Episode 03

-The Demon King Goes on a Date With His Junior in Shinjuku-

Things are starting to heat up dramatically, and romantically in Hataraku; and I think I may actually welcome some action.

Last week left us with what could potentially be massive plot information, but you know for a fact we aren’t going to get to that straight away. This is a romcom, who cares about plot? Nobody, especially when the only love interest is 4’9” and clueless. Hear voices in your head? Go confide in your fellow uneducated co-worker! I’m sure he’ll know what it is. Well, in this case, and this case only, he does. You’ll have to excuse me for totally screwing over the people who haven’t actually watched the episode. They’re almost as clueless as brain in breast Chiho right now. Let’s start from the beginning, which actually is quite plot significant. It’s the aftermath of the shooting, and nothing exciting is really happening other than the odd joke here and there. Until; Emi gets a weird call while she’s at work, and it’s apparently from whoever it was that shot at her and Maou. Whoever this guy is, he or maybe she, is scary, and wants to wipe out both Maou & Emi. It’s voice kinda reminds me of L’s in Death Note during the TV.. thing.. why am I writing this. Anyway, you’d assume this person was from the other world, but if it wants to wipe out both Maou & Emi, then it’s.. hmm. I’m going to go ahead and say Traitor. I have a feeling it was the guy who “didn’t get in on time” when Emi rushed into the gateway to Tokyo.

Back to business, because you don’t watch a romcom for story, you watch it for comedy. Let’s face it, only a fool would go into a romcom expecting a decent romantic story these days. Sorry Sakurasou. Emi has to go down to the police station to vouch for Maou’s identity after he’s traced from his bike. Another scene that would make you think Emi was Maou’s dramatizing partner occurs, and it makes me wish shows like Toradora still aired. Even Ashiya gets bought into it, who seems to be playing to brother-in-law role. Apparently, a proper demon general has to keep his fridge stocked up with food at all times. What a burn. You know they’re getting too used to and familiar with life in Tokyo when Ashiya gets incredibly upset over an empty fridge. Someone needs to read a copy of Good Housekeeping.

So yeah the earthquake stuff. Chiho and Maou agreed to meet up, go on a date, or if Chiho was a feminist, Maou could come and kiss her feet with his wallet open. Equality, in dominance. No. Luckily, Chiho offers to pay because she’s such a sweety, but Maou is nice and says he should pay. Going to add that Chiho was actually pretty cute during the pre-events of the date, as well as the initial meeting. It’s rare that I find the typical big breasted 4’9” girl to be remotely decent in character. Maou, being the demon lord, obviously has great taste in date locations, picking out a beautiful restaurant in underground Tokyo. During this lovely sophisticated meal of upper class wear on one occasion clothing, Chiho confides her deepest secret with him. She can hear voices. Apparently, trying to contact her. The voices are in the demon language, which she’s never heard before; yet she can understand it. These voices were trying to warn her about a “big one”. Presumably, it was referring to an earthquake. Maou tells her not to worry, as he has a guess as to what it might be. He thinks it’s sonar waves causing the previous earthquakes, which are used to contact Maou, or Emi, from their world. That was a terrible explanation, sorry. Shame you’re not getting another one.

When suddenly oh my gosh we’re out of the drama and into the drama (the other drama), the romantic drama. Yeah we’re in it. Chiho is about to confess when a wild Emi appears out of nowhere, believe me you would think she was wild, and interrupts it with her opinionated views on the disgusting existence which is Maou. Chiho really needs to backhand this skank. Emi talks down to Maou and warns Chiho of him being evil, but Chiho isn’t having any of it. After all, Emi is just a jealous ex. Chiho stands up to Emi, God knows how with that one year supply of melon weighing her down. Before the fight initiates, the earthquake happens, and it’s definitely a big one. Emi and Chiho are trapped in the debris together, with no sign of Maou or Ashiya. Suddenly Emi is being nice, because well, she’s a hero. So I guess she has to be when someone is in danger. Anyway, she puts Chiho to sleep with magic and shouts to Maou. What a beast. He comes breaking through the rocks and is in his demon form. He actually looks pretty cool. Emi considers killing him with the last of her magic while he is distracted, but she’s stalled. Maou is trying to save both Emi & Chiho. Oh the bravery, the surreal moment of a demon lord trying to rescue people. Emi is totally going to fall in love with him.

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Episode 03

-My Friend Can’t Take Off Her Glasses-

I’m beginning to wonder if Oreimo is actually trying to make me dislike it.

This will be a short, quality lacking post as I’m pretty disappointed with the episode. I apologise.

You’re probably already thinking that I didn’t like this episode at all. That’s partially true, because it’s just like I said last episode; there’s no Oreimo charm. Whatever that is, I’m not sure how to describe it, but it’s definitely not there. Although the episode wasn’t terrible. As a stand alone back story, it was pretty decent. That’s the problem though. I watch Oreimo for what probably the majority of other people watch it for; Kirino, Kyousuke, and Kuroneko. Saori is one of the more important side characters, but seriously. A whole episode? I would have preferred half. Anyway, I don’t want this to be a complete rant of a post, so let’s get on with it.

The episode starts, and much to my joy, all 3 of my favourite Oreimo characters are standing together. They get a whole minute of screen time before um, who the hell is this? Even Kyosuke agrees with me. I, and him, have no idea who just walked onto screen. Well, it’s Saori. Without her glasses. She looks, so so different. It’s probably because she doesn’t have those ridiculous clothes on as well. And so the back story begins. Kaori, Saori’s older sister, takes her to a place called “Pretty Garden”. For some reason, she has an AK47. I.. okay. I thought she was planning on shooting up the apartment for a second and maybe, just maybe this episode was going to be very fun. Maybe that would be a tad too extreme for Oreimo, though.

Saori is pretty weird as a kid. Wanting to die because a guy saw your face is.. well, moving on. We meet Katana who introduced Kaori to otaku culture and all that crap. Saori seems to want to spend more time with her sister here, but all Kaori does is ignore her, so Katana becomes her sister, so to speak, and plays games with her. So then of course Kaori becomes jealous, and leaves to live with her man in a mansion. How lucky. This leads to the group disbanding, unfortunately, and Saori goes after Kaori, blaming her for it. She looks pretty smug about it too. It’s kinda harsh on her, and it’s never explained why she was like that. I guess she’s just mean.

Less than 10 seconds later, and Saori is suddenly a lot taller. She gets emotional, Katana cheers her up, she hands her the legendary glasses which only make you look like a fool. I am bored. I’m honestly bored. So this is basically the point from season one where Saori finds Kirino and Kuroneko, to try and set up her own circle. I’ve got to admit, now that I know what happened beforehand it does seem a lot more important. Back to the future we go, and Kirino plus the others are in Pretty Garden, admiring it. It’s also now where Saori lives. But oh noo.. Kaori turns up, and so do the others. Pretty weird for her to do that, especially on Saori’s birthday. Nothing special really happens, it’s all pretty lack luster and you won’t get anything out of it unless you treasure menial ideals. I think their reactions to Saori saying they were going to cosplay slightly made up for the rest of the episode, though.

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Planet of the Beginning

It looks like the plot seems to be shaping up a little bit.

First off, I just wanted to point out how gorgeous this series looks. The colours are incredibly varied right up to the red marks on the girls’ skin… Heh. I hope it can keep up this quality, because this series is simply beautiful to look at.

I’m guessing everyone won’t be happy-go-lucky, as Red killed dozens of people at the end with no hesitation. It really gives you an idea of how dangerous Chamber is and I can’t say I completely trust them yet to protect Gargantia. Maybe I’m thinking too much, but I believe crisis is about to hit the main cast.

Speaking of the main cast, we still don’t really know much about any of the characters. We know Amy has a sick brother who’s pretty smart, and the girl with the boobs is a girl with boobs. Red and Chamber are still keeping up an interesting dynamic.

My favourite part by far this episode was showing how Red uses Chamber to communicate. Instead of using a cop-out like most series(call this what you will – it is not a cop out), they decided to go with Chamber translating everything. Chamber himself is becoming a character in my opinion – a good one at that.

So now we’ve established our setting – turns out Earth was abandoned long ago due to it freezing over. After everything melted, it looks like small colonies of humans have survived. Like I said in last weeks post; I freaking love stories like this.

I’m only wondering what direction the series will take. I’m guessing the people high up in the alliance know about Earth’s existence, but maybe the writing won’t be so obvious. The plot is so interesting to me that I don’t think there will be enough episodes to tell this story.

Why do I feel like the moe girl with the pet squirrel thingamajig is sugar-coating a sad world where people die tragic deaths? Well, it’s hard to ignore that Gen Urobuchi is involved here. I’m expecting his signature dark twist to throw us in for a surprise any moment now…

Admittedly, I don’t feel as gung-ho as Justin, but I agree that this series is attractive for various reasons (light show battles, colorful characters, Red’s hotness…). The OST is also worth mentioning, as the classical insert tracks are good enough to listen to on a rainy day. This episode continues to build up the setting, such as introducing the ocean lightbugs that provide people with electricity. Now that’s pretty creative. The more different this Earth is from ours, the more interesting it will get.

My first impression of the characters is that they’re just okay. None of them truly stand out except for Red and his talking robo. But to the show’s credit, Red is more interesting than your typical mecha anime protagonist (an angsty teenage kid), because of his battle experience and wit. His mecha is also a character, which is refreshing (and I should start calling him Chamber). Plus, the moe girl is not as annoying as I thought she’d be. I just hope that the characters will continue to grow on me throughout its short span of thirteen episodes. Whether or not that will be enough time for the characters and story to develop well is too early to tell.

I’ve also had a chance to check out the other mecha anime airing this season. Majestic Prince is just goofy/nonsensical with Gundam Seed character designs, and Valvrave the Liberator is like the Gundam Seed formula all over again. Compared to them, Suisei no Gargantia feels the most unique and serious. Episode three is out now, so I’ll hop on that as soon as I can!

It feels good to be back… ^_^

Flightless Wings

Again, a lot to take in this episode, but as we meet more characters and learn a little more about Gareki’s home life and Karoku’s identity is finally revealed, I sense trouble’s about to go down any minute now.

Karneval has pleased me now, and I think things are about to get going again soon. After last week’s somewhat slow-paced episode (compared to what Karneval is usually like), I was not at all disappointed this week as drama begins to unfold. In fact I really enjoyed it, it’s like I’m beginning to understand a bit more and beginning to question the anime a lot more. Whilst there’s some understanding, there is still a bit of mystery, and that’s what I like about Karneval, and I get the feeling one day everything’s going to click and everything will link together all at once, and I am still desperately waiting for that moment.

Either way, Gareki is saved from the strange Varuga beast, they call it, by a beautiful, goddess-like woman throwing jewels and all sorts of gems at the beast. It seems kind of like a weird attack or whatever, but it seems this lady is from Circus also: Her name is Iva. Is she the lady we saw at the parade who spoke to Nai before he was dragged away by those mysterious men. Anyway, Gareki, Yogi and the newly-joined Iva reunite again with Akari-sensei and Nai. Nai seemed to be incredibly worried about Gareki, but was also more concerned about the small injured animal again, that look rather like a Niji… But… Wasn’t? Gah, I dunno. Either way, even though Gareki was almost swallowed up and KILLED by a Varuga only a few moments ago and was being carried around by Iva since he was injured, he suddenly struggles away and seems able to walk now as the group all proceed into some sort of cave. But…. Why? I don’t get it. Is Gareki secretly a pervert and pretended to be injured just so he could be carried around by the beautiful Iva? … Anyway, let’s not question it. The cave is actually a home to someone… Nai and Karoku. MAYBE NAI AND KARAOKU WERE LOVERS? Either way, the cave does seem like a strange place for a home, and it was all fully equipped with bed and trunks filled with possessions, but it seems Karoku has already taken his leave from the cave. I am a bit confused by this, since I don’t think it is physically possible to live in a cave but… Oh well. Nai seems to be having a flashback and we get our first glimpse of Karoku. He looks rather unlike Nai, with a gentle and pale face and light blue hair and eyes, with a sweet smile. He does look like a good fatherly figure for Nai, but what confuses me is that he lacks the red eyes and white hair Nai has. Surely if they live in the Niji forest he would have white hair and red eyes and be a Niji too? Either way, they find a small hole in the cave and find a strange book tucked away there. Could this be a clue towards Karoku and Nai’s real identities? But it surprises me how Nai is so vague and doesn’t even really remember much about his home nor can recognise this book but can lead the group around so easily. There is something suspicious about Nai, but I just don’t know what it is.

We also, during this scene, see Karoku laying on a bed. He appears to be in a mansion of some sort, and we see the young girl with the pink hair throwing a tantrum over Karoku in the garden to a butler maybe? It seems the young girl is a bit of a yandere for Karoku, but either way, it appears that Karoku too has moved on much like Nai has and maybe he’s joined part of another family, like Nai also has? Oh, who knows. By my thinking, I think that Karoku and Nai had to be evacuated from the Niji Forest a long time ago, due to a fire (which would explain the hidden and slightly burned book in the cave) and had to move in with new families on the other island, hence why the pair have split up. That’s just my prediction, but at the rate Karneval is going at, anything could happen.

The Circus group all meet back up on the beach for a typical obento picnic. Hirato calls Yogi and Yogi asks if they can take Gareki over back to his home island too,  after they trekked around the whole of the Niji Forest. I don’t particularly understand why they are going through with visiting both Nai and Gareki’s home lands, apart from their own sake, but what is it for their benefit? To maybe gain more information on the two? Nai just seems to be well, Nai, so it’s hard to really understand that boy, and Gareki is probably too mysterious and too stubborn to tell Circus more about him. Either way, Yogi takes off with Nai and Gareki back to where Gareki lives.

It literally is exactly how Gareki described it to Nai last episode, but I never thought we would actually see his hometown in the anime. Anyway, the village Gareki lives in appears to be very poor and dirty, so a little bit more realistic than the quirky home of Nai in the Niji Forest. We are greeted by Tsubame, who is apparently Gareki’s “sister”. After an incident happened a long time ago when there was a shipwreck on a boat Gareki was on after he was sold by his parents (probably so he could become a slave, so at this point I’m beginning to wonder what kind of time period or what kind of place Karneval is set in), and Gareki was taken in by a young lady named Tsubaki. However, it seems some sort of incident happened where Tsubaki was killed after abandoning a man who she loved, who was giving them strange pills and medicines to give the two children (Tsubame and Yotaka), for an experiment he was conducting. No one knows who Tsubaki was killed by, but it seems that these two children, even after they have grown up, are still acting weird, after Tsubame runs up to Gareki and says she killed a man in the street. At first, my thinking was that maybe it was Tsubame or Yotaka who killed Tsubaki. i mean, after they under the influence of these strange pills and medications, they space out and when they wake up, blood is everywhere, and it looks like they’ve killed someone. Whether they intentionally killed Tsubaki or not, it seems like it is something they cannot control, meaning it could have been Yotaka, the boy. Yotaka was mysterious, especially when we first encountered him and almost attacked Gareki, Nai and Yogi, and I have a feeling that this boy may have an evil side to him too.

Yogi, Gareki and Nai all head off to bed, but Yogi can’t sleep. He wakes up and sees Tsubame walking by the window. Something fishy is going on – is the girl spacing out again? Either way, Gareki and the gang all run off to see what’s going on, when they encounter a body on the floor, with strange scratch marks on their back: Identical to the one Gareki saw on Tsubaki. He turns around to see Yotaka standing there, blood on his hands, and yet again we’re left on a cliffhanger. Could it be that Yotaka actually was the one who killed Tsubaki, and why was it? Was it because of Gareki? And why, what are these drugs doing, why are they influencing these two children and why have they not worn off? It looks like a fight is about to go down, and maybe Gareki is going to be the one ending up with blood on his hands this time.

Episodes 7-16

Alright, so I’m back and covering this. Unfortunately the series has been dragging ass lately.

Look, I love Chihayafuru. I’m starting to really like karuta as well. I don’t know much about it, but I did see some videos. Holy shit, the speed class A goes as isn’t exaggerated at all. I felt like it wasn’t humanly possible to be that good at karuta – I was wrong.

However, with this season, it seems like they’re focusing too much on unimportant matches with useless side characters. The only one I could see us seeing again in the future is Megumu, but even so, there was a ridiculous amount of focus on her. Not to mention those cameramen, the geek squad and fake lǎowài. The matches in the first season seemed more important so far than what they’re showing here.

Not only that, but just now I’ve realized they’re using the same formula. OMG, they’re so fast! *YAWN*, please, I wanna see more varied matches. How can you possibly keep being surprised your opponents are fast? Not to mention the long shots of the shocked crowds with their jaws dropped and the copious amounts of crying afterward. It’s just getting old, Chihayafuru.

On the other hand, Arata and Chihaya have been in the same damn building the whole tournament and they still haven’t run into each other. It’s getting straight up frustrating to watch this weekly when they keep teasing us with what we want to see.

So in short, I’m still enjoying this, but a lot of the stuff that’s happening seems like filler. Hopefully we can get to see more matches we want to see rather than putting in useless side characters and spending too much time on them.

The worst part is, even though this has been dragging ass as of late, it’s dreadfully slow and they had a recap episode…. Oh brother.

Oh, and I think I’m the only one who likes the eyelash girl. Anyway, let’s get these episodes out of the way so I can go to watching it weekly.

Episode 04

-The Hero Feels the Warmth of the Heart-

I wish there was a replay button purely for Ashiya.

We start with the aftermath of last weeks earthquake. Emi desperately tries not to fall in love with Maou and Ashiya desperately tries to gain forgiveness from someone who really doesn’t care. He’s such a good housewife though. If I was attracted to men, I would date Ashiya. Only because he’s obedient of course. You know what I hate though? Back story. In case I wasn’t clear enough on the countless times I’ve complained about it. Sometimes it’s necessary, sometimes it’s pointless. Most of the time it’s beyond pointless. So pointless it makes me wonder if they’re only using it as a filler. In which case I’m disgusted. When it is necessary, though, I still refuse to let it take up half the episode. Why should it need that much time? It doesn’t, it’s filled with build up and even filler characters. Filler characters, build up, in a flashback. Why? Just get to the point, I mean, seriously. Rant over; Hataraku is pretty nice with it’s flashback. It’s all about Emi and how she used to live on a farm on Ente Isla. How sweet.

Her mother was an angel, her dad was a farmer, she’s the only “human” on Ente Isla who can defeat the dark lord, Maou. This is right before the dark lord invades Emi’s home land, and so she’s taken away for training while her dad is slaughtered by an army of demons. Farm life huh. Emi is now raging with fury and wants to kill Maou for slaughtering everyone (mainly her dad), and trains to the max. She fails, and almost everyone goes to Tokyo. Yes, almost everyone. Now we’re back to current time, and Maou is back in his human form. I don’t know if he could change off his own accord or not but, whatever. The biggest plot twist of the century occurs; Chiho’s dad is the chief inspector. If Maou ever was interested I think he should be quite turned off now. We also find out that the earthquake was an attack on Maou and Emi, since it hit directly where they both were. A small shout out to Ashiya, who is hilarious, and deserves his own show.

Chiho decides to prove she’s the most adorable thing in the world after seeing Emi and Maou together in his um.. apartment.. room, thing. I feel sorry for her since she’s clearly upset and totally in love oh my. But at the same time she doesn’t even listen to them saying it isn’t what she thinks, and runs off. It isn’t as if Emi being there meant anything. Oh well. Anyway, regardless of her overreacting, the way she does it is just pure cuteness. She’s still definitely one of the best of her character types I’ve seen. After she runs off, she’s replaced by a different girl. Or woman, rather. Miki T comes outta nowhere and scares the hell out of us. Especially Ashiya. His reaction is gold; I played it back so many times. Much to my surprise, Miki T (labelled as “the fat woman” in my notes), turns out to know about the earthquakes, and everything about Maou and Emi. I wonder who she really is. Just kidding; I don’t care. Maou and Emi didn’t seem to make much of a big deal out of it, so hell, why should I?

Another earthquake hits, and Maou goes chasing after Chiho who may be in danger. I think she may be fine though, since she’s run into some weird creepy guy with camp hair. Ahh. Turns out it’s Lucifer, the dark lords general. What the hell is he doing here? Did he not die? It’s pretty cool anyway, as long as he doesn’t cause too much trouble. Hopefully he’ll conform and join the others in part time jobs and general Tokyo life. Again, a brilliant episode of Maou-sama!. It’s really above my expectations right now, which is great.

Also, sorry for the lack of extra screenshots, been having some difficulties recently.

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Episode 04

Is this late? I don’t think so; it’s merely a fraction of your life out of place, and reasons for it’s upload tonight are nothing but fate. You were destined to read this tonight, like I was destined to write it.

-My Little Sister’s Rival Can’t Come to Japan!-

If you’ve been reading my Oreimo posts (in which case I apologise as they are terrible; only someone with extreme patience would sit through such garbage) then you’ll know I haven’t been too happy with this season. Constantly going on about how it’s lost it’s charm and back story getting in the way of everything. It did manage to improve some aspects this episode, thank God. I would have just given up had it not. Starting off we’re introduced to Ria, who was Kirino’s room mate back in America. She’s like 12 or something and runs way faster than Kirino. Although I think Kirino is only what, 14 or 15? What better way to start your typical rom com that has no rom in it, than an awkward naked scene between the innocent protagonist and the new character. Seriously though where the hell has the rom gone?

Thankfully, Ria loves Kyousuke. I mean she likes him. Wouldn’t want to confuse you with socially acceptable terms. It’s all pretty blatant filler and I’m unsure where Kuroneko got off to. Kyousuke’s Dad manages to make me laugh which is a start. Df;j h,. Sorry I was yawning. Kirino sure looks tall next to Ria..

AKIHABARA! As if we hadn’t already been here several times. The most positive thing I can say is that Ria is such a balance for Kirino and Kyousuke. She’s like the realistic one who actually sees and points out that Kyousuke and his sister are actually quite close. It’s always nice to see someone like this, only to have them be ignored because the siblings just can’t accept it. We all know they both want to though because they’re such cuties! I think. It’s all pretty bleak for Kyousuke from there on. Ria sneaking into eroge areas of the store by accident, Kyousuke being blamed like he is for everything that happens.

Then Oreimo saves itself and becomes the one thing I’ve been waiting for; itself. YES! That was incredibly deep and I may have shed a tear. How can you not at a time like this? In case you’d forgotten, Kirino beat Ria in a race the day before she came back to Japan. That was the day Kyousuke visited her. Ria acknowledges this, and knew straight away during her visit. It was Kyousuke. While Ria saying it made Kirino think she was talking about Akihabara, anime, all that stuff, you know it’s just Kyousuke. This is followed by the deepest foot race ever. Kirino is losing by a mile, when Kyousuke suddenly starts to cheer her on. It’s so beautiful. She’s catching up and there’s a photo finish (not literally), but Ria still won.

It’s a shame that Kirino still isn’t nice to him, but on the bright side, she asks him to be her boyfriend. Yeah I’m not even going to contemplate anything. She obviously wouldn’t ask her own brother out seriously; it’s going to be needed just to help her with something. Either to get a guy to back off, or for some sort of anime/eroge competition. Hopefully (I say this way too much) next episode will be even better.

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Episode 05

Oh my God I’d been waiting for this. Out of all the anime airing this season, none of it has been disappointing, but none of it has really stood out. Finally, Hataraku decides to take that next step and tries to be something nobody thought it would be.

-The Demon Lord and Hero Save Sasadzuka-

Yes, I was happy with this episode. No messing around, straight into where we were left off previously, Lucifer is somehow alive and in Tokyo even though Emi killed him back on Ente Isla. The reason being, Orba, some old priest guy who nobody particularly cares about (except maybe Emi who is in tears) saved him. The Orba guy is really weak anyway, even when he does use his magic, so if I was Emi.. I’d honestly be glad. Also, points for me for guessing the guy who “didn’t make it through the gate” would be involved in the attack on Maou and Emi. Turns out those laser shots were Lucifer using magic, although the earthquakes weren’t him.

Not forgetting this is a comedy, Ashiya and Maou just start having a domestic over Maou spending his pocket money on movies. It’s just brilliant. Oh and then Lucifer kills Ashiya. So yeah Emi and Maou start running for their lives and it’s all cray cray. Lucifer gets his magic from the despair and fear of the humans, and Maou also does, which is why he was able to turn into his original form during the earthquake. It’s great how Maou realised this and didn’t do anything about it. He’s fallen in love with Japan and wants to stay living there. I’m pretty happy about that. Obviously you can’t just run away from a demon; Maou gets injured and then Orba being the pussy ass bitch he is shoots him with an actual gun. What kind of person does that? Orba is officially the annoying one. I thought this anime wouldn’t have any but no, this old cretin comes along. Great.

Luckily, Maou has enough magic to teleport away before him and Emi are killed. Oh I completely forgot about Ashiya. He’s still with them, he’s just dead. Poor guy. Oh yeah, poor Chiho too. She’s being held captive by Lucifer so he can feed his magic off of her fear and stuff. I do like Ashiya more than Chiho though. If I had to marry one, I guess it’d-. Maou teleports them to a crowded area, using his amazing genius, he gets killed by Lucifer. THE END. Well, Lucifer drops Chiho, and Emi catches her all romantically. Totally shipping. Of course it’s inevitable that Emi will die now. But suddenly Maou comes out of nowhere looking as if he’d just gone through six years of puberty in the past minute, and saves both Emi & Chiho. How?! Oh yeah, he managed to return to his original form and heal himself using the magic he got from all the crowds of people who were scared. Nice plan.

Of course, he heals Ashiya as well. Yay! A Hataraku without Ashiya would be, like.. Hataraku but.. never mind. Emi and Lucifer start fighting, Ashiya joins in, Orba tries to but gets knocked out because he’s a daft old turd. I really like how they handled this. It’s so much better than your usual battle anime. Not pointing any fingers at C3 or anything. After Maou gently lets down the bridge and Chiho is safe, he goes after Lucifer, who is absolutely bricking it. I guess he’s only so cocky while Maou is in petty human form. Maou deals some furious damage to Lucifer but doesn’t kill him unfortunately. Two of Emi’s followers show up for a bit, pointlessly. They explain stuff to Chiho, she’s fine with it weirdly enough. It all ends good with some part time work. Next episode we’ll see Lucifer join them in daily life and it’ll probably be a carefree episode of greatness. And please, make sure Emi continues to make weird faces.

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The Villainous Empress

The Flute of Recollection

For once, I wish that the characters would shut up so that I can listen to the music. It’s just that good…

So Ledo annihilates all of the pirates with ease. He thought for sure that people would trust him after that, but he ends up putting them in deeper trouble, for more pirates come back looking for revenge. To prove himself to his new friends, Ledo has to disarm the oncoming pirate ships without killing anyone. Not even the wicked pirate empress in her fancy lobster mecha is a match for him! So far, Ledo appears to be invincible in battle, but when it comes to interacting with people, he has a lot to learn…

He finally learns a bit of Japanese and mingles with the people in town, where their cultural differences become all the more stark. Back in space, children go through strict training, sick and useless people are dumped, families are not needed, and all enemies must die. But here, kids run around aimlessly, sick people are kept alive, and enemy lives are spared, much to his surprise. He doesn’t really get it until he meets Amy’s brother, or rather, he’s told that humans simply need each other for love and support. When Bevel plays his instrument, it suddenly triggers a flashback of….well, not sure, but I guess Ledo had a brother who made him a flute before getting brainwashed and losing all of his happy childhood memories. There’s a soft side in him somewhere…

It’ll be interesting to see how this world (which oddly reminds me of Mario Sunshine) will change Ledo from a strict military soldier to a more flexible guy who can have fun. Even more interesting would be to see him return to space with his new way of thinking. I think he’ll have to get back somehow or perhaps the aliens will find him first. It can’t be Chamber vs. Pirates the whole time, right? That would just be too easy.

Clown’s Prescription

Everything seems to be fitting into place, bit by bit like a puzzle piece… And actually, I think Karneval is turning out to be quite different than I imagined it to be. With Varuga found in Gareki’s home village, yet even more blood and tears are shed…

What can I say? My predictions were correct. As I sat and watched this episode, I actually began to think maybe the drugs that the doctor was giving Yotaka and Tsubame were actually tests to try and turn Varuga into humans. … And indeed, I was actually correct. And once I realised this, things seem to be fitting into place. The Varuga are a much larger problem than we even expected. What are they, where do they come from and what is their mission? For world domination? To overtake the human race?

Episode 5 of Karneval was a quick-paced episode and I couldn’t stop watching. Throughout the beginning I found myself leaning more and more off the egde of my seat in suspsense. I also think Karneval has got a much darker feel or emotion to it than I actually first expected, in a way, but either way, I’m still enjoying it lots. The main question is, is what’s going to happen now, in episode 6? Karneval is always opening up new possibilites, so you can always expect the unexpected with this anime, which is what I like.

Anyway. At the beginning of the episode, we see Yotaka fazed, after he seems to have murdered yet another man after he was under the influence of the strange drugs he was fed by Tsubaki’s boyfriend, the odd doctor. Because the family are so poor, they had to accept the drug trials as they would get money for it, however, these drugs had left a much worse impact on the twins than they had actually expected. Yogi dashes off to go after Yotaka and get the boy, and try and convince him not to fight, with Gareki also following Yogi.

What I love is that we can see a very small friendship blooming between Gareki and Nai too. Even though they are like polar opposites, they do share some similarities and ways they can relate to each other. Gareki has people who mean a lot to him, and he wants to save them and let them live happy lives. He wants to see Tsubame and Yotaka, much like Nai wants to see Karoku (who is still much of a mystery to us). Gareki urges Nai to go off and find Karoku, however, stubborn Nai decides he doesn’t want this. Nai is very clingy to Gareki but… We soon realise that as Nai spends more time with Gareki, Gareki begins to care more and more about Nai. Either way, Gareki runs off and Nai is left confused and upset by Gareki’s harsh words. I suppose maybe Nai cannot understand that whilst Gareki may have seemed harsh, he was only saying that to be nice. And I do feel a little sorry for Nai because, well, what with him being a Niji, it seems he can’t understand everything very well, yet always has rays of optimism beaming out of him all the time.

Anyway, so Yogi begins to fight Yotaka in the air using “special Circus-like powers” (I really do wonder how they manage to get these powers… How do you even get recruited into the Circus in the first place?), and Yotaka begins to transform and grow even stronger. He ends up injuring and wounding Yogi, knocking him unconscious to the ground. Oblivious to it all, Nai strolls the empty village roads and finds Tsubame sitting by a building with blood also on her hands. It seems maybe the drug’s effects are a lot weaker on her. I never understood why, although all I just presumed was because maybe they have less of an effect on a girl… Oh, who knows? I just find it strange how Yotaka and Tsubame are even twins… They’re completely different to one and other in so many ways. Anyway, a strange man stands by Tsubame. At FIRST, I thought it was Akari-sensei, however, I soon twigged that it was actually the man who was running the drug tests on the twins, and also… Tsubaki’s ex-boyfriend. Nai quickly grabs Tsubame by her bloody hand and runs for it. Despite Tsubame being a murderer, Nai can understand that Tsubame is really a good person. Which was quite sweet, actually. Nai may be a little naive, yet he can be a very… Open person, I suppose.

Back to the battle with Yogi and Yotaka, and Yogi goes to inspect Yotaka. It seems Yogi had no intention of killing Yotaka (which is, well, very typical of the lazy Yogi), but as he looks up, we notice the strange doctor holding both Tsubame and Nai. As Tsubame tries to struggle away, we all seem to have forgotten about Gareki. Yet, our mysterious bishie appears to save the day, whacking the doctor right from behind with one of the strange metal beams he found.

It is at this point we discover that the doctor was running the drug tests on numerous other children… In which the drugs turn them into Varuga. It all seemed too much to take in at once, and the fact that technically Yotaka had killed Tsubaki once he began to resonate and turn into Varuga for the first time. However, Gareki can’t accept this. Yotaka would not have wanted to kill Tsubaki, and I’m sure even Nai could understand this. It was the doctor’s fault. He could not have cared for Tsubaki as much as he said he did. He was using her, and using her children for his cruel experiments. But, why was Yotaka the only one able to turn into the Varuga? Well, it seemed that Yotaka was much like Gareki too. He may seem harsh with his words, but he does care about his twin sister. He began to take Tsubame’s portion of the drugs, and also began to take more and more just for the money he would be given, because his family was so poor.

Tears begin to shed. But what tops it all off… Is the doctor is also a Varuga. Gareki runs and tries to attack the man, but the doctor resists. He begins to beam a strange sort of ray at Yotaka. Whilst Yotaka tries to resist after hearing Tsubame’s kind words, he cannot help it any longer, as he turns more and more into a monster. Yotaka screams for help, and begs for Gareki to kill him. At this point I am sure many people are also shedding tears with Yotaka… So just as Gareki turns to kill his best friend (which, even poor Gareki, as tough as he may try and seem struggles to do), when all of a sudden, a spear from out of the sky impales Yotaka right through the chest. As Yotaka says his last good byes, he rises back into the sky, telling his sister Tsubame “Fly somewhere far away.”

But who was the one who impaled Yotaka through the chest? … Hirato.

Life Interrupt (Critical)
&
Railgun Mass-Production Plan (Radio Noise Project)

The puzzle pieces all come into place in these two episodes, and man…do they fall into place. Cash cards, DNA maps and reverse pedobears are all part of these past two weeks Biribiri installments.

To be quite honest, these are by the book Railgun episodes. They were delivered really well, and they were entertaining, amusing and pretty interesting. There…honestly isn’t much for me to say about these two, as the big points to the arc are coming up in the next few episodes.

With that said, solid show gave another solid two episodes and managed to keep the status quo…nothing else to say here. In the future, i’ll try to say more…leaving this a week and a bit since watching the episodes was my bad.

Sisters (Sisters)

Episode 4 is a relatively different experience to the build up of recent episodes, where we take some time to stop and watch the girls enjoying their summer, with Misaka enjoying it a little “too” much.

It may sound boring, but that’s pretty much all that happens. Railgun’s always delivered wonderful filler episodes to help flesh out and give the characters a little bit more development, but after the kinda sorta climax from last week, this feels a little bit off.

Well, I say that, but we get a little more of the clones in the background. We watch 9982 being born and created for a mysterious purpose.

Well, that is until the kids ditch her, and an electro signal calls Misaka to one of her clones. Now that’s a different ending to a not-so-different episode. Not to begin to talk about cleaning up at the very end there…

Sunshine Wings

How they could even call this episode sunshine wings, I have no clue. It was rather, quite the opposite of a ray of sunshine. The whole episode was completely dark and dragged out again. It certainly does have that Karneval feeling to it, but I’m still not so sure that it’s turning out how I first expected it would. They’re really dragging out this whole subplot with Tsubame and Yotaka now and… Meh, well, it’s actually turned out to be a little boring in places.

Here’s the pattern of every single Karneval episode ever: Action, action, break, action, break, action, break… Yeah, it’s turning out to be like that. IT’S LIKE, there’s all so much action all in one episode and it answers MOST of your questions, but because it’s such an action-packed anime, it still has to drag out the same plot into another episode and feels like it has to explain the plot again. The episodes really don’t flow well, and I feel like it’s got a very stop-starty pace, which is what I dislike. I feel a little disappointed, especially after all the drama in last week, but oh well. It’s nearly half way through the anime so I do hope that they decide to get a move on soon.

Anyway, here’s what happened in this week’s episode, all summed up because I literally have nothing else to say other than COMPLAIN. Okay, sure, I like Tsubame. She’s a real sweet character and all, but I really don’t get why she’s decided to join Circus?! Like! IF I WERE HER AND SUDDENLY THESE STRANGE PEOPLE APPROACHED ME THEN… I’d of course be very suspicious. Whilst she may not have anyone left in her life now that Yotaka has gone, well, she has no choice. But either way, Circus are very suspicious sounding, and I’m willing to bet that there’s something going on behind the scenes too, especially with the main bishie himself Hirato. Anyway… You get the idea of all the chaos that’s going on at the moment if you haven’t been watching the anime. Which is… Good, because I don’t think many people watching Karneval even understand what’s going on too… We still have many unanswered questions.

After the capture of the strange Varuga monster who gave the drugs to Yotaka, Hirato finally kills him… Good riddance. Two other Circus members try to find evidence and tracing of how this affects human beings and etc… Yeah, some basic detective work. I’m kinda GLAD we’re getting to see more Circus members. I mean we haven’t seen many, which is a shame but… Even some minor characters would be quite nice I guess. It feels that Circus is just a wacky group of vigilante outcasts with eccentric superpowers that save the day. Hurray. No signs of anything, but it’s believed that Varuga are strange creatures created by an elitist group called the Kafka. Again… What is their motive for doing such a thing? Why do they want to create Varuga? SO VARUGA CAN TAKE OVER THE HUMAN RACE? So… So what? So they can claim world domination? Sighs.

Anyway, after that Tsubame is invited by Circus to join them, so she accepts the invitation, goes to say good bye to her grandfather, finds out Gareki has been paying Tsubame’s grandfather’s hospital fees and blah blah, yeah… Tsubame decides she wants to use her body so Circus can run tests on it to stop the Varuga. Awww… Well, I really admire her bravery and courage. I give her that.

BUT THAT WAS KARNEVAL EPISODE 6 FOLKS. let’s hope things get rolling again next week…

Definite Power Advancement Project (Level 6 Shift Project)

What would you do if you met yourself…and then found out that “you” were fated to die for some experiment?

Anyone who’s taken the chance to read this blog in past installments knows that I hate the Index series with a passion, not for the theme or the set-up, but for the terrible main character and how he makes everything so ridiculously boring. As such, I was always slightly worried about this arc, considering that said main character goes as far as to feature in the OP of Railgun. This episode marked the first part of the crossover, and I must admit that it was brilliantly done.

See, Railgun was always the better character, and this time around, she finally ran into one of the clones which aren’t meant to exist. Her confusion of the entire surreal situation was pretty founded, as they helped a cat, ate ice cream and bickered over a frog badge together, before her clone walked off to do what it called “the experiment”.  The fun and light hearted humour is there to make the hard-hitting scenes at the end hit even harder, and it really really works.

Then, y’know, this brings us to the experiment in question. The process of killing Railgun over and over and over again and again in order to push a fellow Level 5 up to the fabled Level 6. Fans of Index already know all about this, but the delivery of the big “punch-line” was at it’s best here, and it’s quite clear that we aren’t going to hide any of the unethical brutality this time around. As the darkest episode of Railgun moves into the past, this season should be pretty epic.

N’s Secret…Beyond the Fog!

It was a while ago, but at the end of the last episode, N got pretty seriously beaten around by the Plasma Gang, leading to the mysterious pair of woman to appear out of the fog.

The spring which he was placed in by the woman, named Helena and Verbera, has a healing effect which relives all of N’s injuries, and as the woman reveal that they can also hear the voice of Pokemon, they get introduced to N’s hideaway where he spends his free time. From here, all the Pokemon bear terrible injuries and memories from humanity, and although their bodies may recover, their hearts never will.

By this point, Satoshi and the group are so deeply involved with N that his reasons and his motives behind the journey should come to light, and lo and behold, it’s backstory time. A lot of this comes from the game, where N is never allowed to leave the mansion that he was raised in by Ghetsis to become his pawn of the Plasma Gang. We advance to two years in the past, where Ghetsis summons none over than Reshiram, whom rampaged and destroyed the mansion. Helena and Verbera took N with them, and they made an escape from the Plasma Gang to right their wrongs.

The only thing that’s missing by this point is what Ghetsis wanted to summon Reshiram for, and in exploring this motive, he discovered more and more of the wrongs of the Plasma Gang…or namely, humanity. Helena and Verbera advocate N’s ideals from the first game, where humans and Pokemon should live seperately, and they show no compassion nor remorse to Satoshi, Zekrom’s hero. With the trio of heroes ordered to leave by tomorrow morning, Satoshi has a pretty hefty burden on his heart. Mutal understanding, or free lives apart from each other. As they agree to talk to Helena and Verbera once more, their Pokemon attempt to befriend the shy natives of this reclusive hideaway.

Thanks to their Pokemon, they seem to have achieved the spying Helena and Verbera’s trust, as the scared ones slowly befriend them. However, Team Plasma is moving on the hidden hideout, and Helena and Verbera are giving our heroes even more faith and confidence as they get accused of leading Team Plasma to the hideout. With an actual evil in place, the battles against Team Plasma actually feel relatively tense and dangerous, compared to the ridiculous nature of most battles being for fun or sport. With Helena and Verbera going to the length where they go back for Satoshi and the group, it appears that we’ve said goodbye to N as the heroes are expelled from their hiding place. After what was actually a serious episode which worked incredibly well, we’re coming up to the climax of this series.

Team Rocket VS Team Plasma! Meowth and Colress!!

As N’s departure and the heavy words of Helena and Verbera weigh upon our heroes, they can spot Dragonspiral Tower in the distance, and the White Ruins are getting closer and closer. However, just WHAT are Team Rocket playing at in the background?

Team Plasma delivers their report to Colress and the seniors about how N got away, but Team Rocket had tailed them all the way back to their secret base, and displaying talents worthy of a true ninja, they manage to lure away all of Team Plasma, leaving Meowth to negotiate with Colress.

Colress may be interested in what Meowth has to say, but he’s much more interested in Meowth himself, namely because a talking Meowth is far from common. With the two working together. However, Meowth appears to has underestimated Colress.

Elsewhere, N’s investigations reveal a bunch of Genesect running rampage, and the red one that’s featured in the upcoming movie. Elsewhere, Team Rocket escape with Meowth. With Ghetsis ordering the Plasma Gang to the White Ruins to use the machine on Reshiram and the little side-story about Satoshi and his Pignite over, we’re moving to the main stage.

The White Ruins! Satoshi VS N!!

With the professor discovering the Light Stone, things are about to get pretty interesting, as the bearer of that stone can revive Reshiram…

Upon arriving at the White Ruins, all the teams are in place, with N being the odd one out right now, being the fourth party who’s yet to make a move. The trio meets up with the Professor once more, and they arrive just as the seal is ready to be broken. As the White Stone is removed and it sends the signal of discovery, even N begins to converge on the White Ruins. However, N is far from happy to see the White Stone.

Infact, N goes as far as to dash in and steal it, claiming that he cannot hand it over to anyone. He has his own questions for Reshiram, who is equal to a god. He wants to become the Hero of Truths, and free the Pokemon if that it Reshiram’s just truth. However, as the White Ruins collapse underneath Satoshi and N, the two of them plummet to the bottom of the ruins along with the White Stone. However, unaware that the light Stone has vanished into the depths, the Plasma Gang makes their move to take over the White Ruins.

With N and Satoshi trapped, it becomes clear that Verbera and Helena banishing Satoshi and company was also a heavy weight on N’s mind, and the two have a chance to sit down with each other and talk about everything. What Pokemon are, what they represent and what they mean to not only Satoshi, but everyone.

Back on the surface, Looker makes an appearance at the White Ruins, threatening the entirity of Team Plasma and placing them under arrest, taking Angie captive. However, Colress doesn’t want to be arrested, and sets the Pokemon excavating the ruin on a wild rampage. With the Plasma Gang’s assault in full swing, things are certaintly getting interesting. With Satoshi and company taking Looker into their party to research the stone, N wanting to revive Reshiram to become it’s hero, Team Plasma wanting to control Reshiram and Team Rocket planning to take it to Kanto to study, the climax heats up.

Team Plasma Strikes! The Resurrection Ritual!!

Things don’t exactly look good for our heroes right now, as with Satoshi and N out the picture and Team Plasma using the rampaging Pokemon to attack.

With the heroes captured and the screaming voices silenced, N’s obviously scared. However, after watching all of Satoshi’s Pokemon do everything they can to help them get free, N lends a hand, and before they know it the duo is freed, and staring down the Plasma Gang.

However, the rampaging Pokemon can’t handle the bonds of friendship between all of Satoshi’s Pokemon,however…since Pikachu won’t get in a Poke Ball, it becomes Colress’s target. As nothing will get through to Pikachu, N makes the choice to surrender the Light Stone.

Throwing everything that they fought for away and admitting that the Plasma Gang has won, N’s surrender marks the arrival of Ghetsis. As the ritual to revive Reshiram commences, the final to this entire arc depends on what happens next week. Reshiram is ready to be summoned, and the only party in any position to fight are Satoshi and his weakened Pikachu and Team Rocket.

Day of Calm

Amongst the day to day life of hard working Ledo and his Yunboro Chamber on the fleet Gargantia, it seems that it’s now rare to have a day off for rest. Yet, even now, work and jobs have to be done, as Ledo soon finds out and learns a little more about life and the people on the Gargantia.

Okay so… Some of you may be wondering “why on earth are you now suddenly writing for Suisei no Gargantia, Lucy?” It was decided after some rearranging that I would take over Suisei no Gargantia for the time being, what with Mimi being busy and all. So now I’m writing for both Karneval and Suisei no Gargantia, and I can easily say I am enjoying Suisei way more than Karneval.

I think that this episode was quite a nice break from the daily life on the Gargantia, and we finally got to see the more human-like side of Ledo. We’ve seen him act so awkwardly and unnaturally, and after we saw him thrown into an environment completely unlike his homeland in space, it was quite nice to see him settle and to begin to get used to the life on the fleet. The break was a nice little filler episode, and I really quite enjoyed it.

We firstly notice that Ledo has become… Bored recently whilst on the Gargantia. And heck, I can empathize: I suppose when you’re a foreigner from outer-space with no prior knowledge of earth beforehand nor unable to speak the language and are pretty much shut away from the society, completely helpless, I think you’d grow a little bit bored, it’s only natural. So we notice Ledo with the flute again, all that it reminds me more of an ocarina, and at this point I’m beginning to think that in episode 4 when Bebel was talking to Ledo about living for something or someone, that the flute he had which was identical to the other boy in his flashback was actually his brother… I mean, they do look quite similar and it would make sense, what with all the talk of family earlier on in the episode, which kind of seems to be foreshadowing it.

Anyway… Amy talks to Ledo and it seems Ledo wants to find jobs to do, of which he has to be insanely bored to want to do extra work, but what with Chamber doing all the work for him, I guess he feels like he has to contribute in one way or another to the fleet to thank them for their hospitality. I mean, I feel like that we, the audience are supposed to be like watching this anime from Ledo’s viewpoint. Sure, we do know much about earth since this is the planet we live on and all, but this is in the future and watching this all and learning it all is much like us learning more about a completely new planet. It’s quite nice, since we can understand some bits of it, and it’s nice to feel like we’re kind of joining in with the show… Or maybe I’m the only one who thinks that, but anyway.

Ledo looks around for jobs but with no luck. I suppose when you’re a strange man from outer-space not many people would be too keen on hiring you for odd jobs anyway. Anyway, Pinion seems to require Ledo for something, and they all decide to have a barbecue, what the sea being calm meaning they can run repairs on the fleet and also relax (hence the episode name “Day of Calm”). Just Pinion, Bebel, Amy, Ledo and also Amy’s friends Melty and Saya join in too, of which Melty seems to have quite a big crush on the mysterious man. I am also quite curious to know more about Ledo too, and more about his home in outer-space, since the majority of the anime is set on the Gargantia, which makes sense.

As Ledo and friends all head off swimming, we can see Ledo struggling a little to get used to the new skill. In fact, Ledo seems almost helpless at everything he does in his new life on earth, but I guess it is quite adorable to watch. As they try to get started on the barbecue, they notice the power is out, which seems pretty pointless since if it’s supposed to be a day of repairs then surely having the power on would also help any repairs they would need to run AND to well… Maybe relax too? I dunno. Either way, the barbecue won’t work, so naturally they feel that Chamber will be of some use again to cook the meat. But… It seems that this kind of command isn’t stored in Chamber’s database, so he ends up completely burning up the meat. See, even though the Yunboro may be a very helpful tool, it can’t even do one basic command, and as more people join in the barbecue, it seems Pinion has no choice but to send Ledo off for a job. A job specifically for Ledo too! I suppose actually working for once may be quite nice. It’s at this point I feel like the atmosphere on the Gargantia is quite happy and nice and peaceful, and I mean who can deny the art is amazing too (never mind the fanservice…), so I enjoyed seeing Ledo off and out for his errands, although after running into some… strange… “women”, I completely forgot about that and was sent into fits of laughter. But after finally being rescued by Amy, I soon began to learn that whilst Ledo may not have much of an understanding of human life on earth, he still has pretty humane reactions to things… I guess it would just be human nature if you ran into a group of people like that and began madly chasing after you, claiming you have such “a nice butt”.

But then I remembered how beautiful the art really was when they sent all the water out from the rooftops and watched and saw how amazing the scenery was. Ah. I would quite like to maybe just spend a day or two on the Gargantia, just to see what life was like. If only it were real…

Either way, finally Ledo gets the job done, after what should have seemed like a seemingly important task that only the professional Ledo could carry out, the small chest held a bottle of some sauce that tasted great on the meat. They also ended up grilling the meat on the overheated Chamber, laying on the floor. Oh well… It seems like Ledo had finally began to experience life on the Gargantia, and at this time I think we also learned a lot more too, after following Ledo’s funny adventures and mishaps on the fleet today, and that maybe, just maybe, the boy had finally made friends, as it turned out that Pinion had actually thrown the barbecue party for Ledo to help him relax and find something to do, since he had no work to do. Which was quite sweet, actually, as it shows that life may not always be work work work for the people on the fleet.

But it feels like trouble is on the way in episode 6, of which I shall be writing very soon! So stay tuned. :3

Carnival

You know, I’m not surprised by the fact that the Hideauze also happens to look much like any kind of sea creature with tentacles after this  episode, and it honestly would not surprise me if in fact in episode 7 the Gargantia was attacked by a giant tentacle monster.

WHAT HAPPENED SUISEI?!

okay. okay. I promise. I will try and make this post about the whole episode and not my rant about how creepy as heck that fanservice was in this episode. I’m sure probably some of you perverts will read this and tell me how it was completely fine! But I promise, I promise, I’ll justify my reason.

Nonetheless, if we exclude that, this episode was decent. In a way it’s nice to see Ledo adjusting to life on earth a little more though, and seeing him get used to the basic mechanics of life, like using money and as Amy said, being able to express his emotions a little more (and the whole practicing thing too I suppose). From this I can gather life in Ledo’s homeland must be pretty dull, and that they are only used as mere tools just to fulfill their purpose in life and to die. Whereas, here on earth, most argue that our purpose in life is to reproduce and to keep this earth spinning, but heck, I won’t get into too much of a debate here, but that’s what I’m just going with for now. I also like the fact that when Ledo was talking to Bebel about the salvaging, and Bebel says how “you can see things from the earth in ancient times”, which I gotta say is pretty neat, since they obviously must be referring to our present day. Hm. So maybe this is what is going to happen to this earth… We’ll all live on fleets in the near future. Well, it certainly sounds like an interesting idea anyway.

Yet there’s one thing Ledo cannot get to grips with… Getting a job and being able to swim. And it does not help even more when you’re stuck in a giant Yunboro and you cannot swim and have no experience of catching fish. Oh well, at least Ledo tried. It’s kinda sad how Ledo feels so alone and hopeless because he’s… So different to everyone else, heck, even Chamber can be of some use, and Ledo can’t seem to do anything at all. He managed to earn some money sure, but I guess it wasn’t much of a big job. Either way, I was really rooting for Ledo and hoping he’d be able to do a good job, but sadly no luck. Ledo runs into Amy and decides to invite Ledo to the carnival later. Yeah it was… Sure some great carnival, and if by that you mean three teenage girls dancing on stage for old men in skimpy clothing, then sure, that’s a carnival alright! Because that’s literally what it was.

I can’t really understand it. It was… Weird. Sure, it was for fanservice and hey, I’m not saying there is anything wrong with fanservice at all. Heck, it’s evident and found in pretty much every anime nowadays and that’s just how it goes. I mean, even in episode 5 there was too, except… Episode 6, it was just a bit too weird and creepy. Sure, it is what it is but I just… I dunno. Those girls are 15 years old, the same age as me, and they were dancing kinda… well, nearly naked in front of grown men and… it’s not like it was even dancing like ballet or tap dancing or anything like that. Heck, it wouldn’t have been so bad if it was grown women instead but… I dunno, it was just way too weird and creepy for me, the whole atmosphere, set-up, just everything that happened, and there was too much going on at once. There was that and the bickering between Pinion and Bellows on what they could do with poor Ledo and then finally, when they bring out the dinner, it’s… Octopus. Just… just trust there to be tentacles. Of course Ledo almost tries to attack the damn thing, claiming it’s Hideauze. Man. That was way too much all at once. But then again, if all that was going on at once, I think I would probably react just like Ledo did too.

And then Ledo and Amy spend more time together and Ledo asks Amy to dance for him and blah, maybe Ledo was just trying to show his more… Human side then, since it was just… Human nature. Yeah. I’ll just leave it at that.

Anyway, Ledo finally decides to do the wise thing and join up with Bellows, which seems a lot better than going off with perverted Pinion. Eventually, Ledo gets into Chamber and then he and Bellows begin to salvage underneath the sea with fish. I kinda like the whole teamwork thing going on with Ledo and Chamber too. It’s like, even though Chamber seems to be of more use than Ledo, he often ends up destroying things (like the fish in this episode too), and the same goes to Ledo, so it’s a real sweet… Companionship they have going on. Anyway, as they go further under the sea, they discover a sunken ship, and it seems inside it another tentacle-y creature inhabits it… And what’s going on? Is it the Hideauze again? Yep… Ah, I dunno. Maybe Ledo will finally get used to life on earth.

Either way, I dunno, this episode was okay I suppose. Everything seems a bit slow-paced at the moment, and I would honestly to see a bit more action like when Ledo attacked the pirates and… Things like that. It’s nice to have a filler episode or two, because it takes a nice break and you can meet a new subplot, but I feel like we need a new action-packed episode to keep the story flowing.