Tons of feels and big moments this week… Harakuna squares off against Eclair. Historia puts her foot down. Hinata… Oh, Hinata – why?
All this and more after the jump!
The shows that I am watching are in bold, shows my wife and I are watching together are in bold italics, and strikethrough marks dropped shows.
Attack on Titan 3 / Shingeki no Kyojin Ep 8 (Ep 45)
I may or may not have let out a heartfelt FINALLY! when Mikasa mentioned the basement. That d_mned Chekhov’s Gun has hanging over our heads ever since the first episode of the first series – all the way back in 2013. Well, it still is… but it was nice to seem them acknowledge it.
Also liking Historia’s new “take charge and move the eff out” persona. It was SO FREAKIN’ COOL to see her walk into that conference room – back straight and battle ready. Up until now I’ve not been too terribly impressed with her character. The last two eps have given me cause to rethink that position.
Cells at Work / Hataraku Saibou Ep 10
This week, Cells goes back to its well worn formula. But oddly enough, it seemed to work. The abundance of Platelet fanservice also helped smooth things over.
Speaking of platelets…
Chio’s School Road / Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro
No comment this week.
Encouragement of Climb 3 / Yama no Susume 3 Ep 11
Oh my… I thought Hinata would do something monumentally stupid and oh boy is she exceeding my worst nightmares. Not only is she holding on to her mad, but it has also caused her to injure herself and her stubborn prideful streak is causing her to hide it.
CGDCT has turned unexpectedly dark(er)… I’m loving it, and hating it. (If that makes any sense.) I’ll actually be really annoyed if they just laugh it off with no consequences. This series, these girls, are strong enough for tears. It’s the audience I worry about.
Grand Blue Dreaming Ep 9
I went and double checked the manga (which I should have been doing all along), and they didn’t really rush either segment of the episode… It just felt awfully rushed. I dunno.
Anyhow, this episode was a swing and a miss for me with many of the jokes failing to land… But they are going to close out the season with at least part of the Okinawa arc.
Hanebado! Ep 11
- Delayed due to the earthquake that struck Hokkaido on 9/6.
Harukana Receive Ep 10
I grant it’s an odd comparison, but Harakuna Vs. Eclair this week reminds me of my wargaming days. We were no doubt the best of friends (and thirty plus years later, still are), but once we sat down at the table – everything changed. We all played no mercy and to the best of our abilities. And there’s no better feeling than surprising someone who knows your playstyle inside and out.
Of course, there’s also the ancient trope (often associated with chess) of the child beating the father at a game he taught him. (Presuming of course that Harakuna wins over Eclair…)
All and all a darned good episode, if not the best of the season to date.
My Hero Academia 3 / Boku no Hero Academia 3 Ep 22 (Ep 60)
Is it just me, or is the scoring system in the Provisional Licensing Exam very oddly constructed? It seems designed to reward those who played it safe and cautious and took the fewest risks. On one hand, that seems to be a good thing – you don’t want fledglings overreaching their capabilities. On the other, we had a saying when I was in the Navy – “you fight like you train, so train like you intend to fight”.
On the gripping hand, the second years seemed to know what they needed to know. The problems were with the first years who are being accelerated through the course without adequate preparation.
And also, once again no serious consequences for the failures and eff ups.
Music Girls / Ongaku Shoujo
Still watching, no particular comment beyond it’s been disappointing the last few eps.
=========
-
Just an hour ago the Liz and the Blue Bird theatre list was updated, and it’s coming to Seattle! AND I HAVE TICKETS! I am very pleased.
-
I don’t know if any of my readers are threatened by Hurricane Florence, but if you are please be smart and stay safe!
-
And how did your week go? Your thoughts on the shows this week? Drop a comment and let us know!
Apprentice Mages Lounge. 
@ShingekiNoKyojin: Ep. #45 has some of the best lines in the whole series so far:
Sasha: “What basement? Oh, that whole thing? You mean it’s actually important?”
Mikasa (to Historia): “When you’re Queen, you can punch that runt in the face.”
Historia had the best lines in the previous episode, including when she punched Eren for being a crybaby.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yah, I laughed at Sasha talking about the basement. The author was having a bit of fun with us I suspect.
And anyone who smacks Eren, figuratively or literally, is OK in my book!
LikeLike
Vagueblogging #46 in case of dub-only watchers who are a few weeks behind:
The character who gets to punch Eren this week is… Eren? Going all Tyler Durden on us? Maybe he finally got rid of the brat.
Rod Reiss suffers a major loss of face.
Historia is intent on earning that throne, no?
Another gamble pays off… let’s all give Erwin a great big hand!
And another cliffhanger… will Kenny get one more shot at Levi?
LikeLike
I haven’t even watched that ep yet! :) :)
LikeLike
Well, watch it already! :) :)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m feeling very lucky right now, because the original storm track had Maryland getting 6-10 inches of rain, while the revised southward track estimates we’ll get more like 2 inches. Folks here were really worried that 10 inches of rain would bring a lot of trees down, because we’ve already had triple our usual amount of rainfall since May and the ground here is totally saturated.
And speaking of storms, Hinata sure is little miss killjoy right now. Getting irrationally angry is one thing, but letting that anger goad you into rash/stupid actions is far worse, especially when it’s a stupid action that puts your safety at risk. Even in Cub Scouts they teach you that in group hikes you don’t pass the lead hiker, and it’s exactly for reasons like what happened here. I’m finding myself wishing Kaede would pull Hinata aside for a long, long talk when they get back to camp, because she needs to talk to someone right now and she’s obviously not ready to talk to Aoi, not yet.
Out of curiosity, are you planning to do a writeup on Perfect Blue at some point? I saw from your feed that you saw it, and I was able to go see it myself on Monday (and drag along a Kon-fan friend of mine who somehow hadn’t seen it yet).
LikeLike
Forgot to ask, as you going to be able to see Liz?
LikeLike
Yes, and thank you for reminding me because I really should buy my ticket. I actually got lucky with Perfect Blue because they had it at my local neighborhood theater, but that’s rare – I usually have to go to DC for anime films, and Liz will be another of those.
LikeLike
We’ve had a long string of them coming locally, but we’re going to have to go to Seattle for MHA: Two Heroes and Liz. Which blows, but at least Liz is a Sunday afternoon showing so we won’t have to fight traffic in downtown Seattle. OTOH, our reward for fighting traffic in the ‘burbs to see Two Heroes will be dinner at our favorite conveyor sushi place…
LikeLike
I’ve been tracking lately what upcoming movies are going to which theaters, so that I can pass it on to my anime club kids, and there’s actually a good run coming up in my area. Over the next few months the HeroAca movie (which I don’t think I’m going to be caught up enough to watch before it comes out, unfortunately), this year’s Ghibli Fest movies, three upcoming Dragon Ball Z movies (I’m not into that, but some of my kids are), a Pokemon movie (ditto), and the next Hosoda movie (Mirai) are all scheduled to screen at theaters that are within 10-15 minutes of either where I live or where I work. Liz is the only one that I’d have to go all the way into DC for.
Truly a good time to be an anime fan.
LikeLike
My wife and I had a very serious discussion of how far we’d travel to see Liz… And decided we’d find budget for an overnight in Portland (3hrs away) if needed. When I saw it was playing in the next town over from my hometown I suggested I could fly home, visit family & friends, get some real BBQ, and, oh, catch Liz and the Blue Bird… She gave me her best “you’re pushing it buddy” look.
Mirai just popped up, and it’s local but is just across the bridge in Tacoma, so yay! (A theatre we haven’t been to before, and there’s a very interesting looking brewpub next door…) Maquia unfortunately is nowhere nearby.
It is indeed a very good time to be an anime fan.
LikeLike
Glad to here you’ll miss the worst of it… 10 inches of rain is a LOT of water. I have friends & family from the Carolinas to South Florida, so it’s pretty tense for me.
Hinata… yeah. Kaede seems to be aware of what’s going on, but kinda bumbled it by having Aoi take the lead. She’s still probably the best person to talk some sense into Hinata – when she reaches the point where she’s willing to listen. But she’s pretty wound up right now. It’s pretty cool though, all this flows naturally from stuff we’ve seen before about her personality. I’ve said for some time that YnS is more than just CGDCT…
Yeah, I’ve got an outline of something on Perfect Blue. Now that my season preview and weekly are out of the way, I’ll be trying to flesh it out and finish it. Hopefully I can get it to a point where I’m happy with it.
LikeLike
Nice, I’ll look forward to that!
I think Kaede probably put Aoi in front in order to separate them, in the hopes that it would de-escalate things and give Hinata time to cool down from whatever bee was in her bonnet. But yeah, it definitely didn’t work, since this thing has been building for a long time now – it’s not just going to go away with a little bit of distance.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m with you on both Attack on Titan and Cells at Work (that and Arthifis’ advice given it worked really great on my blog as well). I’m curious as to how some of these shows will end this season, but I also know a couple are going to hang around for a second cour so still plenty to go. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
LikeLike
Usually about this point I put my speculations on how things will end, but I spaced it… It’s hard to tell how much page traffic I’ve gotten, but the image searches stand out.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ooh, I want to see Liz and the Blue Bird in the cinema, too. Have fun!
There’s not much to say this week. Harukana was definitely in sport-show mode, but if it were a dedicated sport show we’d be at cour 4 or so, by now.
I’m chuckling at the Planet With jokes people are making, that season 3 starts next week. The show’s certainly economic at story telling. There are lots of characters and you know where each is coming from. There were two boss fights, all properly set up. But all this comes at the price of character depth. Not the story needs a lot of introspection, but you never learn more about the characters than you need to for the story. Which is fine. It’s still far and beyond the best show of the season (with only Hi Score Girl surpassing it, but not really available yet).
Subaru is getting silly (and not the entertaining kind), but at least it’s definitely its own thing.
And after 4 episodes, Frankenstein Family is a winner, even though it has its occasional hangups.
LikeLike
You’re the second person to say something like that about Harakuna – implying that it’s not a sport’s anime, or at least not a “real” one. Could you please expand? From where I sit it works as a sports anime…
Sounds like I’m going to have to make time for Frankenstein Family, you’re not the only one saying good things about it.
LikeLike
It’s the pacing and emphasis. They’re cramming a multi-season plot into a single cour, while also adding fanservice episodes that aren’t very focussed, reducing the sports time even more. It’s not that the show doesn’t work as a sports show when it does, it’s just that the show takes the tropes for granted and excerpts them so we can get a sports-flavoured CGDCT show. All the elements are there, but they don’t really receive the genre emphasis I’m used to.
Take, for example, when Eclair’s Mom trained them: We’d normally have seen that in detail, and we’d have at some time during that time have set up a training camp with their betters (through Mum’s contacts), some of which they’d already lost to, and we’d have seen that in detail, so we know exactly where they’ve improved.
The upshot of this is that a fan of the genre will see wasted opportunities a lot, while also seeing the show waste a little too much time choosing swim suits (though that sort of thing clearly also exists in a sports show, it’s usually de-emphasised more).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Have fun at the film! I’d love to go but I don’t seem to be getting that chance :/
As for stuff that’s watching, pretty similar thoughts on the overlapping stuff. You are father in MHA than me though so no comment (watching dubbed).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks!
The dub is… two weeks behind? So not that far.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, I just watched the charity special that ties into the film. The episode a lot of people were pretty meh about because it interrupts the arc.
LikeLiked by 1 person