Baccano 14: YES, YES, AND YES.

It’s one thing to anticipate something and then watch it in a state of gleeful excitement. It’s something else entirely to be caught by surprise and watch it in awe. Then there’s Baccano 14, which leaves me in a state of gleeful awe. The last thing I expected when I checked tokyotosho over an hour ago was a DVD special and the prospect of more Isaac and Miria. Well guess what.

SPECIAL DELIVERY, BITCHES.

I laughed…

I cried…

And  I sat in complete silence. This was the best thing ever. Sadly, the antics didn’t keep up for too long, and the rest of the episode set up the plot of the specials, which revolve around a boy who is basically Ladd with a wrench instead of a shotgun, only he shuts his mouth on even fewer occasions then Ladd does. He is amazing, and he makes me forget the sadness I felt when Isaac and Miria weren’t on screen.

This is good stuff. Watch it.

Code Geass R2 Ep. 6

Well this certainly didn’t feel like Code Geass. It seemed like any other mecha show, only with lots of little girls, and probably one of my favorite mechs ever, the Guren. I’m not a big fan of the mech design beyond the Gawain, but Guren’s claw with it’s new power makes me hard. Not as hard as Nunnally makes me, but that’s a different story.

I mean, Kallen already dominated at close quarters. Now her power has been increased, she can fly, she can fire at long range, with both straight and wide beams, and she can deploy the Gefjun Net. I assume we’ll be meeting the other Knights some time soon, since they can’t just let Kallen run around all over 9000 and shit.

I certainly didn’t expect Roro to save Lulu from the situation at the beginning of the episode, but any result where Lulu didn’t have to lie to Nunnally was fine with me. For how much I love her, she’s sadly taking after Euphie, and the last thing this show needs is another peace-spouting retarded woman. Not to mention the scary thing about that; since season 2 keeps paralleling season 1, will Nunnally die like she did?

Even if she does, she and Forehead-chan have already found their match!

Cute blush is even cuter, and I really hope she isn’t a trap, because I hate that. While I want to see more of her, I would prefer to see Forehead-chan’s reunion with her “husband,” but until this Nunnally business is over, it seems Lulu is going to go mopey on us. Which is why it’s good to see this happy face again.

What a fucking nutjob.

Next episode is “The Discarded Mask.” What we can tell from the preview is that Lulu is depressed, Nunnally is moving forward, and Roro prefers to communicate with Lulu when their faces are less than an inch apart. It’s just unnecessary.

Since I have little to discuss here, and almost no absurdities to poke fun at, I guess I’ll just keep watching the Charles scene. Wakamoto as V.V.’s younger brother. Hilarious.

Kurenai: Best of the Season; Maybe I Should Talk About It

Kurenai is the best show of the season, hands down. It’s a great story with fun characters that play very well off of each other, and it’s not like it really has much competition. I love Geass and all, and Kanokon is pretty hot (though it’s starting to become the utter crap I expected it to be), and Macross is really entertaining too, but you know what they don’t have?

They don’t have Murasaki and Shinkuro.

Easily my favorite duo since Baccano’s Isaac and Miria (Which is why it is important to note that Brain’s Base, the studio behind Kurenai, also did Baccano and Kamichu, and are therefore partially responsible for bringing to life some of the best characters in anime), Murasaki and Shinkuro’s relationship is hilarious and adorable. Mainly adorable, but that’s just Murasaki. She’s like a dream come true. Er, moving on. It doesn’t stop there, as the entire cast is uniquely wonderful. There hasn’t been a dull moment, or any time when I felt that a certain scene or character was unnecessary. What little action there has been involved Shinkuro just going to town on people (steel is his bawdy!), and it’s a lot of fun to watch. Everything meshes together perfectly and

Oh my god. I’m trying not to derail myself here, but wow. I feel so dirty right now. I certainly wont deny that I think Murasaki is cute, but I’d really like to talk more about what makes the series great, so

OH MY GOD. SERIOUSLY, I CAN’T STOP MYSELF

Why did my nose just start bleeding?

The End of Aria: That Unmistakable Feeling

There are series I would consider favorites, others that have changed the way I view the medium as a whole, and finally, there are the few that leave me with an insatiable longing for more. Aria does it all, and what’s so crazy is how it goes about leaving that impression. It’s a show where nothing exciting happens, the romance is minor, the girls are beautiful (yet there’s zero fanservice), and the premise is ridiculous. Life on a terraformed Mars in a city meant to replicate Venice where cats have magical powers and apparently live longer than humans. It’s a show about people rowing boats for God’s sake, yet I could barely bring myself to watch the final episodes because I didn’t want it to be over. I’m almost in a panic. It’s hard to imagine a world with no new Aria episodes. Even though it was only half a year ago that I watched the first season, I feel like I’ve always been watching it, that I’ve always been a part of Aqua as I experienced it through Akari’s eyes.

Needless to say, I’ve pre-ordered Aria the Animation and I’ll start buying the manga soon, and I think I’ll be listening to the soundtracks a lot over this next week. Overall, Origination was probably the weakest of the three seasons, as it abandoned the mysticism that had helped draw me into the series, and stuck with the sappier aspects of the story. Yet while episode 12 was the climax of the season, I can’t deny how happy it made me to see my waifu (2MB) all grown up. Actually, that’s an outright lie. I was very disappointed to see her grow up, as I thought she was perfectly cute and attractive before, and the last thing I’d want is for her to turn into some silly Alicia clone. Luckily, we got a replacement, so I can’t complain.

I guess my final thoughts on the series are these: I will never forget Aria or it’s characters, I will never live to see a more perfect cast of females (and cats), and I will always be waiting for more.

Code Geass R2 Ep. 5

If you are reading this, you are reading an edited version, since I’m trying to make this better. It was pretty terrible to begin with. Also, in case you haven’t noticed, my goal with Code Geass episodic posts is not to inform, but to ramble incoherently about things that didn’t actually happen.

Code Geass episode 5 is a filler episode. Most people like to compare each episode with it’s corresponding episode from season 1, so I’ll say that R2’s episode 5 is better because it doesn’t have Euphie in it. The episode starts out with a nice bit for us Kallen enthusiasts, who we get to see her in her silly TitSuit.

Also, cute blush is cute.

The question of whether or not Zero’s followers will still have faith in him or not is answered when he comes before them and says practically nothing. He just stands there and takes the criticism until his more loyal followers basically fap to his greatness while moaning his name. It’s amusing and slightly pathetic at the same time.

Much to my chagrin (I’m sad that he’s not dead yet), Suzaku returns to school and plays it safe with Lulu as though nothing ever happened. These guys have damn good poker faces, while Roro sucks at keeping his cool. I mean, was his success as an assassin 100% dependent on his Geass? What a pansy. Speaking of people who suck, we get to see the Knights of the Round in action. “Hey, let’s attack some of our own men for practice! LOL! Since we’re ‘testing’ them, nobody will mind if we break their KnightFrames!” Assholes. Anya is cute and all, but she creeps me out. The quiet ones are always the worst.

Strangely, Roro admits to Lulu that his Geass has a weakness, but we don’t get to hear what it is. I don’t know what to believe here. Roro doesn’t seem stupid enough to admit a weakness, but if it’s some sort of trap to test Lulu by giving him an opportunity to exploit this “weakness,” I imagine Lulu wouldn’t fall for it.

Even stranger, C.C. is dumb enough to jeopardize everything for some pizza (or did she really come for Cheese-kun? Who exactly is beardface?! Will our questions be answered?), but she ends up as part of the pizza! Was it worth it? (Answer: Hell yes) Sadly, along with some of the really hot shots we get of the girls this episode, the other half of the episode seemed poorly drawn. Quality it was not.

And what about that box? Silly Rivalz, that’s not Nina’s box! Nina’s box would have read like this:

I’m sad to say that the only real thing of interest in this episode, other than all the half-naked females (though I suppose Viletta was more like 80% naked), was the ending, in which we find out that Nunnally is the new Governor-General, but Lulu will have to deny her existence if he hopes to keep Suzaku unaware. Way to drag a cute, innocent, blind wheel-chair loli into things and make her get rejected by her brother as part of some stupid test. It isn’t confirmed that Lulu will deny knowing her, but I see no other way around it. I wonder if Nunnally is secretly a genius who can see through it all…oh wait…that was insensitive of me. Sorry, Nunnally. I guess we just got off on the wrong foot…oh damn it.(Note to self: Some people don’t think laughing at cripples is funny).

I almost forgot! The newest Geass user came as quite a surprise.

Just as planned, nya!

Toward the Terra Completed, Ouran dropped

A little over a week ago I started watching Ouran because I figured I might get some enjoyment out of it for a few reasons: I usually enjoy Bones series, it was recommended to me by someone whose opinion I respect, and it’s the twelfth top rated show on MyAnimeList. Not that the last point means anything, since the “top anime” list on MAL is obviously reflective of the many morons that make up its membership; people who submit full series reviews after watching two episodes and favorite Johnny Yong Bosch more often than Norio “The God” Wakamoto. I digress.

I dropped Ouran halfway through the fifteenth episode because I just couldn’t take it anymore. The series had some appeal at the beginning, but it was dampened by all the pretty boy pandering and homosexual twincest. Even after that, I still had to put up with humor so repetitive that the characters actually made jokes about its unoriginality, and a whole cast of rich assholes treating some poor girl like their own personal play thing. The only likable one in the bunch was the guy who never spoke. That’s sad.

It’s my personal belief that if a show is pretty bad for it’s entire first half, chances are I’m not going to enjoy the second half, and even if I do, the first half will have left such a poor impression that the series as a whole will still leave a bad taste in my mouth, so I will never touch Ouran again. It’s just not my cup of instant coffee tea.

To make it up to the person who recommended I watch Ouran, (Who, for some reason, seemed to get really defensive when I said I didn’t like it. Maybe he thought I was calling him gay for liking it or something. By the way, if you are a male and you like Ouran, you are probably homosexual), I then spent the last 2-3 days watching Terra e…, a series I had completely ignored when it was released, and I now believe to be one of the best, overlooked series of 2007. The multiple time-skips give the show an almost eerie feeling, especially when the characters revisit the old settings. Watching the changes over time of both the environments and the characters is an incredible experience, and the last few episodes are powerfully emotional, as everything comes to a final encounter between humans and the Mu. The real reason I ended up loving the series (Spoilers) is that nearly half of the main characters die. This would normally be a depressing fact, but every one of them dies fighting as hard as they can for what they believe in, and all I could do was admire their resolve as I watched them get stabbed, shot, crushed, and blown apart. (End Spoilers) Sadly, the “good guys” for most of the series are rather boring, and the best parts of the series were instead the focus on Keith Anyan and his relationships with the Mu he was close with, Shiroe and Matsuka. Take their scenes out, and the series would have been just a generic “good vs evil” story where the oppressive system would have brought the man down. Don’t let the system bring you down.

I will now spend the next half hour watching Chi’s Sweet Home, the best show of 2008.

An analysis of Roro’s stupidly confusing Geass

I’m actually going to take this time to write down my in-depth analysis of Roro’s Geass just to put my thoughts and the thoughts of others into words about how stupid Roro’s Geass is, and how it makes me an angry fanboy. The reason I find it so upsetting is that the little details I’m going to bitch about are probably considered unimportant and will never be addressed. So now, let’s look at each instance of Roro’s Geass and what it suggests. The times I will provide are according to gg’s release.

Use 1: Episode 1, 13:02

Kallen was fleeing with Lulu. Then we see the pendant and Kallen finds herself sitting on the ground as Lulu and Roro run away. Something fishy just happened and it has something to do with Roro.

Use 2: Episode 2, Important scene at 15:07

Roro yells “Too slow” in a disguised voice, something he seems to excel at (Random talents ftw?), and then disappears. The way he fades out instead of vanishing instantaneously suggests teleportation more than time-stop. Here’s the important part though. If it’s time stop, then there is no issue. If not, then either A: The Geass does not effect Knightmare movement, and Kallen and Urabe remain in motion during the Geass since both pilots should still be pressing the gas pedal or its equivalent, or B: The Geass does stop Knightmare movement. If A, the only reason Kallen and Urabe don’t crash into the wall at the bottom of the screen is because they had put the brakes on before Roro used the Geass, since otherwise, they would obviously reach the wall at the speed they were traveling before Roro would reach the point he ends up at in front of Lulu afterwords. If B, they would simply stop and start as though nothing had happened. One more thing, though. If A: Even though they would come to a halt eventually had the brakes been applied, the fact that they were in motion at all means that, to them, they would appear to have moved forward a bit instantaneously themselves, since they would be unaware of their movement during the Geass. Why they don’t realize this can only be explained by the idea that they were distracted by Roro’s apparent teleportation.

Use 3: Episode 3, 11:26

The ugly blue circle is what I added in to make Roro’s position clear. The red circle is the area of effect of his Geass. It seems rather clear that it is supposed to be a perfect sphere, though whether he can change this shape to one that is more ovoid to affect only certain people is unknown. The scene immediately disproves teleportation by showing the frozen people, however, it also disproves time-stop, because the waterfall behind Viletta never stops flowing. I failed to notice this, but other more observant people saw it and pointed it out. So, as of this point, it would seem he has a mind-affecting geass that appears to make people unaware of time’s motion without affecting time itself or physical things like water and the light reflecting off of it.

Use 4: The end of episode 3 and the beginning of episode 4.

The picture is from the flashbacks at the beginning of episode 4, but I’ll also discuss the Lulu x Roro standoff now. At this point we are told told that it is a mind affecting Geass outright, but at the same time, we are shown scenes of murder that discount that idea. Unless the image above is supposed to be a still image, what we see and hear is Roro shoot a man, but the victim remains standing. If it is a mind affecting Geass, than the shot would have to have been non-fatal, since a dead man would cease all brain activity and would no longer be a living being under the effects of a Geass. If you don’t understand what I mean, you have to remember that time isn’t stopped, but instead, everyone within the red circle is merely stunned mentally, in the same way that people don’t move while Lulu gives them Geass-influenced orders. So when Roro kills someone within the circle, wouldn’t their no longer active brain be released from the spell?

If not, then this scene and the scene where Roro takes Lulu’s gun both demonstrate that people being affected by the Geass remain in the exact positions they were in when it started until it is over, meaning that anyone piloting a Knightmare would indeed remain in motion as they most certainly would still be pushing whatever button/lever makes it go forward. However, my earlier suggestion that Knightmares may be affected is also partly disproved by the fact that the camera in the room isn’t affected, so electronics are probably immune. Lulu’s counting of the seconds also serves to once again prove that time is not actually stopped.

Use 5: Episode 4, 17:14

And here’s where everything gets fucked up. Here’s why I made this post. What the hell. I was so damn confused when this part happened. Let’s begin. Knightmare navigational computers ARE affected. It would’ve been perfectly simple to just show the blue target that represents Roro jump from place to place like the two red dots and Lulu do, but NO. The computer clearly “loses” the target as he fades in and out. if the computer was unaffected, Lulu would see it jumping, but the computer would trace it perfectly. The only thing that could possibly prevent me from confirming that the computer IS affected by the Geass is someone else’s idea that the Vincent itself is able to momentarily disappear on radar, and that Roro uses that to further confuse people. Secondly, as I said, the two red dots and Lulu jump as well, meaning that they are most definitely in motion during the Geass. Tell me. If you were piloting a fast moving vehicle headed straight towards two other fast moving vehicles and you suddenly started to appear to teleport closer and closer to the other two without your control, would you not slam on the brakes? I see no reason why the two people approaching Lulu don’t freak the hell out. It’s not even about keeping your cool. Anybody who isn’t an idiot would attempt to stop moving if they could no longer control the rate of their own forward motion. So what’s going on there? Did Roro somehow only Geass Lulu, or were the other two pilots unfazed by the fact that they had apparently just teleported three times? If the Geass doesn’t affect bullets, waterfalls, or cameras, why does it affect nav computers? To put it simply, if they don’t explain the electronic disruption or whether Roro has the ability to change the shape of his area of effect, than Sunrise just screwed up horribly with this last scene. And yes, I am thinking too hard.

As a final note, I got nearly a tenth of my blog’s total hits in the last two days, so I know people are actually reading my blog for once :V. My point is, please comment if you have any thoughts on the matter, because I am sad and lonely, and I need your comments to justify my existence it would be nice to hear others’ theories or opinions. Half the fun of Code Geass for me is all the random, baseless speculation

Code Geass R2 Ep. 4

Episode 4 has struck, and it focuses on Roro, whose name I have spelled differently every time I use it. I guess I’ll just use this spelling from now on, because while I’d prefer to call him “lol”, I can see how that would get confusing. The episode title was Counterattack at the Gallows, which is incredibly lame. How much thought did they put into that one? They might as well have called it Learning to Surf with Zero, or Kallen and C.C. Have a Chat. I think All in the Family would’ve been better, and more fitting of how ridiculous this series is. There’s little more ridiculous then a random reference to American sitcoms! Basically, Roro has been an assassin all his life who has never known the love of a family, so I guess he’s developed a crush on Lulu, since he bought him jewelry on his fake birthday or some sappy bullshit.

I swear to God, if Lulu hadn’t gotten his memories back, Code Geass R2 would’ve been a Boys Love story.

Considering nobody in the entire world really cares about Roro other than Lulu and maybe Viletta, I don’t see much reason for him not to side with the Black Knights. Everything considered, he’d most definitely be treated much better there than he ever was in Brittania, and he’d certainly be a much happier person. Considering the fact that he helped Lulu get back to base and saved his life, I imagine he’ll quickly become the tool that Lulu wants him to be, and along with Li, who clearly does respect Zero’s capabilities, will become a useful (though possibly temporary) ally.

So now I’ve got 2 questions. The first is, why the hell do they keep writing the story to necessitate the High school scenes? They were fun last year, but at that point in the story, everyone wasn’t out to kill each other. You seriously expect me to believe that fun times can be had between Lulu, Suzaku and Co.? These guys have some serious restraint not to leap at each other’s throats at any moment.

The second is, why is Sayoko so adorable? It’s Mysterious Maid Magnetism at work!

I hope she gets more time to shine in the actual series rather than just DVD specials. I think she may be my favorite character.

Anyways, it’s nice to see it all coming together, and I hope the happy Black Knight reunion means they can start taking the fight out of Japan and into enemy territory. I guess that’ll happen around mid -season though. Until then, who knows what they’ll put us through.

(Edit that has nothing to do with Geass: If you’re reading this post on its own page rather than my blog’s main page, then you should see a series of links below you that are “possibly related”. Ha. These links are generally random, so don’t be surprised when/if you click those links on the bottom and end up reading things that have nothing to do with anime or Code Geass at all. The only thing that keeps me from removing it is the fact that it linked to me from SDS’ recent post about Magical Girl Anime, so it may actually get me some more traffic, even though the post of mine that was linked had nothing to do with Magical Girls :/ Way to fail, WordPress.)

Spring Season Thoughts Concluded

Since everything that I really care about has been subbed and I’ve finally gotten around to watching them all, here’s my final post dedicated to my first impressions on the Spring Season. If things go just as planned, my next terrible Code Geass episodic post should occur tomorrow.

I’ll start with Druaga. I originally decided to drop this because it’s Gonzo and it didn’t appear to be a comedy like the “fake” episode 1 suggested. After hearing good things and realizing that my reasoning for dropping a show that was likely right up my alley (I’m a sucker for cliché fantasy series) was rather idiotic, I picked the series back up and am so far exceedingly pleased. While Druaga has nothing that makes it very unique or interesting, it is a lighthearted romp through a magical land, and it has the one thing it really needs to justify my continued viewing: Coopa.

She is a small, cute woman, voiced by Chihara Minori, who, according to numerous sources, is annoying to listen to in this role. Since the two characters I first knew her best for were Nagato (Haruhi) and Iwasaki (L*S), I had always imagined her to play the more quiet characters, and could never see how anyone could find the sound of her voice annoying in anyway whatsoever. Then she played Toa (Dragonaut), and I understood all to well. But I like Coopa’s voice, and it only seems appropriate coming out of a 4 foot tall woman. I keep calling her a woman, but I guess she’s a humanoid creature of some sort. Either that or she’s a midget and I’m being very rude.

Then there’s Kaiba, and I’m not even going to bother talking about it. I could mention what happened, but since I nor anyone else out there who already blogged about has any idea what’s really going on, I don’t much see the point. I mean, seriously, a kid with a hole through his body rode around on a dodo bird wearing a space helmet. What the hell do you want me to say about that? Do you want me to mention how disturbed I was that the camera focused on the bird’s anus for 90% of the chase?

What. The. Hell.

I think the only parts of the episode that actually intrigued me beyond the very fact that the show existed were the moments when the main character seemed to be destroying things with his mind. I have no idea what really happened, but he’d shoot a glance at something and it would explode into bright colors. It’s cool and fruity all at once.

Moving on, we have The Daughter of 20 Faces, which reminds me of Lupin, only way shittier. Not to say it’s a bad series, but what’s the point of even making a show like this in a world where Lupin exists. I’ll probably end up dropping this one, so I have little to say about it. But damn, all I could think about were other series while I watched this. The story is about a thief who announces his arrival before stealing stuff (Big Lupin vibes there), the first main antagonist literally has Wolverine’s claws, and 20 Faces looks just like the main character of Big O. I know I’m not the first to point this out, but it’s just sad.

Real Drive knows how to do a first episode. It begins with gore and suspense to keep you on the edge of your seat, it talks about stuff that the viewer isn’t “in on” yet to keep you wondering, and it makes you concentrate on the story instead of the females by making them all hideous fatties. The whole show has a very Ghost in the Shell-like feel, which is only appropriate considering the premise and the studio in charge. In GitS, the few prominent females were hard-asses and didn’t really serve the purpose of illiciting a sexual attraction. I guess they really wanted to put a big cast of females in this show, so they added forty pounds to each one so that they wouldn’t distract us from the more important aspects of the series :V. What those aspects are, I don’t know, because this series is confusing as shit.

Finally, there’s Toshokan Sensou, which sounded ridiculous in a fun way, and I’d have to say it was. However, being the type of person who clearly doesn’t read enough about series before I watch them, I was surprised to discover that the main character, pictured on the right

is 100% cute female. I thought it was a dude ;_;

I guess I’m happy that the lead is a female, but the absurd premise of a woman in the army full-fledged war over books in which libraries are the safe-havens is going to be hard to get over. I look forward to more fun times, and I hope it doesn’t get too serious on me.

And that’s that. Local time is 12:05, so I failed to make the post when I said I would, but who cares.

Summarizing Ghost Hound: Lame

I breathe a sigh of relief as I finish another fall series, this time Ghost Hound. I hate Ghost Hound. I didn’t hate it until it was over, and not just because it had a shitty, anticlimactic ending, but because it wasn’t until I was done with the damn thing that it released me from it’s spell. I remember being 15 episodes into this show and thinking to myself “Good Lord. I’m 15 episodes into this show,” which is a perfectly reasonable and somewhat obvious thought, brought about by the fact that I was actually surprised how far I was into the series. I knew things had actually happened, but I didn’t know what they were. If I had the time, I’d go back and calculate how much of the show was relevant, and how much was utterly pointless. Sure, I seemed to be enjoying the show while it was going on, and I remember having questions and wanting to have them answered, but when the answers were revealed and the “plot” moved on, I slowly came to realize that I had no clue what the plot was.

Ghost Hound bored me to tears without letting me realize that I wasn’t enjoying myself. It fucking tricked me! I thought I liked it, but at that final minute when the credits rolled, I felt a great disturbance in my mind, as if millions of voices cried out “this show blows hard” and were suddenly silenced. (Note: If you don’t get the reference, please die in a fire.)

The preview for the final episode was one of the spookiest things I’ve ever heard. Having become attached to at least one character in the show, I was dying to know how it would turn out, but only because the preview made it seem like it would be exciting. The daring rescue, the clash of ghosts with artificial life, and the descent of a terrible dragon god - sounds pretty damn awesome if you ask me.

So here’s my summary of Episode 22:

Taro runs in, grabs Miyako, and runs out…huh, but…wait, what the fuck? Are you serious? That was it? That’s Ghost Hound? What the hell is this? Suddenly, every single one of these psychologically tormented nutcases is normal and ready to live happily ever after? What a failure.

I’ll make my final Spring Season post after work tomorrow. Suddenly I’m a lot less excited about watching Real Drive and Library War.