Who Wins is King

All of the episode is brought for most of the match at hand. It was a bit slower than usual, since the SC changed their tune a bit later, or is this match seems a bit longer than I think it is. But unlike the manga, which I had read beforehand. What the adaptation lacked was the flare of why the King is regarded as such. In the manga, he is known in developing schemes to make illusions of assumptions that fools the opponent. Here, we just an extremely good football player that knows his craft well. It’s like they took a chunk of the manga, break it, and piece together the good parts along the ones they created. The outcome was ok. But I can’t say for the people who look forward to the Anime adaptation being loyal to the source material. I’m not against changing how things runs, as long as you can make something better from it. This one is a mixed bag. But in the pit of this series of Drama, sports and a bit of comedy in between. Sports seems to be the strong point here. Not well budgeted, but entertaining enough to hold my attention.

Miracle Drug or Diet

What ever extremes the King had to kill of his weight in 10 DAYS!!! either physics is a lie here or he would had destroyed himself in the process. I want it.

Episode Rating:3/5

Mind Control Ready

The heart of this episode, is of course, Killua’s sudden change of attitude. His cocky (hehe) nature landed him somewhere costing his license. But who would had thought that his brother was there (which took me years to figure out if it was his brother), and show us how to actually deal with torturing somebody and it all takes just a few conversation to boot..

Although Illumi’s power is still a regarded secret in this point in the Anime. It is debatable if he can actually do mind control to his targets. It’s obvious when he attacked one of the facilitators asking where Gon is; which gives it away for being cooperative to Illumi by telling him without any restraints. I don’t think they will commit easily to such a simple attack. Remember: these are the guys that followed the applicants through out the exam. If most of the applicants didn’t notice them, they would had been Hunters which at least have some form of skill to do this job. Not as powerful as the examiners themselves, but above average to your typical examinees.

The biggest question in this episode, is if Killua was subjected to mind-control of sorts. He wasn’t attacked, so there would not had been any opportunity to land him something to take control of (or we didn’t see it). Or we can deduce that Killua is just scared of his brother. Cocky as he is. I think this is the point where fear sets in him. Being powerful among the applicants minus Hisoka and Illumi of course. He is in that nature to back-away when winning is no option. Or faced in the middle of conflict of no return. He knew he can’t fight his brother head-on and certainly he would be destroyed if he does. If it were Gon, he would charge regardless.

For now, let’s enjoy the 20 episodes that was aired. Let’s just hope that there will be no recap episodes. It’s getting trendy these days.

Episode Rating: 4/5

Yuri pairing confirmed? Maybe but this is just demonstration on how the art can make things look awkwardly wrong

Sorry for the delay people! I had a stiff week last week, including one tough-arse examinations. Much, much worse was the delay in the release of the sixth episode by my favoured translation groups, however they were able to release it a couple of days later. Sixth and seventh episodes still delivers the same space opera goodness but it opens more depth and speculation about the settings and the universe. Also, unexpectedly, friendship between Marika, Mami, and Chiaki slowly gets developed! Ending credits sequence really give clues on some aspects, after all. If the story telling, plot, and audio presentation gets better and better on each episode, I can’t say the same with the visual presentation. It’s still this series’ Achilles’ heel, it seems, or I’m just too spoilt by visually-impressive anime from the past few years… Sigh…

The sixth episode tackled the processes of renewing the letter of marque and the process of training and becoming the captain of the Bentenmaru. The first few training processes had been a little tough on Marika until they called on to their “propellant.” Zero points on what the “propellant” is. Chiaki had been invited to be a partner for Marika’s special training. In a brief lecture by Misa on the history, it had been explained that the end of the War for Independence was caused by the Colonial Federation being absorbed by the Galactic Empire. It actually sounds like Star Wars but note that the Galactic Empire here in Mouretsu Pirates respect each government’s sovereignty. Pirates hired by the Sea of the Morningstar continued their acts, even if ships issued with a Letter of Marque aren’t pirates by definition.

During the final phase of their joint training, Marika and Chiaki had a little chat. Chiaki told Marika that the former thought of the latter as a “soft little princess” and the latter’s pretending to be a ditz creates problems for those around her. Oh dear, Chiaki you’re really a big tsundere bordering on the kuudere side after telling Marika that she can make you feel angry, eh? After the brief training, Misa told Marika that the Bentenmaru would attack a luxury cruise ship. Oh dear. Marika had some blunders in the first part of her “speech” in announcing the attack on Princess Apricot. Inside the cruise ship, Kane laughs while he’s infiltrating the ship.

During their physical entrance on the liner, Kane staged a mock battle where Marika lost her sword but she got a little gun on hand to make it believable to the audience that they’re about to robbed and that Kane ‘died.’ Afterwards, Chiaki packed-up to go back to the Barbarossa and denied in Kane about wanting to see Marika again. Chiaki noted Kane still wearing the ‘gunshot’ wound dress he had from last night’s pirating.

The seventh episode started with Marika’s dream of having a lone flight that ended-up in a critical mission failure. She woke up later to be in the school. Mami told her about their teacher being worried and the instruction to Marika to go to the Nurse’ office. Marika had been failing her subjects since the second semester. Misa suggested dropping-out but Marika rejected the idea telling Misa and Kane that she’d try harder. When Marika was about to start her work, she got a message and had to be picked-up by Misa for another call of duty.

Chiaki later arrived at the cafe to buy her usual favourite. Mami had a little talk with her. When Mami asked her if she’s looking for Marika, Chiaki tried to deny it by saying Marika shouldn’t have any job within the week and she only came to eat the parfait. The emergency job was a typical luxury liner raid but the client paid twice than the usual for it. Chiaki later joined Mami for a little walk and chat about Marika. Mami told Chiaki things about Marika pushing herself to the limit because she wants to be as great as her mother.

In the Bentenmaru, Marika is briefed about their their target and the methods on how to do it. As they started their mission, Chiaki talked to her father over the phone telling him that she’s about to send in the packages he asked for but he gave her a warning by telling her to stay on her location. As the ‘mission’ progresses, Marika gets more exposed to the life, responsibilities of a pirate captain. Misa pointed out that she needs to learn more about combat operations. Some moments later, the ships surrendered and the Bentenmaru did their raiding.

As Marika unfolded and prepared to study for school, she received a call to come to the bridge for another urgent decision. The Bentenmaru had been infiltrated and the security systems were compromised and someone in the docking control wanted to talk to the captain for a bargain…

————–

These two episodes finally gives us a shift from the “Introductory” arc, which deals with Marika’s potential as a captain, to the “Pirating First Phase” arc; which deals with Marika trying to balance her different personas as a Maid café worker, student, and pirate. At it’s current phase, there’s a good environment for speculation about the plot. Confused why Letters of Marque are issued in this time of peace? Why are the ‘victims’ of the raids generally amused and clapping for the arrival of the pirates? I’m theorising that the government is doing this for a common or mutual benefit. First would be for the pirates to be able to train and hone their skills for a war. Second, for the government to have the economy flowing. This would create demand for insurance companies and security. Third, assuming that ship passengers find “pirate raids” for amusement, having “pirates” exist would encourage them to have ride on cruise ships, supporting the Galactic Empire’s economy.

Of course, that’s still speculation. I haven’t read the original light novels, they’re only being translated recently. Other personal notes would be about the animation, character designs, . While the the character designs are masterpieces in their own right, how the characters are animated on screen just kills the quality. I’ve spotted several off-modeling and pixelation. Oh well… The other aspects are still consistent to be above-excellent. Character development is also getting interesting. Most notable would, apparently, the interactions between Chiaki, Mami, and Marika. From the Stoic kuudere, more of Chiaki’s tsundere personality is seen here. Some elements in the visual presentation also pay tribute to other mecha series which are not bad in my opinion, unlike than those in Guilty Crown.

All images are screenshots by author and are under fair use.

To those of you haven’t watched Inu X Boku SS, here’s some lame effort from me to convince you on watching it, it’s one of the surprises and hidden treasures of this season. At first glance, you wouldn’t be sure if Inu x Boku SS really has the potential to be a great anime. The animation is honestly not convincing, but the audio is topnotch. Now if you wonder, what is the trick here in series that makes it good? Read on as I discuss why… SPOILER WARNING: Succeeding paragraphs may contain unintended or inexcusable spoilers. Proceed reading at your own risk.

Truth is, the writing and direction are where things get interesting. The lines here are mostly funny mixed with proper humour. The Romantic lines? I find them too cheesy. Obviously, I can’t appreciate it like what I’ve experienced in natsumachi. Since this series is more than just romance, I can let it pass and watch it as the series progress but I’ll definitely need to re-watch this once my tiredness for the romance genre passes. It’s also directed logically in a way that watching it don’t get boring. Characters’ personalities also mix together. Ririchiyo is a very interesting tsundere character, and she’s not the mediocre kind that makes you want quit watching. We’ve also got a nice-guy-love-martyr-servant as the main lead. Soushi also spurts out lines that gets into the tsuntsun attention of Ririchiyo. Hmm… Where did I see this last time? That’s right in Maid-sama! but the dynamics had been reversed. It’s the male lead who becomes the servant and our tsundere heroine is the rich one! It’s interesting indeed, combined with the other quirky and funny characters. Can’t wait to see more of the interactions!

Now let’s go to the rant-y part. Despite all of the instant-classic quality character designs, the animation is a semi-flop. In this age of PAWorks, whitefox, Sunrise, BONES, etc., I don’t get it why David Production can leapfrog and make the animation be at least on the “good” level. Or is it because I had my standards set high? I don’t know but I’ve just noticed that most of my gripes on the visual presentation has something to do with the lighting and/or animation. Now let’s go back to the art and character designs. They’re definitely one of the most unique ones I’ve seen in recent months. Thank goodness!

Audio? THIS IS NIRVANA TO THE EARS PEOPLE! The opening theme is a very good JRock song, can’t wait to have a copy of it now! Ending theme songs varies. It’s a bonus that the seiyuu working here sing them! It makes me wonder when these would be released. The BGM isn’t too remarkable if you ask me, I have yet to be impressed by this, though. Voice acting is definitely excellent! Too bad some of the roles are stereotyped, but then they’re not irritating to the ears.

Just like the Jack-in-the-box toy, this one packs in a awesome and fun surprise for it’s viewers. Don’t let it’s substandard look fool you.

All images are screenshots by author and are under fair use.

Another continues to blow my mind with it’s Horror-Mystery done right. It’s a nice proper mix of the genres, direction, and writing that gives a nice thrilling product. It’s also the most consistent of all the currently-airing series in terms of Audio-Visual presentation. Mouretsu Pirates is slowly losing it’s consistency — visual presentation-wise, that is. I’ve read the manga adaptation recently, and I can say the anime adaptation excellently adapts the main idea of the story. SPOILER WARNING: Succeeding paragraphs may contain unintended or inexcusable spoilers. Proceed reading at your own risk.

MATURE CONTENT WARNING: SOME IMAGES DEPICTING DEATH ARE CONTAINED IN THIS ARTICLE

On the first part of the Thought Digest for this series, I’ve put-up a couple of questions about the series and its plot. Thankfully, most of them had been answered and these keys provide more interesting questions about what would happen in the next few episodes. It turned out that Misaki Mei is chosen as the ‘sacrifice’ against the curse on Class 3. It also turns out that Misaki is just aloof and Kouichi’s classmates are having a problem on how to explain the scenario to him on why Misaki “does not exist.” The succeeding sudden and tragic deaths further jacks up the mystery.

The deaths are animated bloodily and freakishly (pun not intended.) P.A.Works’ art and animation maybe tasty and pleasing to your eye but the deaths are plain wicked. It’s also puzzling how and why these deaths happen. Is it because of Kouichi? We still don’t know why and how but the reason is the curse that started after the class 3 of 26 years ago didn’t accept (or recognise) the death of Misaki Yomiyama.

Writing and direction of each episode makes the transition from each events feel and look seamless. If there’s something that other anime should beat, it would be the direction on this series. I have personal note on the writing. Did the producers really intended details or hints of (future) romance between Kouichi & Mei? This is supposed to be a mystery anime and NOT a romance anime. Recall that I dropped Gosick due to the same reason of suddenly inserting romance in an already good mystery theme! I wish that it was only placed because of the Valentine’s season. Oh well…

Like what was said, it also has the finest art and animation. Too bad, there are hiccups on the animation. Why do some scenes lack lighting? I get it, it should have a dark aura, but it doesn’t allow full appreciation of the details! This is obviously a ploy for the viewers to cash-in home video releases?

The upcoming episodes would still continue the same formula that was started, I hope. It’s already showing us that it’s a Thriller that’s hard to miss.

All media are screenshots by author and are under fair use.

I’m Too Used To Be Poor

Now I saw this in the Manga. Although the variations are there, much of the gist of it landed in the same direction. The pace is still slow as hell and I’m getting irritated by Hana-chan for his cuteness.

Yes. I am irritated for something positive. I think most of the people find Hana-chan like some kid that gives everybody the beam of energy to get in the day. I don’t have complaints in that. But I find her exposure like she’s being exploited for her worth. That shower scene with her uncle is slowly paced. And when things get serious, she come around and snatches it away, just like 3 a year-old would do.

There’s good drama between the elder sisters, like the scene where they met their respective friends. I would’ve liked if they had focused on those parts, at least a little bit would be suffice. I’m curious if they bode their farewells to their old life and enters a new. It’s a good hint that there’s a possibility of having them moving to a new school in near their uncle’s house. Who knows.

All in all, it much better than last week. I would give this a perfect pass, since I never get the introduction of our Uncle being put into compromising positions. But sadly the show can’t help itself.

Episode Rating:3/5

Finding Myself

Last week, Deskmoto-Kun and Kana-chan were in the focus as they face each other in an official match. It was intense and neither see each other in unequal terms. It also wasn’t just a battle in terms of karuta, but it was also a development of their relationship. It’s faint, but I can see that things will develop any time soon. But what’s prevalent this week is Nishida’s and Taichi’s match. Where the end game is decided by fate’s hand. Taichi being aggressive in his last bid to win. Although there’s little anything can do here, since both have one card in their side and it’s just a matter of the reader in getting which card is first. There’s no doubt they know their hand well and if your card is read, you just have to enclose it for your opponent to avoid it from being stolen. But I like Taichi for gunning it. Since it was forward thinking and its his do-or-die situation betting anything he has for this match.

Also, it kind of pave his stubbornness of putting control to situations that he doesn’t have control in the first place. It’s not that it’s a negative thing. But I kind of seen his frustration in his face doing so.

In the end, Kana and Deskmoto got to C and Nishida get’s an A. A bit sorry for Taichi, but I bet he’ll get things going in the end.

Episode Rating:5/5

Perhaps the least offensive image from it

OOOOOOOOOOOHH BOOOOOOOOOOOOOYY. Did I just let my animal nature rule over my mind? I just picked this show becuase of some screenshots noting it to have a “good” slice-of-life comedy mixed with ecchi themes and gags. I would not say “My body wasn’t ready!” over this show. Why? I expected EVERYTHING — from the horrible art to the senseless fanservice and sex-themed gags. There are some room for some good yuri-pairing imaginations but since it’s outrightly CRAP, I won’t bother to ship any nor watch this series any further. Also, please forgive me for not having much screenshots on this anime, most of it are totally NSFW.

Quality? *FACEPALM*

It fails epically, Visual presentation-wise While the character designs are quite good, that’s if we’re in the 80s, all of them look horrible. The art is on the borders of lame and mediocre. It’s too fscking generic!!! I won’t bother putting each detail on my rant against the art since this article is not an art opinion! The animation is also so-so, even if you take into consideration the intermediate budget of this show. The only ‘visually good’ here are the fanservice scenes. GEEZ!

Audio presentation is good on the average, saved by the funny way in the voice acting. Still, getting to hire notable seiyuu like Youko Hikasa, Ayana Taketatsu, etc. doesn’t automatically save this entire aspect. The music is annoying to the ears and they sound too generic too! Really, even if my favourite seiyuu sung this, I wouldn’t give a single fsck on buying nor getting the songs.

Meganekko? Sorry bro, but I won't continue watching this

Writing doesn’t offer anything much except for the illogical mindless fanservice and constant fetish-baiting lines and jokes. The humour doesn’t tickle laughter and the scenarios remind me of the boredom-creating scenarios in K-ON! — and written in the most horrible way you could possibly imagine.

You would really be a forgiving fan or someone who needs a diversion to his stress in order to at least get to watch it. It’s totally disappointing to watch if you’re seriously thinking of proper entertainment

All images are screenshots by author and under fair use.

Breaking Because I Can’t Protect You

There’s nothing much to say that isn’t said since the last episode. This serves a good development for Natsume and friends. Tanuma get’s the spotlight for now and Natsume is so adamant of putting them out of harm’s way. But it sort of contrast the what Reiko and Natsume’s circumstances are, which something we already knew by now. But the scene where Natsume breaks into his feeling for having his dear friends get involve in this shady business is taken well into the extreme over-protectiveness. It kind of piques me if Natsume would be this over-protective boyfriend if he ever had a love interest in his life. Perhaps he would be this secretive boyfriend that would land any relationship to the ground with this strict principle that would lead to a lot of misunderstandings. He might just carry it to ruin with his action, I don’t know. If his separates himself to his peers, what more if he’s into a more intimate relationship? Still, the bromance show is the development point for Natsume to open himself up to those who sees dear to him.

Overall, I’m all right in this episode. Next episode will be a one-off deal again but it will centre in another relevant character.

Episode Rating: 5/5

Summer Blockbuster Extravaganza

Seeing Al and Ed in their old form, is a clear indication that it is just a filler series for the sake of entertainment. Sandwiched somewhere in the timeline of the main series, lies an adventure in to discover what is hidden in the western front with 2 nations at gunpoint.

Just to give you a quick run-down. Ed and Al discovered a civilization who appears to had his own share of curiosity over the power of alchemy that drove it to its extinction. If you had watched the old series, then you had simply seen the similar formula, just a much more condense manner.

To be blunt, this film is mainly purpose to cash in the craze of Full Metal when it was currently airing just a year ago. Characters we all love is there for the sake of fanfare and its dressed pretty with battles upon battles. Which isn’t to tell that Bones can sometimes goes into good to average in that regard. FMA isn’t like Naruto with a wide array of fighters. So it’s a bit difficult to make it work in a summer blockbuster film. Also, there’s little to stretch in the FMA world with it being done for good. I guess the Mangaka move on and there’s not other means to a continuation after the end.

Then we get to the world-building part, where FMA didn’t have much to offer. Unlike Last Exile, Amestris is just your vague European maybe German inspired country. Nothing more nothing less. So there’s little to stretch on that part.

But is this film worth watching? Well, yes if you look at in as a form of entertainment. Story wise, there isn’t anything mind-boggling. But it also didn’t end preachy like the Naruto films where. If I were to compare it, I would put it in the same ilk as Uncharted or Call of Duty. If you like FMA and want to see more of Ed and Al, then this is for you. Just look at it as fanfare entertainment.

Film Rating: 4/5