Narumi, Tetsu and Shosha addicted to a new video game (PPB, Power Play Ball, an online baseball game) at the local arcade. The plot began when Nemo and his gang showed up, wanting to raise the rent on the building (apparently because they wanted to repossess the building for a pachinko parlour, though it might just have been hysterical accusations because, being yakuza, they really could just take the place back whenever they wanted). Shosha, adamant that the arcade not be destroyed, confronted Nemo; due to the young man's vigour, Nemo suggested that they bet everything on a match between the two sides. When Shosha said baseball, he meant PPB, but Nemo took it to be a real match, thus beginning the conundrum.

What an idol-like entrance.

Baseball is one of those few sports that I actually know the rules for, due to the Toronto Blue Jays being pretty big in my childhood (before they got so crappy, but that's another story). With each team requiring 9 members, the NEETs were suddenly pressed to get together a full team. The set-up ended up consisting of Tetsu, Shosha, Hiro, Master, Ayaka, Meo, Yondaime, and two men from the Hirasaka Group. (Ayaka, while claiming that she needed to be left out due to a lack of knowledge in the sport, was spotted later running to home plate, so...) Alice, while complaining at first due to being called down to the storefront, agreed to help them to victory on the condition that she be the team's coach, with Narumi as her assistant.

There's just something really warm with this.

The montage of training that followed was covered with Narumi's voice-over. It was in this scene that I made the connection between Hison owning a fabric store and Yondaime being good at sewing. I wonder if these two things have anything to do with each other? It was Renji that seemed to love Hison a lot more earnestly (and in the "I must have you" way), but there seems to be some kind of connection between Yondaime and Hison. I'm not saying they're romantically involved (there'd be a lot of BL connotations in that situation that I don't feel the need to bring up); just wondering what's going on.

Don't they hurt, with all that movement?

The training montage was ended with Alice chastising Narumi for not being able to get through to the  two members that Yondaime had brought in; they were only able to grasp two really simple signals after a lot of work from Narumi. That was only the prelude; Alice revealed that her research showed that Nemo's team was comprised of some pretty big players - including Nemo himself, who had been an ace pitcher 30 years ago whose team even made it to Koshien. (Thank you, Touch; even though I didn't watch you, I still know what Koshien is.)

So you turned to the criminal life? Ha...

When Nemo seemed pretty angry at Narumi bringing up his high school history, I had a terrible feeling that perhaps the story would end up with the NEETs losing, but they had taken the game so seriously that they managed to get through to the burly yakuza. I really wouldn't have liked such a storyline. Luckily, it didn't happen that way, so no characters were really desecrated. The encounter with Nemo only served to amp up his side while Narumi worried about their situation even more.

Those are really special teddy bears.

On the day of the match, Yondaime's pitching kept the other team at bay, except for the lone point scored each inning by Nemo (if any). The NEETs' points came from pretty random occurrences - a bunt from Tetsu allowed Master to make it through some bases mostly due to the other team's epic ogling of her epic breasts. Alice continued to be quite worried about the fact that they didn't have any data on Nemo, which would undoubtedly prove to be their downfall. Narumi suddenly had a flash of ingenuity and realized that PPB contained the stats of countless players, pro and non-pro, through its player input system.

That actually looks rather painful.

Meanwhile, Yondaime was quickly approaching his limit, considering he had only recently been severely injured and sent to the hospital. He was obviously the MVP, given that he pitched some solid balls. Alice revealed that Yondaime had really not been in the condition to play at all, but she knew she wouldn't be able to stop him. She seemed very visibly concerned about the entire situation and, surprisingly enough, ventured out of the car (where she had set up a mini-fort) as a pinch-hitter in order to secure a run for the NEETs.

Aw...

The idea was that, being a much smaller player than Nemo would be used to, the zone was considerably reduced and so Nemo wouldn't be able to use all of his various throws on her. I was considerably confused as to what happened, though. She swung for the last throw, which meant that it was her third strike. However, she chastised Nemo and the umpire (Meo's father) for calling it wrong, all the while walking towards first base. She ran to second base with a desperate chase from Nemo, who failed to stop her. I think it has something to do with the fact that the ball wasn't actually caught by the catcher? I'm still pretty confused.

His career path is already decided.

Alice depended on Narumi to make do with the situation she had provided him, as the next batter. Nemo's 21st pitch was the game decider (thus, the title of the episode), and Narumi knew exactly what kind of ball it would be. His hit allowed two runners to get to home base, thus allowing the NEETs to win with one extra run. Nemo, startled that Narumi had known exactly what kind of patterns to expect, was even more shocked to hear that his stats were indeed in the PPB database. Someone at some time had been watching Nemo pitching during his Koshien days and had recalled that data for the knowledge base.

I didn't know you could link into an arcade game online.

The episode ended with the boys playing PPB at the arcade again (since Nemo had not increased the rent), where Shosha was losing consistently to an online player. Based on the extremely cute costumes, Narumi inferred that it was Alice, who obviously had become quite engrossed with something. I was pleased to see some character growth for her; she feels a lot more involved these days, leading to her leaving her "safe places". The last line of the episode led quite clearly into the final arc - Ayaka's brother had showed up at the arcade.

Girls are scary and intrusive.

I'm going into the final arc with a lot of expectations. Every episode since Meo's arc has been pretty good, and this current development with Alice working out her agoraphobic mentality is very nice to see. I think the subject matter of this final arc will matter less to me than how the characters are portrayed, so there's ample room for the anime to please me as it exits.

~Aaro

Phi Brain Kami no Puzzle: First Impression

"The Contract Hidden in the Labrynth"

Right of the bat the opening scene introduces us to the types of puzzles that we will be dealing with, this was quite impressive as I was not sure what types of "puzzles" to expect.

The main character Kaito appears as a self proclaimed "Genius" of puzzles, and we're shown a few clips of him solving your average types of puzzles to support this. I found this to be an acceptable intro to his character as we learn how he is a bit full of himself while looking down on his fellow classmates, but is always determined to solve any puzzle.

The other characters don't get much of an introduction however a certain classmate gives him a puzzle device and seems he will play a major role behind the scenes. The other main character is Nonoha, who appears as Kaito's support, offering an eye for detail and other means to help hims solve the grand puzzles. We don't learn a whole lot from the get-go about the puzzle device's purpose, it did a good job beginning the story between Kaito and the mysterious Minotaur character to solve puzzles of life and death. We also hear mention of the "Devine Puzzle", "Orpheus Contract", and "Phi Brain" so we will at least have some plot devices to help develop a story.

I must say I was very pleased with the scale of these Sage Puzzles, they were massive, complex, creative, and dangerous.

Bad-Ass puzzle solver

The first episode silenced a lot of my own concerns and delivered a creative spin to puzzle solving. I must say the art style wasn't as bad as anticipated, it was actually very good, and the face art wasn't bothering me at all, which was my only concern before watching. The puzzles are huge and I am definitely looking forward to keeping up with this show. The two characters Kaito and Nonoha are interesting and keep my attention. The show has already defined a few key items that will be important later on, as well as a few characters who will help the plot. Overall a great first impression.

~Djr7

Granddad Is My Dad - Musings on Usagi Drop

I waited quite a while to do this review, so I hope I don't do it injustice. This anime isn't exactly fresh in my mind. However, the need to get it off my drive and into my archives eventually got me to writing.

This was another slice-of-life coming-of-age story, as many before it - the twist, however, was that it was a 30-year-old man that was coming of age, aided by the responsibilities of taking care of his new charge, a 6-year-old relative. Based on this simple premise, the story was very strong and realistic. Each episode was simple with its leading plot, and the characters drove forward the anime smoothly.

What a strangely slanted house.

Animation
The animation was very similar to Hourou Musuko, done in general pastel hews (though without the screen edges tapering off into whiteness). Despite this, there was great detail in most scenes; I was never left wanting to know more about what their house looked like, for example. This style of drawing doesn't attempt to be 3D, and there's a great allure to it. I also think the character design was done really well, especially the proportions - the extremely tall Daikichi towering over the tiny Rin was quite the symbolic piece. Overall, I preferred this over its contemporaries - like, for example, The iDOLM@STER and its strange proportions in certain moving scenes.

The children multiplied!

Setting
The story of this anime was very believable: 6-year-old Rin was the illegitimate child of 30-year-old Daikichi's grandfather, with the secret coming out at the grandfather's funeral when the family arrived to find the little girl in the house. The episodes followed Daikichi and Rin's life as they lived together, as he had chosen to take her in over sending her to an orphanage. While there was a little bit of a perfect feeling, such that no serious problem ever really came up, the anime focused on some very realistic problems, such as juggling single parenthood and a demanding full-time job. The comparison to Aishiteruze Baby came to me since the first episode, but I can honestly say that they're really nothing alike. That anime focused more on the coming-of-age of Kippei, whereas this one actually focused on Daikichi and Rin being together as a complete family.

Ah, Daikichi. So gangster.

Story Presentation
The story-telling within these 11 episodes was quite good; the pacing was realistic and the focus of each episode was simple. There was a single tying factor for all the scenes within the episode, and it didn't feel like it really dragged at any point. Often times, between episodes, a lot of time had passed and so many scenes/events had been omitted. However, despite this, the pace of the character-building was still very believable. Speaking of that, the way that Daikichi's parents (with his mother being Rin's half-sister) moved through various stages of their feelings about Rin, from the first episode to the last, was not only well done but also very intriguing. It was an extremely feel-good transition.

I wonder if they made those clothes themselves.

Characters
The characters were pretty well-rounded here, with the main characters being the most shaped and secondary characters introducing new facets of their persona when and as required. This caused characters to sometimes feel a little used; however, despite that the characters genuinely grew and had believable nicks in their personalities. Daikichi felt hollow at times, due to the lack of real emotions he often displayed (for example, there was never any real anger from him), but ultimately he probably fit exactly the trope of the anti-social adult that exists in modern Japan. Rin's maturity, highly unrealistic at times even when taking into consideration the details of her circumstances, really carried the show forward. A lot of story points possible in this anime would not have been in Aishiteruze Baby, simply because Yuzuyu would not have been able to pull it off. However, despite these points, the way that all the characters matured was very smooth; the passage of time never showed, but its effects always did.

I wanted a cleaner picture...

Final Words
The anime ended without any real fireworks, just as expected, and I was driven to pick up the manga (which is 56 chapters, with the anime finishing at the end of chapter 24). Word of warning: the remainder of the story is not to everyone's liking, and is different from the first 24chaps/11eps. Despite that, this review is based only on the anime, and I can't deny that it was mostly well performed. This anime gave me reality with a little bit sugar, doing well with its undeniable goal of making me feel happy after each episode.

Epic freak-out!

Scoring - [6/10]
The quick and sweet stories allowed me to watch one episode each week without needing to recall what had really happened. I felt infuriated that events weren't occurring fast enough at times, although isn't that really to the anime's benefit? I wanted more, more, more.

~Aaro

C Cube 01 - First Impressions

C Cube, or Cube x Cursed x Curious is a light novel by Hazuki Minase turned anime that just recently aired. When first saw the trailer for this show way back whenever, I was pretty excited about it. Now that I've seen the first episode, I can say that I'm cautiously optimistic. The first episode is pretty much just boy meets girl, or boy meets cube if you will. Nothing much really happens, and not much is explained yet other than hinting that neither Fear nor Konoha are human. Onto the good and the not so good.

The major positive here are the visuals. Coming from Silver Link, the art style should come as no surprise if you've seen BakaTest. Aside from BakaTest, Oonuma Shin, the director of C Cube, also worked on the ef series, and Bakemonogatari, which are both quite artsy. The colors and contrast of colors are extremely pleasing to the eyes; I love it. There are times they use shadow to really add to the mood of certain scenes, like the one in the screenshot below.

Another plus is the music. I think their bgm choice for most scenes were very fitting, whether to ask to audience to join in the silliness, or to evoke an ephemeral feeling of melancholy. Very well done. I also really liked the voice acting done so far, particular Fear's. Tamura Yukari is almost using the exact same voice she used for Togame in Katanagatari, which may have positively affected my judgment of her performance in C Cube.

So what wasn't so good about it? For starters, this feels extremely "light-novel-esque." Almost all light novel adaptions turn out quite poorly. This is not to say that C Cube will be bad, but it certainly showing the signs of a typical light novel-adapted anime. We have the tsundere loli girl (who isn't actually a girl) suddenly appear in the protagonist's life with panty shots fully intact. Next we have the nice guy main character, and the childhood friend who has a thing for him. Where have we seen this formula before?

Yet, I remain "cautiously optimistic" because of the imminent arrival of this blond character. What I'm hoping for is less everyday-life shenanigans, and more action, fighting, a bit of drama, and things "getting real" in the near future. Based on the first episode, Pearz said this is looking like a Shana 2.0, and I sincerely hope C Cube proves her wrong because I want to enjoy watching this. It's not that I don't like Shana, it's just that all I can remember from it was a million "urusais" and melon bread. What do you guys think?

Side note: Hadena subs weren't very good; I'd suggest waiting for better subs.

-Bern

Mayo Chiki In Review [8/10]

Always hard to review an anime like this as it is hugely based on humor which is pretty subjective on what you find funny. Alas, I still found this anime pretty good since I got quite a few laughs out of it. The major problem was it was airing on Thursday which conflicted with another awesome anime of the same category, Baka to Test, and Penguindrum for your "edge-of-your-seat" story time.

Fate/Zero 01 - Info dump time!

I thought this was a 2 cour anime? Why do they still need to info dump so hard on the first episode? I understand the need to re-explain the basics of holy grail war for people that haven't seen the first season. They spent the whole episode introducing the characters which was pretty bad since it was a 47 min episode. There was just so much info dumping, I hope that's all they need before things start to kick in gear (probably not D:)

Mayo Chiki 13 - That was the Finale?

Last post I made on Mayo Chiki, I claimed that the glasses fetish girl was left out, lo and behold, she got hers as the final episode. A very unorthdox final episode considering it was left pretty open ended. It is probably done for a potential second season but their BD sales weren't spectacular so I don't expect them to get one. Either way, there wasn't enough of Oujo-sama this episode. QQ

PenguinDrum 12 - Nothing to Seizon Sanyraku About!

This episode was just all my WTFs. Another amazing episode that was just mind blowing. I was fully expected them to draw on the mystery flashback but I was blown away further of the actual event that occurred. Is this why they have so many scenes within the subway and the break between the episodes is a subway line too? I guess that was the subtle clue that the subway is a big thing within this anime, go figure.

Kaiji S2 26 - Finale and Final Thoughts

And thus another two-cour show from the Spring season comes to an end. This actually aired Tuesday, but I didn't get around to watching the finale because I watch this with my brother and there were some conflicts of schedule. I'll just give some short thoughts on the Bog Arc, since it was almost twice as long as the Chinchiro Arc, and I've said some things on that already.

To some up the final episode: Kaiji got shafted again, but ends up with enough to save the 45s and Ishida's son. I'm betting you all knew something like this would happen. I mean Kaiji actually getting a hefty sum of money? That's preposterous! Though the person had to be Endou, since Kaiji blindly signed the contract without reading it over carefully.

This pretty much just reiterates what type of character Fukumoto wants to paint Kaiji as. He's suppose to be a lazy good-for-nothing scum addicted to gambling who's going nowhere in life. However, when push comes to shove, Kaiji amazes by his sheer genius. Remember when Kaiji thought he was going to lose to the Bog? He was literally begging Ichijou to call it a draw. Very typical of Kaiji, but he's able to pull out a win in the end. Kaiji's major flaw is that he trusts people too easily. Endou even explicitly says that he's too naive. Sakazaki said it was "eat be eaten." And who could forget Andou from the first season? However, this is a trait that can be looked at both ways. We all sympathize with Kaiji because he's very good guy, and that was on display in the finale: he cheered on Ichijou, and he kept his word to the 45s and Ishida. Just look how happy he is in the picture below.

So was the Bog Arc long, or what? I did a marathon of the first season so it didn't feel that long, but waiting for an episode a week really highlights how drawn-out this arc really is. Fukomoto used everything imaginable to set the twists and turns in this bout between man and machine. I really think it's incredibly set up. Despite being so long and dragged out, even with some episodes with nothing happening at all, there was always some kind of excitement. The shifting of tides for and against Kaiji's favor was riveting to watch. The one strategy that I gaped at was actually tipping the building with the water tanks. I mean, who actually thinks about tipping when they want win a game of pachinko?

I just couldn't help but laugh out loud at this scene; Kaiji is just too moe. He just beat the bog for over 700 million yen, yet he loses the little money he has left playing pachinko. Oh, the irony. I guess this really shows the underlying secret of the genius of Kaiji, and by proxy Fukumoto. The opponent has to be cheating, in one way or another, for Kaiji to form a legitimate counter-strategy to beat them. This results in an incredible battle of wits that's extremely entertaining to watch.

Overall, I had a lot of fun watching this season and I certainly do expect the same from any future seasons. Compared to season one, it was really the same style of storytelling, but with a greater emphasis on metaphors and stepped-up animation and music. I'll refrain from giving it any rating because you really can't compare Kaiji (or any other Fukumoto-esque works) with other anime; they're just plain different. Honorable mentions to Ohtsuki and Ichijou for being the "villains," and to Endou for pulling a fast one on Kaiji. If there is a third season, it should be interesting, because Kaiji is pretty much back at square one with no debt. I hope you enjoyed riding the ups and downs with Kaiji as much as I did.

-Bern