Aldnoah.Zero – 05

To their enemies and detractors, Slaine and Inaho are insignificant, pathetic, impudent nobodies. Even so, Slaine is able to contact the Emperor of Vers, while Inaho must face off against Vlad a second time, and a second time shows him the door, only this time it’s a permanent arrangement.

Unfortunately, Slaine’s efforts have the opposite effect that he intended, because Count Saazbaum got to His Majesty first. The emperor may know Slaine since he was a child rescued by his granddaughter after crash landing on Mars, but right now all he cares about is exacting justice for an assassination that didn’t really happen, and certainly wasn’t the UE’s fault.

The emperor had initially issued an armistice this week, but you wouldn’t have known it from Vlad’s actions. Apparently repairing his personal honor through a rematch with the “Orange Brat” trumps an imperial decree. But when the cat’s away the mice will play, and the cat is between 54.6 and 401 million km away.

Vlad lands on the deck of the aircraft carrier where Inaho & Co are aboard and starts wrecking up the place, but while the professional soldiers in their top-of-the-line kataphrakts are carved up like a cake, Inaho is ready for him with more unconventional tactics, making full use of explosive armor, putting Vlad’s kat into a hold.

Vlad’s so confident he’s going to make mincemeat out of Inaho’s orange trainer, he neglects his surroundings. Inaho has the helm tilt the ship as he has Vlad caught in a hold, then bails out as the two kats fall overboard. The heat from Vlad’s own swords causes a steam explosion that destroys him.

All in all, pretty awesome battle, though he makes the other soldiers look bad, they’re products of their conventional military training, which won’t work against Vers. It’s also a nice touch that the one to pick him up from his escape pod is Rayet, holding out a hand, seeming to say wordlessly “I like living, so thanks for saving us. Again.”

Rayet also seems to do Asseylum a favor by discouraging her from revealing herself to the ship’s captain and asking them to contact her gramps. Gramps is convinced she’s dead, and unless she can sneak into an orbital knight’s castle and contact him directly, he’ll stay convinced.

Since Saazbaum is now aware of Slaine’s treachery, further communication with the emporer by anyone with the actual truth in their possession will be no mean feat. The armistice is off again, as are the gloves.

Sword Art Online II – 05

Ah, Kirito…so good with a sword and at dodging bullets…not so good at avoiding unfortunate situations. To whit: he follows Sinon into the girl’s locker room, forgetting he’s a guy. She’s already in her underwear, so all he can do is tell her the truth and apologize right then and there. Perhaps not undeservedly, Sinon sours on him at once.

She’s mad not just because he misrepresented himself and got a free show, but every bit as much (if not more) because she let herself get fooled; let herself believe she’d finally met another strong girl in GGO; someone she could trust. While it wasn’t Kirito’s intention, he did make a fool of her, and that’s not something she’ll easily forgive.

Still, even before the revelation, Sinon warned Kirito that she wouldn’t go easy on him if they meet in the finals; there can one be one BoB champion, after all. Now considering him her enemy, she makes him promise to meet her there so she can personally teach him “the taste of the bullet that means defeat.”

It’s a harsh position, but like I said, Kirito made her remember how much stronger she needs to become. Meanwhile, Sinon, while declaring she’ll “beat all the strong ones” with a slightly twisted smirk on her face, reminds Kirito of Death Gun, the whole reason he’s here. He’ll know for sure when he gets to fight her who she is, but first he’ll have to win five battles to reach the finals.

The first battle, set in an ancient ruin at dusk, is a bit hairy at first until Kirito catches on to the way GGO informs you of bullet trajectories. He dodges his opponent’s bullets with acrobatics, speed, and his light sword, which he uses to run him through. One down, four to go. It’s tiring, but it’s doable.

Then, back in the staging area, where Shinkawa Kyouji (our candidate for Death Gun), is watching Sinon fight on the monitors, Death Gun himself suddenly sidles up to Kirito, asking if he’s “the real thing.” Kirito gets the vibe from the guy that they know each other, and his tattoo confirms it: he’s a fellow SAO survivor and former member of PK guild Laughing Coffin.

It’s not surprising that Kirito wouldn’t be the only SAO player in GGO, and that some of those other players might not be all right in the head. Since Kirito was a thorn in Coffin’s side, there’s no doubt at this point that he is now on his list of strong ones to eliminate. So much for a low profile!

Sailor Moon Crystal – 03

And then there were three.

Hino Rei AKA Sailor Mars is introduced quickly and efficiently, just in time to aid in the Guardian’s “toughest” fight to date, against one of the Four Kings of the Dark Kingdom, Jadeite, who is done delegating his work to underlings.

I hasten to note that the villains continue to be the most underwhelming aspect of this show so far, but there’s a certain retro appeal to their general ineptness. After all, who wants to see the Sailor Guardians lose, especially to these heels?

Usagi meets Rei when Ami makes her aware of her existence, and Rei is so beautiful Usagi sets to work stalking her immediately. In this instance Usagi’s shallowness proves integral to not only recruiting Rei, but helping Rei discover why she was born with strange powers.

I liked how Rei sensed a “demonic atmosphere” when Usagi arrived at her shrine and acted accordingly. Usagi isn’t what I’d call “not trouble”, but it’s the good kind of trouble that protects the weak and punishes evil.

Jadeite adopts a local legend of a “demon bus” that spirits people away, something for which the parents of one child blame Rei and her peculiar powers. But no, it’s just the bad guys taking loads of hostages to serve as Sailor Guardian bait, and it works like a charm.

You’d think Jadeite and his ilk would be able to sense Rei’s latent powers, but he treats her as another human hostage. Usagi’s impulsive, shortsighted nature leads to her discovering where the hostages are being held.

Jadeite’s oversight proves poetically unfortunate. Moon and Mercury’s magic has little effect on him, but Rei’s fire easily cancels out his ice. Jadeite’s pal Nephrite talked big earlier, but he’s notably absent when Jadeite is suddenly outnumbered three-to-one.

With the introduction of the bad-ass Sailor Mars, we’ve got two more guardians to meet, plus they have to figure out who this “princess” is they’re supposed to protect, as well as locate the “Legendary Silver Crystal.” There’s lots more to do, but plenty of time to do it. Meanwhile, things are coming together nicely.

Tokyo Ghoul – 05

When you become a ghoul, you may not be able to eat human food, but it isn’t automatically the end of your old life. Even for those who aren’t half-ghoul like Ken, your human life lives on, and ghouls are given a choice: to continue living moral lives and do as little harm as possible, or turn into a binge-eating beast.

The former seems quite a bit more difficult than the latter. For the likes of the late Rize and Shuu, humans are no longer anything but fodder. Yoshimura, Touka, Hinami, and the rest of the mainstreaming ghouls at Anteiku and elsewhere, still see humans as having value, and not just value as food, which they very much are at the end of the day.

It’s silly to argue that denying yourself something you not only desperately want, but need for survival, is a more natural state than simply eating whoever when you’re hungry and not worrying about anything else. Murderous ghouls may shrug off their behavior as no different than a lion taking a gazelle, but that’s a false defense, because lions didn’t have the choice they had.

Also, Shuu isn’t just eating for survival, but for fun (and possibly sexual release). Like George Costanza, he’s turned food and sex (though not TV) into one disgusting uncontrollable urge. He’s rich and powerful, but look how alone he is in his dark and airy mansion. It’s only a matter of time before he ends up like Rize. He’s a walking talking cautionary tale on how not to live a ghoul life.

Then there are those who toe the line between the worlds of man and beast, like Nishio Nishiki, who is alive. I thought Ken killed him for sure, but I underestimated a ghoul’s ability to heal. I didn’t really think much of him when he was last defeated—bored, arrogant college playboy; a smaller-time Shuu—but this episode doesn’t just see fit to return to his story, but fully flesh out his past.

Ken rescues Nishiki from a gang of ghouls as they’re about to eat him (we don’t see the fight that ensues, but Yomo’s training is working), then meets Nishiki’s lover, Kimi (whom we saw in the second ep). Shuu, keepping an eye on Ken, then uses Kimi as bait, and Ken and a still-weak Nishiki go to Shuu’s to save her. Shuu wants to eat Ken while’s he’s eating Kimi. Lovely.

Even Ken, Nishiki, and a just-in-time Touka aren’t close to being match for him, as Touka’s friend’s cooking has weakened her considerably (and Shuu suggests she was once colder and thus stronger “long ago.) During the battle’s halftime we get a sprawling flashback of how Nishiki and his sister lived in squalor as young ghouls, but managed to scrape by.

Nishiki’s sister was reported and taken away by Doves, leaving him alone and very much leaning towards becoming a vengeful monster. Then he meets Kimi, a human, at college, and they start a relationship. As it turns out, he saved her, as she had lost her entire family in an accident just before they met.

After Ken blasted a hole in him, Nishiki was again saved by Kimi’s love, when she offers him flesh from her shoulder to heal him. This is why, back in the present, no matter how much Shuu beats him down, he won’t give up until he’s dead. Kimi is everything to Nishiki, and while he may not be a saint, he’s at least capable of seeing humans as more than meat, which means there’s hope for him.

Ken may not have seen the flashback we saw, but he gets the same idea Kimi had when he realizes no one will get out of Shuu’s mansion alive if Touka can’t get stronger. So willingly offers to her the very thing Shuu has been going mad trying to take by force: his half-human flesh. Like Popeye’s spinach, it looks like it will do the trick, though that fight will have to wait until next week.

Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? – 02

Lacking violent means to win control over the apartment, the tenants agree to resolve their quarrel with card games. Old Maid appears popular and Magic Girl steadily loses territory over the course of the week.

Meanwhile, all the girls join Satomi’s high school and get settled in for the long haul. By the end of the week the Magic Girl is tricked into joining the cosplay society. unfortunately for everyone else, she plays better at cards when she’s too tired to over think things and she wins back much of her territory.

Initially, as a way to edge each other out, the girls come together and start doing nice things for Satomi. Boobs makes nice dinner and the Aliens help. Ghost sees him off to work and, thus far they have the strongest alliance, ultimately only wanting the room as a room. the cosplayer doesn’t do anything but they all take pity on her for having no money or food.

the group concedes that they are all getting bored and need a new way to compete over the room. Next week it looks like we’re in for an obstacle course challenge…

I especially enjoyed the silly graphic showing how much room, in the room, each person controlled. It didn’t real matter for the purposes of the episode, as no one lost it all and was kicked out but it was a fun addition to the normal goings on.

Otherwise, the episode was as before: cute and average looking. we learn a little bit more about the characters but honestly, there isn’t much to know about them. They are tokens. Objects. Archetypal to the point of me not even being able to remember their names…