It has been one heck of a week. Almost-but-not quite sick for two days (when I should have been writing). Spent most of Sunday without power due to a windstorm and Sunday night and most of Monday in a hotel. (No power means the apartment got too cold for our guinea pigs.)
All that and a dose of writer’s block – means an even shorter and less organized entry than usual. My apologies.
That being said, let’s hit the jump and get right to it shall we?
The shows that I am watching are in bold, shows my wife and I are watching together are in bold italics. Question marks denote shows not watched yet (during the premiere weeks), and strike through marks dropped shows.
A place further than the Universe / Uchuu yorimo Toui Basho – Ep 8
Our Heroines face more challenges on the journey. They’re now expected to act as adults, and that includes taking part in physical training and taking part in ship’s work. They’re not thrilled by either one… But they persevere. The big challenge however, is one that ganbatte can’t help much with – the hardships of the sea. Seasickness and dealing with the constant motion of the ship… There’s no magical cure for either, it just takes time. Happily, none of the girls are the type that never do get used to those things.
My lovely bride, who got seasick the first night on our anniversary cruise to Alaska sympathized with the girls. I don’t get seasick, so I found it hard to.
(I bet you thought I was going to sneak in a Navy anecdote? Well, I was… but it would take too long to set up/explain.)
Ancient Magus Bride – Ep 19
That was… a lot of new characters dumped on us at once. And I’m starting to wonder about the rule of law in the magical world… I mean, they’re organized enough to set up the dragon preserve… But not organized enough to block the sale of poached dragons. Kind of a rough-and-tumble setup to say the least.
citrus – Ep 7
And we add another vertice to the love (counts on fingers and toes) pentagon? Getting to the point where it’s hard to keep track. And, get this, the new entrant is a middle schooler – who knows what she wants (Yuzu) and has no qualms in being straightforward about it. squick
How to Keep a Mummy / Miira no Kaikata – Ep 6
A nice slow-paced cute-lil’-monsters-doing-cute-things episode. The sugar was laid on just a bit thick, but whatever.
Katana Maidens / Toji No Miko – Ep 6
~ Not watched ~
March comes in like a Lion
~ On Hiatus ~
Märchen Mädchen – Ep 6
That was… Much better done than I expected. I didn’t expect Hazuki to ‘re-write’ the story… But, as the ANN reviewer explains, that’s the world she grew up in. It makes sense when you think about it. Also interesting is that she re-cast Cinderella as a very modern and independent girl. (Again, reflecting to modern world rather than the magical world.)
Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles / Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san – Ep 7
Standard related hijinks.
Slow Start – Ep 7
That was… weird to say the least. This certainly is the season for inappropriate relationships isn’t it?
Yuru Camp / Laid-Back Camp – Ep 7
The long-awaited Rin-and-Nadeshiko hanging out in camp episode… And boy did it deliver in spades, showing just how comfortable they’ve become with each other. I’m really starting to love the country gramma routine. And once again one of the best food shows this season.
I’m ambivalent about the addition of the adults though. It did let them show us that Rin isn’t completely the camping goddess, but the drunk bit seemed out-of-place. Especially given the broad hint that she’s going to be a teacher at their school.
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And that’s a wrap. Or a blog entry of sorts at least… How did your week go? Drop me a comment with your thoughts!
Apprentice Mages Lounge. 
Oh dear, I hope this is going to be a better week for you (and the guinea pigs; I wasn’t aware they were sensitive to cold; I thought they were south american highland creatures with fur to resist the cold). Anyway, hope things are going better now.
@Slow Start: Not watching, but Remy wrote a pretty good article about this relationship (comparing it with the other show).
@Universe: The scene where our sea-sick ditz went out in the storm was… stupid. She could easily have been washed over board, and… while I’m not an expert on sea faring, I’m also wary about leaving a door open during a storm. Sure, not too much water should go in, but… I’d have hoped they’d been trained a little better. I now wonder how mum got lost, and whether it’s going to end in tragedy. (Kidding, but I did think the scene was a little dangerous – and the danger remained to unacknowledged.)
Other than that, I’m getting sea sick very easily, so that situation is a nightmare for me. I chuckled at the mention of land-sickness. Oh dear, yeah. I’m not the target for boat cruises.
I’m having lots of fun this season, but there isn’t much I want to talk about in general.
I really wish Violet Evergarden was better. It’s pretty good for an in-house franchise show, but… a lot of the scenes overplay the emotion (and I prefer understatement – or outright cheese). It’s good at times, and as usual with KyoAni, the scenery and character desings are great, but the cinematography is often rote and at times downright cliché. I think you’ll like it more than I once it becomes available in the US, but I don’t think your missing out on a masterpiece. The narrative control is just clumsy and obviously begging for sympathy. I don’t like the series composition, and the episodes themselves are often spotty, too. No details to avoid spoilers.
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I dunno about their wild counterparts, but domesticated piggies are certainly sensitive.
I’ll have to take a look at that article, I’m not caught up on the last few days of WP posts.
I like to think they were exaggerating the wave height some… Because with short wavelength waves that high, the boat would be in mortal peril. I dunno about the door, we didn’t have those. When we were on the surface, we kept the deck hatches shut if not in use, but that’s a completely different situation.
A lot of people seem disappointed to some degree about Evergarden. I think there was too much hype, and we as a community sometimes set the bar pretty high for KyoAni.
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I’m not actually that disappointed. KyoAni is good when they adapt out-house stuff, but they tend not to work for me when they do in-house franchises. Taking that into account, it’s actually pretty enjoyable. Sure, I don’t enjoy it that much, but it could have been a lot worse. I certainly like it better than Beyond the Boundry (same director). My fave in-house show is probably still Tamako Market, though.
I know next to nothing about sea-faring, but those waves looked quite dangerous. It’s easily possible they exaggerated them for dramatic effect.
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Magus Bride is starting to lose me a bit. By the end of that episode I was back with it but man the first half was really rough. Fist time I’ve been bored with it.
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Yah. That was a lot of new characters and relationships thrown at us at once, plus a ton of exposition. It was hard to make us care when all we wanted to know was the fate of the baby dragons.
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Exactly. Plus when I started the episode I was super confused. It felt really disjointed.
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