My apologies, but there’s not going to be a post this week. Not to worry, I’m alive, healthy, and caught up on everything but SukaSuka. But a crazy busy week last week, a busy weekend, and writer’s block yesterday and insomnia last night left me hopelessly behind. (OK, to be honest, I often procrastinate – and this time it bit me in the butt when I hit a roadblock and ran out of time.)
I’m posting because the goal this season is to not drop off the face of the planet like I did last season.
The next two weeks might also be a bit thin. We have plans Memorial Day Weekend (we traditionally spend it geocaching). The following weekend, I’ll be taking part in the Kitsap Medieval Faire which will essentially be four straight long days Thurs-Sun. (But I get to hang out with my fellow history and culinary nerds!) So both weekends, it’ll be a bit rough to stay caught up, let alone get any writing done.
Drop a comment, let me know what you think of your shows this week!
Apprentice Mages Lounge. 
Procrastination is something i do a lot of, so im with you there! That Kitsap Medieval Faire sounds like an amazing experience, its a shame its half way across the world for me haha! I hope you have a great time though!
Im a bit behind on Anime this week, only up to date with AoT.
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Given this week’s ep of AoT, that’s a helluva one to be the only one caught up on. :) I grok the decision the provide some grounding and a breather after all the straight action and heavy drama eps… But I question the decision to produce what barely wasn’t a clip show. (Showing us mostly stuff we already knew.)
Though they couldn’t have known just how many clip/recap eps we’d have midseason this season. And what’s up with that? I can’t recall ever having more than one, let alone three-and-a-half.
The Faire is a blast, five long working days… But also a lot of time hanging and working with friends old and new.
And thanks for stopping by the Lounge! Hope to see you back soon.
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I’m also quite busy, so I couldn’t get caught up with grimoire of zero. I see that your schedule is quite overloaded. Why not take some strain off yourself and temporarily drop a couple of series?
The eccentric family 2: Man this show is impressive! The most recent episode made clear to me that the central theme of the second season is empathy. So for me, it tied together all of the previous episodes and thus made me appreciate the series more. In addition to doing that, Uchouten Kazoku had a big highlight at the end of the episode that I will try to avoid to talk about due to spoilers. But I thought that the most impressive part was the clever writing. For example, there’s the rock with water flowing from it foreshadows Yasaburo crying about [not going to reveal spoilers] (credits to JustAWellWisher from Reddit) or the dialogue about heaven/hell and how they are related to the hot springs (Yasaburo says that hot springs are heaven and much later, Jyurojin comments on how hell is right below the hot springs) or the entire discussion of love. I’m not going to reveal too much of the episode, but I found the sudden change in mood profound and effective, but felt it was too similar to season one’s sudden change in mood at the end of episode 7. This was made up by the aphorism Yasaburo makes at the end, which for me justified the scene because it made clear that the intention of the scene was to express sympathy towards a certain character.
The eccentric family belongs with a small group of anime (such as Kino’s journey, FLCL) that I consider to be literature.
Tsuki ga Kirei: We got a recap episode. I was slightly upset, but the phenomenal Uchouten Kazoku episode and the great MHA episode made up for it.
MHA:
I got a lot more from this than I did reading the manga. I’m really starting to like the characters and can’t help but root for them during the battles. This was a great episode, but I’m most looking forward to the next two (specifically Deku’s next fight) episodes.
Shingeki no Bahamut: Virgin Soul:
I love the fantasy genre in anime. I always find it to be the most interesting and most entertaining anime I watch. This show is no exception. It’s so damn entertaining that time passes by so fast. I swear, 20 minutes feels like 5 minutes when I’m watching this show.
Re: creators: The premise of this show is very interesting indeed. But by episode 7, all of the light novel/manga/video game characters grew more or less accustomed to the outside world. It’s fascinating to watch how their ideals dictate their actions and beliefs. The action scene is entertaining and we finally got some development on the show’s mystery.
SukaSuka: looks like this is moving towards a romance. I have mixed feelings about that.
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My wife has been trying to get me to drop some shows too, or at least drop writing about them, but I find myself being stubborn. :) :)
MHA had a nice blend of action, character moments, and exposition this week… A refreshing change from their over-reliance on the last of those so far this season. Honestly, the best ep so far. I’m looking forward to next week, I don’t know how they’re going to play it but – but the previews made it clear that Uraka isn’t going down without a fight. (I’d love it if she actually bested Bakugo. He badly needs a reality check.) If you’ve read the manga, no spoilers please! :)
I’m two eps (6-7) behind with SukaSuka ATM, but moving towards romance doesn’t surprise me. It’s been foreshadowed all to hell and back.
I keep hearing good things about re:Creators, but who knows when I’ll find time to watch it, and I badly do. Maybe if Noise or SukaSuka finally annoys me enough to drop them. Though the snippets of reviews of the latter that I haven’t been able to avoid seem to indicate an improvement over the last couple of eps…
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As I’ve said often enough, I think, the first season of Uchouten Kazuko is among my favourite anime ever (and a good candidate for favourite period). The second season isn’t quite that high in my esteem, but it’s been improving episode by episode, until last week, when it took a step back. Well, an upwards trend can’t contoniue forever. Or so I thought. This weeks episode was one of the best episodes of both season; alternately dense and tense, this episode tied up and summarised a lot of threads in just a few scenes, put the show’s philosophy front and centre (which is basically why I love the show so much; there are very few shows that could have been tailored to my world view), and basically accellerated the plot, with a turnaround that I didn’t expect. One of the development was obvious (though it could have happened later), but there’s another development I absolutely didn’t expect.
Alice to Zouroku had an excellent episode, too. If you’re going to shut down an organisation, you’ll have to tell us what happened to the other test subjects, and that’s what this episode did. Now that the pressure’s gone, they could relativise the “evils” of the organisation. The twins had a rather horrid backstory, and I loved how they got it done with a few suggestive backstory shot – enough to tell what’s been going on, not so much that it overwhelms the mood. On that background, it makes sense that the twins would have seen the organisation as a refuge. They were treated better in there than outside. The way they felt they didn’t warn Sana enough puts a subtly different spin on the early episodes, too. People say it’s a show of two halves, but I don’t see it. The organisation and slice-of-life parts integrate very well, IMO, and this was one of the more obvious episodes in that regard, I felt.
Attack on Titan had its worst episode yet. Eren-centric episodes don’t do it for me, and it seems they’re going to be more frequent from now on. Well, at least, we’ll probably get some new information next week? Pretty please?
MHA works better for me when it doesn’t focus on Deku, too, especially in this arc. Frankly, I think I might have enjoyed the show better had Deku enrolled in the support course with no quirk at all. He’d have made a great strategist with that notebook of his. MHA just isn’t cheesy enough for the punch of justice to work.
I missed Tsuki ga Kirei. Can’t be helped, I suppose.
Grimoir of Zero is in an interesting place, too, with the main duo having their obligatory falling out. It’s a pretty standard plot, but characterisation and point of view is what makes this an excellent show. More people don’t water down the show’s essence either; each new addition to the cast actually expands the show’s scope. Good road-trip fantasy show; perfect for people who enjoy this sort.
I’ve been dropping shows more easily this season, but I’m thinking I should have stuck with The Royal Tutor (would air on a convenient day, too), and Kabukibu (which I only dropped because it aired on an inconvenient day). It’s an uneven season: some days are packed, while others are empty. I could shift shows around, but if I’m not watching them as they appear I forget about them, so I’m not sure if that would work for me.
For what it’s worth, I’m still watching Renai Boukun, but they’re trying for story now, and that just doesn’t work. It means they slow down and the characters, while perfectly fine for a gag show, can’t carry an arc. Oh well.
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A lot of people seem to be in the “my enjoyment of AoT is inversely proportional to the amount of Eren” camp. (Me included.) I’m right there with you on worst ep this season. Which is a crying shame considering how well they’ve done so far.
Alice keeps going from strength to strength. Though with her “error”, I can’t help but wonder if “frazzled” is a synonym/symptom of that… She’s not actually the normal little girl she wants so badly to be. Though I’m pleased that it appears they’re going to skip the overdone “send the not-normal to a school full of normals” bit.
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Whoa, you get very busy during this time of year huh?
I think the only show I’m watching right now that you’re also watching is Sakura Quest. This week’s episode was great!
I hope that you aren’t overloaded and that you can stay well-rested.
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Busy is better than bored! That’s my motto. (Well, one of them anyways. :) )
Sakura has really matured with these two mini-arcs. They’ve still got a long way to go, but as you said on Twitter, P.A. Works is really starting to play to it’s strengths.
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