Finally… The scene I didn’t know I was holding my breath for…
Anyhow, I probably shouldn’t use the intro blurb to gush too much! It’s a busy week, both IRL and in various anime worlds – so hit the jump and let’s get to it!
The shows that I’m watching are in bold, shows my wife and I are watching together are in bold italics, strikethrough marks dropped shows and (*) marks shows with no comments this week.
Fruits Basket The Final (Crunchy) Episode 6
Damm… After all this time, Tohru finally says it out loud. Finally starts to accept that it’s “OK” to be selfish. That it’s OK to live for herself.
Now she just needs to get the courage to tell Kyo to his face. I think he’s just about ready to accept it… But that ending. What did he remember? What horror is he about to relive? C’mon, it’s the Sohma’s, there’s very little chance of a happy memory.
Also, WTF Shigure? Why are you so blatantly stoking the fire? Has your love/hate relationship with Akito tipped back towards blind rage? Do you no longer care about the effects of your actions on others?
Lynn over at The Otaku Author crystallized something I was thinking after Dawn’s comments last week: Somehow, breaking the curse is tied to believing in, loving someone other than Akito. Except for Kureno, who outright breaks that theory… Could it be that he loves Akito-the-person rather than “loves” Akito-the-incarnate-god? (The latter is practically in their DNA.)
HIGEHIRO (Crunchy) Episode 6
Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway
Hige wo Soru. Soshite Joshikosei wo Hirou.
That was… wow, dark. And somehow, not unexpected because at least some of Sayu’s past abusers were bound to be serious pieces of garbage. They’re all somewhere on the garbage scale, but some are further down. Much further down.
And I don’t buy that he’s reformed one bit. His “honorable” act of “keeping” his promise is him covering up the fact that he’s a rapist and liable for criminal prosecution – and he knows it. The worst part, he’s still there. He’s still where Sayu can be reminded on a regular basis.
Yoshida and Asami (and Gotou) supporting her is only going to go so far… And on that topic, I specifically wish the adults were less vague. So far it’s all about what they want her to be, and less about what they can do to help her. So much is on Sayu’s shoulders alone… And only Asami seems to be really reaching out emotionally.
(*) I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level (Crunchy)
Episode 5
I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level
Slime Taoshite 300-nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Level Max ni Nattemashita
Let’s Make a Mug Too (Crunchyroll) Episode 6
Yakunara Mug Cup Mo
That went in an unexpected direction. I get what they’re trying to do, edutainment and tourism and all that… But they keep coming so close to being (for lack of a better term) a “real” show. With just a little more effort on the part of the production staff this could have been a really good show.
Mashiro no Oto (Crunchy) Episode 6
Those Snow White Notes
There’s a number of shows this week that veered a little off course, but in a good way. And Mashiro is practically the poster child.
It started out looking pretty much like that standard of school club anime – the training camp. But the trainer brought so much more to the table. He also shared the history of Tsugaru-style shamisen… and shed light on Grandpa’s struggles. I also like love his enlightened viewpoint of the tradition, “the past is prologue”. It’s a living, growing thing. Not a museum piece frozen in time.
Other than that, he was a typical trainer in that he didn’t actually take much part in the club’s practices. Concentrated practice is a good thing (BTDT with some of my Navy training), but why call it training camp when there’s so little training? Is it a translation thing? Or just an oddball anime trope?
Along the way, we get some nice character moments for/from Yaguchi and Shuri. And why has no anime ever used the “swap the rinse water for cold water” schtick before? At least in retrospect it’s so d*mm obvious!
My Hero Academia Season 5 (Crunchy) Episode 7 / Episode 89
Boku no Hero Academia 5
Not much to say here other than Tenya, d*mm son. That’s beyond hardcore.
Super Cub (Funimation)
Not watched (yet) because this is being posted before my wife gets home. Will watch when she gets home.
So I’m a Spider, So What? (Crunchy) Episode 17
Kumo desu ga, Nanika?
It was fascinating and informative to see Kumoko from the human side as the “Nightmare of the Labyrinth”. Schun is also markedly growing into his role as a leader and The Hero.
But beyond that, there wasn’t a lot of progress or to comment on this week. There’s a ton of little mysteries introduced, and no way to talk about them with any feeling of certainty.
Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song (Funimation) Episode 7
I was fairly disappointed in this episode. It made some sense to start with, after the previous arc Diva/Vivy seems to have suffered the equivalent of a mental breakdown. As a result she was rebooted, and all the effects of her previous experiences seemed to have vanished as a result. This was partly foreshadowed in Eps 3-4, where memory transfers (from Estella to Elizabeth) seem to have caused psychological issues of some sort… enough to deem the experiment a failure. But why didn’t the reboot Elizabeth? Why was she simply discarded?
But even so, Diva seemed awfully eager to chase after Matsumoto and force him to give her an explanation. The whole “I’ve had these strange things in my head” they used to justify her actions just didn’t sit well.
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Early post this week because I have my 2nd vaccination appointment tomorrow… and so I’ll be busy getting ready for potential side effects and then at the clinic. I’ll review this weeks episode of Super Cub next week, but feel free to comment. (I’ll stay away from the comments until I’ve seen it.)
Also it’s been nice to have warmer weather finally. Got out and went walking and geocaching [Wikipedia link] the last two weekends. Nine caches this last weekend! And some great views along the shore and walking the trails along the Greenway.
I’ve also gotten out some during the week if you’ve been watching my twitter.
I really need to get some time to get back up there and contemplate this log and some of the other trimmed trees nearby. I hate it when my muse is all secretive and mysterious!
Anyhow, over to you! What did you think of this week’s shows? Has your muse spoken recently? Drop a comment and let’s chat!
Apprentice Mages Lounge. 
@Fruits Basket:
Ah, key episode.
Do you remember how I always wondered how the curse worked? What if someone died? How would the next person being chosen. This week there’s this offhand comment from Shigure: This is the first time (in a long time? ever? I don’t remember) that all zodiacs are around at the same time. Ah, figures. Shigure thinks it’s the ending banquet, but it could just be coincidence. Then again, it is a magical thing… Interesting.
Interestingly, at the very start of the show, before we ever saw Kyou with Tohru’s mum, something struck me: They both have orange hair, and if you tag a -ko onto Kyou you get Kyouko. I sat there staring at the screen and wondering how I went two whole seasons and a couple of episodes without noticing it, and then they show the pictures with Kyou and Kyouko together. A lot of things appear in a different light now. Tohru’s always heard the zodiac tale from her mum, right? And she always sympathised with the cat. Now I really wonder what the connection here is. How, if at all, was Tohru’s mum connected to the Souma’s? Who was her dad? Is the hair-colour/name similarity a meta thing, or an in-universe hint? How did she die? Was the cat involved and was Hatori involved with the memory wipe to hush it up? There were times in the show when I did have a hunch that both Shigure and Hatori actually knew more about Tohru than they let on, but I dismissed it and don’t remember any details anymore.
It’s amazing how often the show confirms strange, out-of-nowherer intuitions for me. I wonder how that works. (The Hatori/Shigure-know-Tohru-from-before thing is far from confirmed, and I still expect it to turn out wrong, but it also feels more likely now than back when I dismissed it). Do I subconsciously pick up on hints? Do I have similar “writerly mind” to the author? I often have this hunches in other shows, too, but it’s not that often that they hit the mark. But it’s happening consistently with FB. Why?
Breaking the curse: Shigure seems to think it’s simply about to expire, or that’s what he publicly admits. I don’t think it’s as simple as love. The Momiji episode started with a parade of relationships that actually have a chance of being mutual, but the one unrequited love is what breaks the curse. I think if you place yourself into triangle with Akito/the curse you put importance on the link and empower the curse, I think. Hatsuhiro’s thread started to fray when he got really angry at Akito. Sure, it was on account of Rin, but that relationship isn’t exactly new. I think what you said about Kureno is more along the lines of the show, but in a slightly different take. The more you face Akito as a person rather than a god, the more she becomes one. Kureno gives me vibes of a severe depression. My guess would be he simply didn’t care anymore, and on that background he started to notice that Akito’s not any better off than he is. The curse, here lost to sheer mental exhaustion. Not sure really. Maybe we’ll get to know more about this, maybe we won’t.
Why did the cap trigger that particular memory for Kyou? I know it’s his cap, but still…
@Higehiro:
Reformed? I don’t get the vibes that the show wants us to think that. I also don’t think it’s a cover up. He might just be the type who likes to keep promises, at least when it’s easy. I even think his apology was genuine; it’s just that to him it’s no big deal. I think “I was a bit rough” is the extent to which he apologised, and he really thinks that’s all it was.
As for “the worst part”, yeah. And they go the usual anime route, too: “I can’t forgive you, but…” That’s the flip-side of harmony culture. Gaman.
That’s… difficult, though. I think Gotou did pretty well, actually, within her means. Yoshida is probably trying to give her space, but he’s in danger of settling into a comfortable routine. (And it’s sort of galling that it’s Mister Scummy who called him out this week: “So what are you going to do? You can’t send her to school, can you?” Yuzuha’s “Are you sure you won’t fall in love,” also sort of nearly hits the point with the development of a comfortable routine rather than a real connection, but that’s sort of the outline of a domestic career often part-and-parcel of the domestic minded.)
Asami can do things, though, the others can’t as easily, because she’s a peer with no dependency issues. She can talk about her own future, for starters.
I think the show’s doing farely well on this account, even portaying the pitfalls here.
@Cup: Oh, I loved that monument. For a while, I thought she wandered into the fairy realm, and when she emerges a hundred years will have passed. But generally I see what you mean. I quite like the show, but with scenes like this one I should be loving it. I’m not.
@Vivy: I don’t really think much about the show. It’s entertaining enough to watch, but I’m not expecting a huge rewarding experience that stays with me. I don’t think either the time travel or androids-as-non-humans aspect is particularly well done, so I just take things in stride.
@Mashiro no Oto: Now I wonder what the Japanese word is they use for “training camp”, and it means. It’s certainly not only about actually training; it’s also about the nakama experience. You do what you’re doing anyway, but you isolate yourself with the people in your club. I think the social part is as important as the actual training.
@Spider: That immortality skill is quite something. Disintegrate the body, and as long as the soul remains you can grow the body right back? Oof. The vestiges were pretty creepy.
And there was a spider in the classroom? Don’t tell me we’ve got a joint re-incarnation here; someone in the class getting mixed up with the spider? Or was that just some visual joke?
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Sorry for the VERY belated reply… The side effects hit me pretty hard.
re: Fruits Basket
Hmm… But that doesn’t explain Momoji. But it does have interesting implications for Shigure and how freely he’s been able to behave – and Akito’s inability to rein him in. Is Shigure’s cord already broken?
Maybe it’s somewhere in the middle/a combination of the two? Love, requited or no, leads to the realization that Akito is really just a person?
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Ooh, sorry to hear about the side-effects. Glad that’s over. Out of interest: what vaccine did they give you? I’m getting my second shot of the Cromarty Pfizer vaccine at the end June. My mum had that, too, and had no side-effects at all. But with that one, it’s the second that’s more problematic (or so they say).
As for FB: I never meant to say that love’s irrelevant, but as a condition it’s definitely not sufficient, and maybe not necessary. The seeing-Akito-as-a-person bit isn’t the reason either, as the bond’s a strong supernatural obstacle that needs to be undermined so your perspective on Akito can change. In many ways, it’s the result of the curse breaking rather than what leads to it. I’m thinking you need a strong emotional trigger, and love can certainly provide that or create the context. It’s hard to explain, so I’m not sure how much sense I’m making.
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