Our first finale of the season… and a late season drop! Any guesses as to which it was? Hit the jump and see if you’re correct! (And let me know down in the comments.)
Just as a reminder, shows that I am watching are in bold, shows my wife and I are watching together are in bold italics.
Ancient Magus Bride, ep 10
Chise travels alone to meet with Lindel and obtain her wand. While there, we learn Lindel’s backstory and he relates the first half of Elias’ backstory. Some very nice character bits here… We learn why Chise is so willing to remain dependent on Elias. Elias for his part seems particularly lonely with Chise absent.
But… It’s a bit late in the season for yet another infodump/zig in the storyline. I’m enjoying my time in their world, but I’ve all but given up hope of the current-time story going anywhere.
Anime Gataris, ep 10
Just when you think things couldn’t get any zanier… We discover the reason the Principal is so down on anime. He had a career in anime, a career brutally cut short when the show he was directing was cancelled after a single episode. And, it turns out that was the anime Minoa has been searching for all this time.
Through the power of the internet and crowdsourcing they assemble a crowd of people who loved the anime – and the principal slinks off in defeat. I guess it really is true, there’s no anime so bad that somebody doesn’t rate it as their all time favorite.
Still some plot threads left hanging, and a couple of more mysteries introduced. I think the anime club still isn’t out of the woods.
Blend-S, ep 10
Getting back to basics this week and concentrating on the core cast… My wife and I chuckled all the way through.
Girls Last Tour, ep 10
As I’ve said before, there’s some eps of some shows that I’m not even capable of reviewing… This week, I sit in slack-jawed awe over GLT.
I must admit to being curious what role the cat/rat/weasel thing will play in upcoming episodes. Despite the encounter with the fish, Yuu doesn’t seem to have much use for anything living that she can’t eat.
Idolmaster: SideM, ep 10
Kind of an odd story choice this week. Other than W (who has yet to make their debut), all the units have had their focus episodes… So I figured it was either time for W’s focus and debut or something leading up to the 315Pro concert. (Unusually for the iM@S franchise, that lead up has been remarkably drama free.) Instead, the episode focused on HighxJoker… Preparing for their school festival, they were dismayed to find out they’d been scheduled to play a concert that day – however, it turned out they’d been hired to perform at said festival. After the usual hijinks and soul-searching, the concert was a success.
Inuyashiki, ep 9
More senseless killing by Shishigami. No real plot advancement. I just can’t deal with it anymore. Dropped.
Just Because, ep 9
Ena continues her unabashed pursuit on Eita… Frankly, she’s got it bad. Eita remains rather uncertain about the whole thing (even after she inadvertently confessed) because he remains focused on Mio. Mio for her part, goes through some rude awakenings… Just as she’s chased a fantasy version of Haruto, her choice of college was made more-or-less on autopilot. (It’s the college her older sister went to.) Her comment last ep (how she was jealous of those with their futures figured out) takes on especial poignancy considering how her view of her future is now shifting…
Konohana Kitan, Ep 10
Mostly a quiet episode, nothing at all wrong with that. This week both segments focused on Satsuki – and her adjusting how she views the world around her. Bit of a twist at the end… Turns out she wasn’t sent to Konohanatei because she didn’t make the grade, but because her sister didn’t make the grade. Unless the family owed some kind of duty to Konohanatei, I’m a little confused. Wouldn’t you want the more reliable and mature daughter representing the family as a priestess?
Land of the Lustrous, ep 10
Another show that this week I don’t quite know what to say… It was fascinating to watch Bort take Phos under their wing, and interesting how the much changed Phos still retains her fear of the overbearing Bort. The sequence of Dia fighting the Lunarian monster… chilling as hell. We’re used to seeing Dia in her gentle, sweet mode (emphasized earlier in the ep) and not thinking of her as a skilled and determined warrior.
Battered, broken and undaunted – she defends the school and attacks the Lunarian with her own leg… As Bort watches in horror.
Love Live Sunshine, ep 10
This episode was a mixed bag… Sunshine follows in the footsteps of it’s predecessor and begins to say goodbye to its third-years with three episodes left to run. As I’ve said all along the series really shines when it lets the characters interact naturally – and this (other than the suddenly introduced convenient backstory) was one of the finest examples of both seasons. It really worked well to show how valuable their past and their friendship was to Kannan, Dia, and Mari – and how uncertain that makes them about their futures.
March Comes in like a Lion, ep 9
Simply awesome. Capping both of the current arcs, and tying them neatly together. When Rei (with his newfound empathy) sussed out where Hinata had to be hiding and sought her out to comfort her… Well, there may have been some onion ninjas running around my apartment.
Recovery of an MMO Junkie, ep 10 – Finale
Coming into this episode, the big question was will they or won’t they get together? And they pulled a fast one on us – by coming up with a different answer: They’re cool with just being awkward friends and awaiting developments. A low-key no-drama approach that would have been frustrating in any other show… But just coasting to the closing credits turned out to be the perfect approach here.
MMO Junkie is nowhere near the AOTS (and never could be except in the weakest of seasons), but it was still a darn fine show.
Wake Up Girls: New Chapter, ep 10
More random fussing about and emphasising how hard the girls work to stay a cohesive unit… something we already knew. It just feels like they’re trying to run out the clock before the budget runs out. Animation quality, never WUG’s strong suit to begin with, has taken a visible hit since the skipped episode. Fanboy that I am, even I’m starting to get frustrated.
Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero: Hero Chapter, ep 3
Yuuki Yuuna sets a new record for grim… Which is actually a pretty high bar for this series. The grim arises from the sharp contrast between the two intertwined stories. The first of these is a light slice-of-life tale of the Hero Club’s daily life and activities. The second is a series of incidents, accident and injuries that befall the members of the club. (Culminating in Fu being seriously injured in an auto accident.) Yuuki despairs because every time she starts to mention the mark she bears, she sees the same mark on her friends – and another accident happens. She’s trapped in a hellish place, her friends are getting hurt, and she believes that it’s all her fault.
And… there you have it! Another week in review… Let me know how your week went in the comments!
Apprentice Mages Lounge. 
I love how there is no consensus as to what that new pet thing Yuu and Chi picked up is. At first I thought it was some gigantic worm but decided to call it a cat because I couldn’t think of anything else. 😂 It’s such a weird animal.
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A lot of people are calling it a cat, but it seems too skinny and low to the ground to me… I suspect it’s ambiguous on purpose.
Thanks for stopping by the Lounge!
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Probably. It could be some mutated creature or something that adapted to live in this “dead” world.
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@Girl’s Last Tour: That creature reminds me a lot of these silly, elongated statues, the ones in the “church”. I don’t think it’s a coincidence.
@MMO Junky: Things that sound cheesy on paper somehow work out on screen. Their avatars walking with them in the reflection, and then turning and walking the other way was a nice touch. As an idea it sounds hopelessy corny. But in execution it somehow worked out for me.
@Konohana Kitan: That twist made sense to me at the time of watching. Sadly, I don’t remember the episode well enough, anymore. I tend to have that problem with Konohana Kitan a lot. It’s not a show I think about much. It’s very in-the-moment.
As for what you dropped: I’d guessed it would either have to be Animegataris or Inuyashiki (with Blend S being a very distant possibility, but it doesn’t seem like the sort of show for a late-drop). I was leaning towards Inuyashiki, but I was wondering whether it’s my bias.
Finally, the more I learn about the plot of Foodwars, the less sense it seems to make. It’s reaching let-them-eat-cake levels of stupidity. It’d probably end like that, too, if this show didn’t run on shounen fighter logic. There’s got to be something they haven’t revealed yet, that makes sense of everything. There’s got to be. (The fun thing is that it doesn’t matter whether it makes sense or not; Asami is an excellent villain – very easy to hate. And the plot not making any sense also gives me a certain level of unpredictability.)
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@Girl’s Last Tour – I had the same thought.
@MMO Junkie – Did you catch that the avatars also walked off hand in hand? I didn’t expect much going in, but was very pleasantly surprised.
Oh no, Anime-Gataris is nowhere near drop territory… I keep watching to see how silly/bizarre it’s going to get. Plus this week’s dose of punning anime titles. Blend-S has disappointed a time or two, but it always bounces right back. (Crossing fingers.)
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@MMO Junky: Yup, I noticed. They seemed more comfortable with each other than the real-life date, which is just so on spot. Everything about the execution of this detail is just so right. Understated and cute, instead of just sappy (which is a real danger in such scenes).
I admit I only skimmed what you had to say about Anime-Gataris. After the first episode, the show mostly just bored me, and I had no curiosity whatsoever about the show or possible reactions towards it. About Inuyashiki I noticed that you were initially interested and grew colder towards the show, but I didn’t quite realise it was heading towards a drop (you might have said so, but if so I forgot). I’m also biased against that show, because I hated Gantz and saw the same pattern repeated in episode one of Inuyashiki, so getting out as fast as possible was a no-brainer for me.
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Though I was fast losing interest, I didn’t go into the week expecting to drop… But essentially a full episode of mass murder and I was done.
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Frankly, I’m also on the verge of dropping Inuyashiki. I had such hopes for the show after the first episode, and I have been getting into each week’s story as I watch them. Yet I notice that I always seem to avoid watching the latest episode in favor of something else to watch. I know we’ll see more killing, more injustices, and it almost feels masochistic to want to see it.
MMO Junkie really was such a fun little show for the fall, and though I had my disagreements with it from time to time, I think they did a fine job wrapping the story up in the end. I wish we could’ve gotten to know more about some of the other guild members since we were teased with snippets of their lives here and there, and I’m not sure why the English title translates as “recovery” when I’m not exactly sure what has been recovered (her self confidence? His insecurity?), but that’s okay.
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Yeah, it started strong. But it’s gone nowhere really for four eps now I think? Just more of the same.
I’d hoped to see more of the guild too, esp after the build up they gave Kauzomi/Kanbe – and there’s a girl in the ED we never saw at all which I presume to also be one of the guildies. On the other hand, it really wasn’t their story…
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Some gift of the magi stuff is going on for Just Because! now. Eita’s now aiming for what he was told was Natsume’s first-choice (her sister’s college), but Natsume is now aiming for the university for which Eita received a recommendation.
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I caught that… Wonder how they’re going to resolve it.
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Some people didn’t hence why I bring it up.
I have guesses in my head that I’ve spread around in other blogs, but we’ll have to wait and see and hope that Just Because! actually finishes since these delays are keeping us in suspense.
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