Welp, Inferno Cop’s over, so no more crazy opening screen-caps for now. Haven’t caught up on any more of Tamako Market yet. Lots of shows ending soon and lots I want to check out when the new season comes around.
Let’s get into it.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure 24
Nothing gets me psyched for the next ep quite like vampire piranhas on a plane.
As ridiculous and completely impossible as Jojo’s schemes always are, there must be some kind of mad genius to them, because instead of rolling my eyes I get a strong urge to stand up and fist pump the air. It’s just that perfect campy mixture of cleverness and utter absurdity, I can’t help but look forward to Jojo’s next ploy.
That aside, pacing is as all over the place as ever. The transformation of Cars was put on pause for something like 10 minutes of exposition which, however interesting, brought the pacing to a screeching halt as we were left to wonder what the hell everyone was doing when they should have been finishing off the big bad. It’s tempting to exempt Jojo’s from such criticisms in consideration of its general haters-gonna-hate presentation, but I don’t think it should get a free ride.
Zetsuen no Tempest 23
Samon sports this perpetual look like he’s babysitting everyone around him. Hanging around these people is suffering for him.
Well well, things are getting halfway climactic and exciting again, just in time for the finale next week. To the show’s credit, the final gambit came across as pretty clever, to me at least, playing off the previously established public personas the team had created for the Mages of Exodus and Genesis.
The twist at the end of the episode was certainly a solid cliffhanger to leave us with considering the various discussions leading up to it, but it’s hard not to notice the immense stupidity of paying so little attention to a full boat of (presumably) military personnel who vastly outnumber you. I was actually thinking how laissez faire Yoshino and Mahiro were being as they were just chatting looking out over the side of the boat. Haven’t you got hostages to be watching?
Sasami-san@Ganbaranai 11
Sasami’s poor brother never cops a break
Not that this is necessarily bad, but this probably felt the least like a penultimate episode of any I’ve seen in recent memory. The bizarre dialogue on friendship continues and I’m still not seeing how it links back into the Ganbaranai theme. The whole drama with Kagami seemed hackneyed and, well, haven’t we been here before? What’s more, we’ve been here before in this very series (not just in recent anime in general), about Kagami really caring about their relationship etc etc etc. As was discussed last episode, this show kind of works by throwing this garbled cultural mess of drama, spirituality and late-night anime tropes at the audience and seeing how they react. I feel like this friendship stuff isn’t all being played straight, but to be honest it gives me a headache even trying to guess just how deep the irony hole goes, and whether or not the writers are even in on it.
In episode 9 Sasami gave us the big thematic statement of intent. The Gods can change, we should put a little more faith in them. That faith can be as hard (and wise) as trying to take the weight of the world onto your own shoulders, perhaps more so. As a side note, I think we can take the Gods here to be symbolic for the whims of fate, the basic workings of the world. This may be more of a dialogue on being a control freak than on spirituality, per se. Whatever the case, perhaps what we’re being shown here is how Sasami is changing a Godess through the simple act of extending a hand of friendship, showing that she was right, the Gods can grow just like humans can. Are we leading up to a “we can all do it together” answer to the Ganbaranai problem we’ve been presented? I sure hope not, this show deserves better.
Psycho Pass 22
Epic Makishima Manoeuvre
I’ve seen mixed reactions to the finale of Psycho Pass, though probably mostly leaning towards negative. Despite not a whole lot actually happening, I feel there was a lot packed in there, thematically, and I’m gonna need a little longer to parse exactly how I feel about it.
Expect a colloquium post or even a podcast from myself and Webmaster-kun on the finale in the near future.
Little Busters 24
Pretty sure that was my expression during Mio’s story as well.
I hack on Little Busters a lot, but you what, I really quite like these special-task-from-the-cat episodes. Firstly, they offer a break from the fairly formulaic arcs of the various girls. Secondly, they tie into the bigger magical, surrealist atmosphere hanging over all of Key’s works. I really enjoyed the ongoing mystery, and melancholic poetry of the other world segments spliced throughout Clannad, and this feels a little reminiscent of that. Sure, the tasks themselves are pretty mundane, but the juxtaposition of that with uncovering the “secret of the world” is kind of why the suspense of it all works, for me at least.
Along similar lines, using the picture book to imply Komari’s disappearance was a clever device, and really fed into the aforementioned surreal atmosphere. Pity Komari hadn’t actually disappeared. We would have gotten rid of the most annoying character and it would have made for a more thrilling end to the episode. That’s a win-win!
Under the Bridge 