Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun 2nd Stage – 07 – Leaping to an Unknown World

Something I’ve been able to glean about Mimimi through her interactions with Tomozaki is that she likes the guy. She’s probably also happy he’s come out of his shell more. So when the two end up alone together on the way home, she flirts with him via head-butt, only to discover he’s sturdier than she thought. He responds by saying she’s just really light, without realizing the intimate position they’re in.

As usual Mimimi cuts the awkwardness short by declaring that they keep walking. Tomozaki, eager to check another photo of his Insta list, tells Mimimi he has a sudden craving for ramen. When she orders gyoza instead, he resorts to asking her to have a bite, which catches her as off guard as his “really light” compliment. He gets a “blurry” shot of her, then surprises her again by scarfing a gyoza she offers. They technically share two indirect kisses.

When the two part for the evening, Mimimi is suspicious of whatever Brain’s up to, but also clearly enjoyed having a meal with him, and perhaps happy to be the first person he’s invited to an after-school meal. And while Tomozaki is a nervous wreck trying to get Mimimi’s photo, his recent interactions with Tama tell him that the best method with her is to be upfront. She gives him a funny face, he snaps it for his Insta, box checked!

Fuuka brings her manuscript for Tomozaki to read, and once he does, he has a lot of positive feedback, including about how one of the stories reminded him of her favorite author, Andi. When he says one of the stories was cut off, she turns as red as someone as fair-skinned as she is can turn, and admits to having not yet finished that. But as soon as Tomozaki volunteered to direct an original play for the culture festival, my first thought was “…and Fuuka can write it.”

That’s exactly what goes down, but because Fuuka is being so careful not to break this story she loves so much, he assumes she wouldn’t be ready to have anyone perform her work. However, Fuuka is actually fine with using the story for the play, because as she’s seen Tomozaki leap from a lonely world to an unknown one, she wants to see that world too, so she’ll take a leap with him.

The moment Mimimi learns Fuuka wrote the story for the play, she can’t hide her obvious concern. She also can hide that concern when she sees Tomozaki and Fuuka making eyes at each other in front of the whole class when her involvement as scriptwriter is announced. Clearly the table is set for a love triangle situation. I smell drama!

As for Tomozaki, he isn’t thinking nearly enough about who he wants to date, instead focusing more on the comparatively easier Insta checklist. Mizusawa in glasses might be tough, but he’ll have some prime opportunities when he joins him for the invite-only cultural festival at their co-worker Tsugumi’s school. Her all-girls school.

Spy x Family – 34 – Mission x Vacation

Anya had so much fun watching the fireworks she completely forgot about Mama. Loid overhears some nervous-looking State Security Service officers talking about a bomb on the ship. He drops Anya off at the daycare center, dons the disguise of a crew member who was a bomb difuser in the navy during the war, and gets to work.

Having ditched Loid, Anya ditches the day-care lady and heads to where she heard Mama would be. She finds one of Yor’s hairpin/weapons, but unable to climb up to the deck where Mama is, Anya throws it up as hard as she can. While it doesn’t travel far, it does land exactly where one of the two remaining assassins happens to be running.

He slips on it, then fires a shot into his colleague, who trips and hits the corner of the metal box beneath which is Olka, Zeb, and the kid. Anya has some kind of luck to have been of that much assistance to Yor! You can tell from her facial expression she didn’t really plan for all that to happen.

Yor is locked in a stalemate with katana guy until she discovers her weapon lying on the deck. Now that she can draw closer to him, the two prepare one final pass at each other. Yor ends up winning the duel. However, the coordinator, who had been shot by the Director (who is okay) gets away.

Anya happens to pass him in the hall, recognizes him as a Bad Guy from his thoughts, then also learns the clock mounted on the staircase has a bomb in it. She alerts a member of the crew, who had already been told by Loid to watch out for other bombs, since it will take more than one to sink the ship.

The coordinator manages to hop onto the dinghy the informant was going to ride out of there, and the two proceed to have a difference of opinion regarding the proper way to fulfill their client’s needs. They’re about to kill one another when Loid, who got word of the bomb in the clock, rips it off its pole and hucks it into the water. It explodes right above the two bad guys in their boat, and the last we see them the sharks are circling.

The day-care lady finally tracks down Anya and gives her a stern talking-to, unmoved by Anya’s insistence she was going to poop her pants and marching her back to the daycare center. With all of the assassins defeated, the recovered Director prepares a dinghy for Olka and Zeb.

Olka doesn’t leave without embracing Yor in genuine gratitude. When Yor worries about her dirtied hands, sticky with the blood of others, touching Olka and her baby, Olka tells her that those hands are what connected her son to his future.

The baby takes quite a shine to Yor (who wouldn’t?) as she hugs him. Olka leaves praying that Yor’s family may someday find the peace upon which she and her son are about to embark. The Director reminds Yor not to get sentimental, for they are naught but foot soldiers.

At the same time, the Director announces a reward for Yor completing her mission: Loid was trying to set up a meeting with her on the island where the cruise ship is headed, so he took the liberty of facilitating that plan. Loid picks up a tuckered-out Anya, having no idea she snuck out, or how much she contributed to saving every passenger on the ship.

The next morning, as the ship approaches the island, a sense of excitement and anticipation accompanies the sunrise. Anya runs out to the bow of the ship for the best view of the approaching land, Loid sticking by her side, while Yor in her leisurewear also looks eager to reunite with her family.

Spy x Family – 33 – To the Cleaners

The quick synopsis of this episode writes itself: The fireworks in the sky are no match for the fireworks on the deck. Yor tries to get Okla and Zeb to the rubber dinghy that will rendezvous with their boat out of here, but they’re spotted in the hall by the coordinator of the assassins. So while Yor hopes the fireworks will provide cover, it only ends up being a backdrop for one of Spy x Family’s longest, most intense, inventive, and nerve-wracking battles to date.

The first sign of danger is when Yor is desperately dodging a bullet from a sniper rifle. Dozens of assassins come out of the shadows, none of whom she sensed coming. This means they’re all top-flite killers, but not all assassins are created equal. You get the feeling the first few Yor carves through aren’t the strongest, and Yor gets a key assist from the Director.

Zeb gets shot in the back three times shielding Olka as they tumble into a below-deck hatch, but he’s wearing a bulletproof vest, so Yor’s clients are now out of the way, enabling her to switch off her limiter. She stares down her targets with crazed determination, and gives the Director a lot to mop up as her kills are more florid and bloody than usual.

The direction of this fight ensures we’re never ever bored, and even though Yor seems to have everything under control, the sheer number of opponents keeps the tension that something unthinkable might happen high throughout. There’s also some marvelous match cuts from fireworks to blood splattering to the coins of the gambling off-duty bodyguards.

I particularly liked the comic gauntlet in which Yor felled an assassin before they could even finish introducing themselves, followed by Director mopping up their blood. When assassins start getting hits on her, she simply shrugs them off, and having absorbed their best shot, dispatches them.

The fireworks hit their grand finale just as she strikes a victory pose, but the battle isn’t over. Now that his share has increased significantly, the coordinator offers Yor a cut to walk away from the job, but that ain’t happening. She asks if they can stand down, and that ain’t happening either. Instead, the toughest assassin yet manages to take out the Director in ten seconds flat.

Adorably, one of Yor’s first thoughts is her cover story for her change of hairstyle upon reuniting with Loid and Anya. But as her struggle against the samurai-like opponent goes on and she can only seem to retreat and defend against his attacks, she realizes she’s getting ahead of herself.

First of all, she needs to stay alive, then fulfill her mission, then get back to her family. Even so, when the katana is less than an inch from her throat, she worries she won’t be able to get Loid’s shirts from the cleaners, or return Anya’s library books. Simple little things from the peaceful side of her life.

Everything comes back to why she is doing this. Just as Ms. Olka wanted to give her son a quiet peaceful life, she did what she did to protect Yuri’s. But the fight never ends. No matter how bloody her hands get or if it claims her life or even causes her to lose the Forgers, she’s determined to cleanse the world of threats to those that matter to her. It’s a fight that may never end, but as she declares at the end (and Hayami Saori firing with both barrels)  it’s one she’ll never give up.

The post-credit vignette is about Yuri catching a cold due to Yor being away, then remembering to what lengths she went do make him herbal tea with honey when he was little. In addition to giving us an adorable younger Yor, it reinforces just why Yuri loves his sister so much. She would do literally anything for him, and do it with the biggest smile in the world. I just hope her smile can survive this cruise mission, and she can get back to Loid and Anya.

Spy x Family – 32 – Bread and Circuses

Due to circumstances outside her control, Yor is forced into a fierce battle with Barnaby, who wields an unusual sickle-and-mace weapon that won’t let her close their distance. Worse still, there’s a crowd forming wondering what the heck is going on. And worst of all: Yor spots Miss Anya in that crowd!

Anya saves the day by playing dumb, applauding the “circus performance,” and the rest of the crowd buys it and becomes a rapt audience. Yor, bless her, actually thinks Anya doesn’t recognize her, and decides to not only end this battle quickly, but put on a show doing it.

The result is Thorn Princess at her absolute best. It’s one thing to dodge that ridiculous weapon, it’s quite another to rush at Barnaby like a missile, causing his arm to shake. She anchors the chain in the floor, deflects the weapon back at him, leaps behind him, then leaps over him while tying him up with the chain. She knocks Barnaby out with some well-placed pressure point hits, and ends up right beside him, giving a curtsy to an impressed and entertained crowd.

With Yor victorious, Anya hurries back to the store just as Loid comes out of the dressing room looking as lame as anyone who draws breath has ever looked. He’s dejected for having come so wide of the mark, but the first day of their cruise ends when a punch-drunk Anya smacks her head into a shelf and falls asleep. Loid carries her to their room, looking determined to do better tomorrow.

After inspecting their new room, Yor advises the “Greys” to get some rest. “Mr. Grey” remains gobsmacked at the sheer extra-ness of the assassins going after them, betraying that at the end of the day he’s a bit of a scaredy-cat. But when Olka asks him why he’s even still with her, he remembers a day sometime after the war when he was starving.

The black market run by the Gretchers provided food for those who had none. A cheerful girl, who was none other than a young Olka, gave him a loaf of bread. She’s the reason he’s still alive in the first place, so there’s nothing he won’t do for her, even if he is scared.

And interacting with people like Yor and the director, he’s plenty scared. He should be! He thought the war was over, but the war has essentially been going on ever since in the shadows, and people like the director and Yor are the soldiers. The director checks in, arms himself, and leaves, warning Yor to stay focused or they’re all going to die.

But as Yor guards the door all night while the Greys sleep, it occurs to her she never did contact Loid and Anya or get to spend any time with them. She believes her legs were heavy in her fight with Barnaby because she was afraid of getting hurt, especially hurt in a way she wouldn’t be able to explain away to Anya and Loid.

Yor tells herself (by name) that she needs to “get her priorities straight” … but before she knew it, her priorities had shifted. Instead of soberly considering Loid and Anya nothing but “camouflage”, she’s questioning what she’s even doing in that dark room, away from them, putting her life at risk for strangers. The scene in her mind’s eye of meeting them topside broke my damn heart, because it’s a scene we may not get.

The next morning, 20 hours from the rendezvous, Franky is cursing the fact that he has to be a “kiddositter” and “doggositter”, right up until a cute young lady compliments Bond, chats with him, and departs hoping they’ll meet again. In response to this Franky considers keeping Bond as his pet. What can you say? Bond’s a ladykiller.

Back on the Lorelei, Loid has a very serious monologue like Yor’s, but the great “unknown” of which he speaks and which tests his training to the hilt is nothing more than being able to be a good dad and ensure Anya has fun on Day Two. For her part, Anya is determined to help Mama by keeping Loid occupied, but she ends up getting frustrated with her mini golf game.

After golf the two have lunch, hit the library, do a puzzle, go roller skating, and attend a magic show. It’s a full, fun day, and Loid can tell Anya was having fun, which makes it doubly inexplicable at dinner when she looks so grumpy. The truth is she’s frustrated she forgot about Mama and enjoyed herself. But when she reads Loids mind and knows she’s worrying him with her looks, she reiterates out loud that she’s having a good time … she just misses Mama.

I just hope she doesn’t end up missing her forever. Night arrives, and as the passengers go topside for an imminent fireworks show, an entirely different kind of fireworks are about to go off. Only four hours remain until the rendezvous, and enemies are closing in on the Greys’ new room, so they have to abandon it again.

As they head out in fresh disguises, all of the assassins are looking for them and ready to strike when they find them. I know Yor is the shit, and she dealt with Barnaby without too much trouble, but I’m still extremely anxious, because while I don’t doubt her physical abilities, her head isn’t 100% in the game. Her legs aren’t going to get any lighter.

Skip and Loafer – 11 – A Little Kindness

The famous Tsubame West High School Festival is off and running, and we get a little taste of everything before settling on Mitsumi’s POV as she watches Takamine continue to struggle with having a much more laid back bro as the president. That said, Kazakami puts a nervous prospective student at ease by making chatting with her about studying.

Sousuke does his thing on the stage, and his uneasiness looks like more than just acting. When Mitsumi is on break, she’s unable to speak to him, and indeed the two never interact this week, which is a bit of a drag. Mika seems ready to hang out, but then two of her middle school friends appear and she ditches Mitsumi, leaving her feeling a little lonely in Tokyo.

Fortunately, Mika is not Mitsumi’s only friend! She visits Yuzuki in the art club exhibition, where Yuzuki is exhausted and disheartened by having to fend off boys who want her name and number. But Mitsumi gives her a much appreciated assessment of her painting of her Yorkie.

When Makoto comes through with her friends, those friends interact with Yuzuki the exact same way Makoto did when they first hung out. Makoto realizes this, and knows it gets Yuzuki down, so she does her best to cheer her up by telling her friends all about her.

When Yuzuki’s on break, the three have some churros on the roof and are soon joined by “Sister” Mika. They all acknowledge that it’s been “just” six months since they all became friends, but Yuzuki thinks it doesn’t seem like it’s been that short a time. Such is their rapport and ease with one another as friends.

The first day ends without incident, but people from Sousuke’s life make the second and final day a little more hectic. First, his mom shows up, for reasons we’re not quite sure of. Within five minutes of arriving, lil’ Keiri wanders off and gets lost. Hey, it happens. I used to wander off so much my mom put a leash on me!

Kei doesn’t panic when he notices his mama isn’t around. He knows she’s headed to Sousuke’s class, so he goes there too, only he’s the first to arrive, and is welcomed by Sousuke’s kind and friendly classmates. They quickly realizes Kei is lost and keep him occupied while his mom and brother are tracked down.

Sousuke has been ensnared once again by Kanechika, only this time to watch his drama club performance. Sousuke’s face is a noh mask of ambiguity throughout, though the way the shots are composed afterwards when he’s watching Kanechika interact with patrons seems…almost wistful. Kanechika is hoping to get Sousuke’s opinion of his performance and script, but Mukai informs him of Kei’s whereabouts and he takes off with him.

Sousuke didn’t even know his mom was coming, and tells Mukai that he’s not great around kids and doesn’t think Kei wants anything to do with him. Mukai assures him, even with his limited knowledge of Sousuke’s family, that his baby bro 1000% cares about him.

Mukai is proven correct when Sousuke arrives in the room, Kei spots him, and immediately bursts into tears and runs to bawl in his legs. Yamada opines that Kei was being a brave trooper all this time, but seeing his little bro broke the flood gates.

He also says Kei takes after Sousuke in that they’re both too considerate to others. Sousuke realizes Kei may have been acting the way he did out of consideration, not disinterest. He picks an elated Kei in his arms and they head out to the hallway to wait for mom.

Corralling their mom falls to Mitsumi, though by the time she finds her Sousuke has already called her to assure her Kei is found and safe. As Mitsumi escorts her to the classroom, Mom notes how nice everyone is and how fine a school it is. But then she happens to cross paths with Saijou Ririka, and the look on Sousuke’s face suggests it probably isn’t going to be an affable affair. Heck, it might not even be cordial!

Skip and Loafer – 10 – Tough Little Rose

When Sousuke is asked if he’ll agree to be cast in the school play for the festival, he looks at everyone watching him expectantly and agrees with his usual easygoing demeanor. His old acting friend Chris tells him if he puts “staying in character” before his own feelings, he’ll eventually snap.

That said, Chris tells Sousuke that he always seemed to be having the most fun acting, so it can’t be all bad that he’s found himself in a position to act again. Maybe he’ll summon that happiness. What Chris might not know, but Mitsumi does, is that Sousuke wasn’t happy because he was acting, but because he was making his mom happy.

As rehearsals commence, Sousuke is, as expected, great in his role as Johan the gardener in an adaptation of a Sound of Music stand-in. While Mika notes that his love interest in the play is spoken for in real life, a part of her worries about Mitsumi, as “School Festival Magic” is a real thing. Then she remembers she’s supposed to be a bad girl, and forgets about worrying about Mitsumi.

Mitsumi doesn’t have time to worry. As a member of the Student Council, she’s on call for any and all little odd jobs that need doing, meaning she’s scrambling along even more than usual. She’s also not getting proper sleep and probably skipping meals to keep up with the work. When she nearly trips on the wooden sets, thankfully Sousuke is there to catch her.

She agrees to take video footage of the rehearsal and the script home to study and offer feedback to the director, but that night, while clipping festival voting ballots, she nods off, and the next day has to tell the director that she has nothing for her.

The director vents about this to her friend later, and Sousuke overhears it. So does Mitsumi, who had just watched the footage on her phone and was going to provide some belated input. Sousuke redirects her and treats her to a cold drink.

That’s when he realizes Mitsumi has been reminding him of his younger self: practically tripping over himself to please others; always on the verge of falling flat on his face. Mitsumi remembers Sousuke saying he only acted ot make his mom happy, realizes he went out of his way to cheer her up after what the director said behind her back.

Mitsumi gets emotional over how nice Sousuke is, and the two have a break in the sun-dappled shade. As always, Mitsumi is direct and earnest in how she’s feeling: she had the ambition and desire to take on a job, but couldn’t deliver. At the same time, she feels even worse for not speaking up when Sousuke ended up agreeing to be in the play, when she knew it wasn’t his cup of tea.

Sousuke is happy for her concern, but part of him wonders if someone as pure and sensitive as Mitsumi is really cut out for Tokyo or politics if she gets so worked up over things that, at least to him, aren’t that big of a deal. As much fun as it is having her by his side at school, he wonders if she wouldn’t be happier in the countryside.

When talk shifts to Sousuke’s role as Johan, he dismisses him as a bad guy who went to the dark side and ran when the going got tough, but Mitsumi presents a more optimistic view: that the writers of the play left out the endpoints of the characters’ paths, leaving open the possibility for redemption.

Hearing this, Sousuke stands up, holds out his hand, and invites Mitsumi to join him for a little song and dance—the first time they do so outside of the adorable OP. I cannot tell you how sweet it is hearing Mitsumi’s off-key flubbing of the lyrics as she and Sousuke dance about.

Mitsumi then allays Sousuke’s unspoken fears about her by telling him that she’s the kind of person who falls flat on her face a lot, but that’s made her a pro at dusting herself off and getting back up. So she may feel the sting of adversity, but she’ll never let it keep her down long.

Hopefully Sousuke won’t just admire this about Mitsumi, but learn to live a little like she does as well, rather than gripping his burdens so tightly.

Heavenly Delusion – 09 – All Hands Meeting

Asura taught Kona how to use his powers, and used their powers to heal other children when they were hurt. Kona loved Asura, even if he didn’t really know what love was, because the adults didn’t teach him. One day, Asura told Kona they “knew what they had to do”, and ended up taking their life, something Kona was helpless to prevent.

Asura was the last member of Kona’s group, leaving him alone with his drawings. That is, until a young Tokio takes it upon herself to reach out to Kona, not to say anything in particular (she doesn’t have any more experience with love and loss than he) but just to be there for him. That first little interaction became what Asura told Kona would be a special other kind of love. And it’s that special love that has the facility’s director on the move.

This is an episode that jumps between “Heaven” and the “Hell” of the present-day world where Kiruko and Maru are still looking for the doctor, Robin, and “Heaven”. Maru’s tooth has grown back, which isn’t surprising considering his other abilities. They’re both surprised by a sudden earthquake – the first in ages – and head to a collapsed building where they find a scavenger who might have information.

What is Mimihime always looking at? Looks like it’s something no one else can see: the “ghost” of Asura, still hanging up there. She and Shiro head to class, where they learn from the robo-teacher that Tokio won’t be around “for a while”; we see her being carted off in street clothes by Dr. Aoshima, who the director later names assistant director, angering a colleague.

While office politics unfold in a human experimentation facility in the past, Kiruko and Maru are told some very colorful stories by the scavenger, who calls himself Juuichi. One that stands out is about a school surrounded by a wall; a matriarchal society within abducts men and use them as breeding pigs and slaves.

While the school itself resembles “Heaven”, the fact is this guy is pumping Kiruko and Maru for cash, having covered up a sign with his van that they’d have recognized: the bird logo on the gun, and the box at the stoner colony. They’ve arrived at Takahara Academy.

Well, not exactly…it’s one of eighteen branches and two facilities on a Takahara flier. Kiruko learns that it’s kind of an orphanage where children go willingly to rest and relax, but also learn. They imagine such a place would be tough, but then remembers their sister and friends and figures they would have probably adapted if they had the same family-like structure, found or otherwise.

Kiruko and Maru are headed to one of the two facilities, hoping to learn more. Meanwhile, at the all-hands emergency meeting at one of those facilities, which I’m assuming is in the past, the Director announces to the shock off all that Tokio is pregnant. This despite them not teaching the children of the nursery about anything related to sex or even gender.

My theory that Tokio is Maru’s mother remains intact for another week, assuming that time difference is roughly equal to Maru’s current age. That said, Tokio being pregnant is regarded by the boss as a “crisis.” Are they caring for these kids, or keeping them isolated because they know they’re potentially dangerous? Curiouser and curiouser…

Oshi no Ko – 03 – Struggling Out Here

The moment Arima Kana saw Aqua, he should have known he’d be going down the path of acting, regardless of whether he’ll be studying it in school. She’s just so goddamn charismatic, and she also cares deeply about the art of acting, to the extent that she just wouldn’t allow someone with Aqua’s talent to sit on the sidelines.

Due to her celebrity, they can’t just meet up anywhere, so Aqua takes her to Taichi’s house, where she reunites with the director she worked with a decade ago and gets a home-cooked meal from that director’s mom. Kana tells him about an streaming TV drama she’s the lead in, an adaptation of a popular shoujo manga.

What ultimately gets Aqua to relent and agree to act in the drama as Kana desires is a name: Kaburagi Masaya. Aqua first learned that name when he unlocked Ai’s third and oldest cell phone, which took over four years and well over forty thousand attempts. Kaburagi was among the contacts on that phone, and this acting gig is an opportunity for him to investigate him.

When Ruby hears from Miyako that Aqua is going back into acting, she’s legitimately touched, since now both she and her brother are going to be an idol and an actor like their mother intended. But unlike Ruby, fulfilling his mom’s dream isn’t Aqua’s primary motivating factor. There’s also the matter of the show Kana is in and Aqua is about to appear in…kinda sucking?

The fact of the matter is, the tv drama is being produced as glorified promotional material for a number of attractive male models who are on the rise. Kana has herself wrapped up in a frikkin’ Zoolander joint! As really, really, ridiculously good-looking as her co-stars are, they suck at acting, and she’s holding back her true powers lest she make them look even worse.

That adaptability and pragmatism is why Kana is still in the business at all, as she admits she had an extended rough patch after her peak child actor years. She’s been in this industry long enough to know that good acting and making a good show are two different things. But she’s going to make the most of this opportunity, even if she has to do “lousy” acting.

When she was little, she flaunted her talent and was branded a difficult prima donna, and gigs gradually dried up. She was down, but she’s far from out. The hunger to perform and appear on camera and move people is still there, and having Aqua acting by her side again—lousily or not—means everything to her.

Having heard Kana’s genuinely heartfelt appeal, Aqua re-watches the show thus far and gains a greater appreciation for the aspects of the production that make the show look much better than it should considering the pitiful acting abilities of all the model bros. He also holds Kana in the highest regard when it comes to acting talent, to the point he’s actually pumped up about performing, even if his primary goal is to score some of Kaburagi’s DNA.

The day of his shoot arrives, and the male lead doesn’t even bother properly introducing himself, which Kana says is typical of young rising stars. We get a detailed primer on the usual shooting process for a show, and the accelerated and abridge version being done by this show on a shoestring budget and narrow schedule.

The bottom line is, now that Aqua is on set, he’s fully committed to putting in the maximum effort. That professionalism isn’t just a result of him being mentally much older than he really is, but Ai’s upbringing, and a desire not to cause any more trouble than Kana already has.

There’s a dark irony to the fact he’s portraying a stalker villain not too dissimilar to the man who murdered Ai, but he does his job when called upon, and in between shooting Kana tells him his acting feels like he put a lot of preparation into it. Like her, she can tell he’s put his ego aside and thrown himself into the story. Kana is energized from the realization that in this “world of darkness” there was someone other than her struggling.

She may not know the precise source of Aqua’s struggle, but is perceptive enough to sense that he is struggling. As their relationship progresses, it will be interesting to see if Aqua considers truly “letting her in”, even as he overhears the producer and director talking about how they couldn’t care less about acting and they only snagged Kana because she’s a dirt-cheap freelancer with a recognizable name and face.

Suffice it to say, I love Arima Kana to death. Han Megumi’s voice performance and Kana’s body language and expressions are phenomenal, and both her arc and her chemistry with Aqua are effortlessly compelling. While she’s not quite Hoshino Ai, in just one episode Kana has managed to vault herself near to the top of my very favorite characters of the spring.

Oshi no Ko – 02 – Dreams and Nightmares

About ten years after their mother was murdered by a stalker, Aquamarine and Ruby Hoshino have gone in different directions. Ruby is determined to follow her mom into the industry and become an idol, in keeping with her past self Sarina’s dreams. Aqua, on the other hand, is stuck in the past, dedicating the remainder of his life to tracking down his father and making him suffer before he dies.

He works under the table as an apprentice for the film director Gotanda, and he and Ruby are about to take high school entrance exams. Having already been rejected in an audition two years ago, Ruby applies once more, and once more gets a call that she isn’t one of the chosen few. She’s devastated, but what’s even more devastating is that the call came from Aqua posing as the agency. He won’t let Ruby go down the same road Ai did, period.

While this feels like a horrible betrayal, it’s understandable, because we watched the film-length first episode and know who Aqua is and what he’s been through. Of course, that Ruby went through the exact same stuff (and worse, when you consider she died so young and in pain), so I pumped my fist when Aqua’s plan is stymied by Ruby being scouted on the street, just as their mother was.

That said, she shows Aqua the business card of the agency, which allows him to demonstrate his skills as both an actor and a private investigator, using his good looks and charm to invite another idol from that agency to Strawberry Productions. She is all too open and honest in her assessment of her current situation: lousy pay, huge expenses, favoritism, their manager dating one of the group, terrible chemistry, etc.

Both Aqua and Miyako agree it doesn’t sound like the kind of agency Ruby should be getting into. Aqua suggests Miyako (the new director of Strawberry with Ichigo blowing town) hire the idol they just interviewed, but Miyako doesn’t like how she badmouthed her co-workers, showing she has a keen eye not just for the talent but the quality of people.

The next day when Ruby has dolled herself up for her audition with this sketchy agency, she’s confronted by Miyako and Aqua: is this really what she wants, even though she knows what the industry did to Ai? Even if it means she’ll be miserable and exhausted and possibly fall victim to stalking?

She says she is, and knowing who Ruby is (and who Sarina was) I don’t doubt her resolve. So Miyako tells her not to join that agency. Ruby is about to get upset, but Miyako continues by asking her to sign with Strawberry instead. That’s right: the agency will be managing idols for the first time in a decade, and Ruby is their first signing.

It’s ultimately a compromise Aqua accepts (for now) since he’s smart enough to know Ruby isn’t going to stop until she’s an idol, so better that she be managed by a family-run business. While at Director Gotanda’s house, which is really his parents’ house—because why move out of a spacious family home in the middle of the city?—editing film, Aqua tells Gotanda that he’s fine working towards a modest production job in the industry rather than pursuing acting.

This isn’t just because he has an equally good chance of meeting his target no matter what job he has in the industry as long as it has access to talent. It’s because he doesn’t believe he has any talent for acting. We know this not to be true, not just because of the different people he’s pretended to be in this very episode, but because a film director hand-picked him to act in his films. Heck, unbeknownst to him, he famous child actress Arima “Tears in 10 Minutes Flat” Kana cry for real.

In between hilarious interruptions from his mom announcing dinner is ready, Taishi tells Aqua that he’s at least twenty years too young to be giving up on making it in acting, when he can tell the boy truly does care about it. Sure, he doesn’t know he’s actually talking to a boy with the mind of a doctor about his age who is channeling all of his energy into vendetta and revenge. But that isn’t all Aqua is. It’s just what he feels like he needs to be.

At the entrance interviews, both Aqua and Ruby excel in the general education and performing arts departments, respectively. As they chat in the hall, Ruby makes light of Aqua’s ostentatious name (he too joked it would be the only reason he’s not accepted), and someone overhears it.

Not just someone, but Arima Kana! Just as the Hoshinos have stars in their eyes, when she turns we see entire galaxies reflected in hers. When Aqua confirms he is indeed Aqua Hoshino, Kana embraces him with joy and relief. She’d feared he’d given up on acting, and is looking forward to being in the performing arts department with him. Then he drops the hammer…he’s just in gen ed. Kana is aghast…as she should be!

I’m not going to sit here and say Aqua is squandering his talents and his mother’s legacy by refusing to pursue acting. People are free to do whatever they want, regardless of what they’re good at. And Aqua is good at much more than acting. But I will most definitely say its wrong for him to waste his life on a revenge plot that likely won’t go the way he plans, may cost far more than he hoped, and certainly won’t give him and peace or solace.

So if even a little part of him dreams of acting as Ruby dreams of being an idol, I’d prefer if he’d get into that. Also, selfishly, I just want to see him and Kana acting together again, because Kana is great!

Golden Kamuy – 41 – Ainupocalypse Now

We’re back with the main gang in the present day, and with time to kill before Tsurumi meets up with them, Sugimoto and Asirpa hang out in the woods while she performs Ainu rituals and hopes a wolverine will come her way so she can taste its brains. They then encounter something completely new: a two-man film crew with a cinematograph.

When a wolverine pounces on the back of one of the men, Sugimoto and Asirpa spring into action with bow and rifle, and the cameraman captures it all. Asirpa gets to taste her wolvy brains (and watch Sugimoto taste them too), but they probably didn’t think much of the little wooden box with the crank until its owner takes it back into town.

There, he explains it’s a relatively new French invention to which he owns the Japanese rights. He then proceeds to play some of the footage of Aniu he’s taken, and everyone is unexpectedly amazed by the dancing pictures. Asirpa, who is of late extremely preoccupied with preserving her culture, decides to don a director’s cap, and Sugimoto reminds the filmmakers that she saved their asses.

Everyone chips in on the ensuing production, which starts with simple folk stories involving dicks and dick copycats (the copycat always dies in the end like the moron he is; Asirpa’s casting of Shiraishi as said moron is an inspired choice).

When she’s not satisfied with how the production is going she shifts from comedy to drama and a story of three brothers, one of whom turns into a bird kamuy. The seriousness is somewhat undone by a nearly-naked Tanigaki bursting out of the bird suit, but Asirpa is happy with the shoot.

Koito arranges for them to screen Asirpa’s masterpiece in a theater, and seeing themselves in the moving pictures is surely an invigorating experience. Then the filmmakers decide to surprise Asirpa with some footage they took ten years ago. In it, she gets to see her father Wilk before his face was lost, and also gets to see her mother for the very first time.

While I laughed during the goofy dick-filled filmmaking scenes earlier, I teared up when I saw Asirpa’s family, and especially her desperately beautiful and powerful mom, from whom she inherited so much without ever knowing her. Kiroranke also makes an appearance in the footage, but it’s her mom who seems to cast a spell on her and everyone in the theater.

But then, as was a not-so-uncommon occurrence in the early days of cinema, the projector light set the film on fire and burned it, not only destroying the all the footage Asirpa & Co. took that day, but also the only images of her mother to ever exist. The first time she saw her was also the last. Utterly dejected, Asirpa walks out into the cold night alone.

Sugimoto follows her to ensure she’s alright, but she’s not. Film, she says, is a wonderful invention, but it’s not nearly enough to keep her people’s culture alive. And she’s right. Literally seeing it through a lens is totally different from learning and living it from other Ainu. The footage was enlightening, but also cold, especially relative to her warm memories of her father telling her stories.

Asirpa is definitely putting far too much of a burden on her slender shoulders to save the Ainu from certain cultural oblivion, and yet she can’t stop. Sugimoto calls it a “curse”, for while much of it is her own will, she can’t deny that will was shaped in her formative years by the likes of Wilk and Kiroranke, who all but forced her to carry on their legacies.

Whatever she has to do to achieve her goals, Asirpa knows it will require gold, and lots of it. But Sugimoto knows that with gold comes blood. He admits to her that part of him wants to preserve the innocence he lost by protecting her, but he also knows that he already inhabits a kind of hell of his own making; a hell he assures Asirpa she won’t like. Nothing will change her more from what she should be than killing.

Leave it to Golden Kamuy to gradually build up our Sugisirpa withdrawl for three straight weeks and then pounce on our back like a wolverine with a gem of an episode that’s both bawdy and fun, and part heartbreaking and redemptive.

Bokutachi no Remake – 08 – How It Oughta Be

Team Harusora‘s time grows short as the deadline draws near. Nanako, Tsurayuki, and Shinoaki are falling behind, and encouragement isn’t enough to get them back on track, so Kyouya has to do what all directors have to at some point: unilaterally make the changes necessary to get the product out on schedule.

This means cutting and changing parts of the music, art, and story. Nanako is easy to convince, as she’s open to trying a new method of composing that also happens to be quicker. So is Shinoaki, as she trusts Kyouya (and not without good reason). But Tsurayuki bucks. If Kyouya is changing the story now, what is he even contributing, creatively?

Kyouya manages to get Tsurayuki to fall in line with his silver tongue, and the team sprints towards the finish line with a focus on progress. Compromises had to be made due to the compressed schedule, and since the bottom line is that the game has to make money so Tsurayuki can pay his tuition.

Thanks to help from the art club, Keiko, and Eiko, and many an all-nighter right up to the 10:00 AM deadline for sending the ROM master to the printer, Bokutachi no Remake really ratchets up the tension, urgency, and excitement of bringing a project to completion in the nick of time.

There’s also a wonderful release once Keiko heads to the printer with the master, as everyone but Kyouya literally passes out from exhaustion. When the brand-new shiny newly-printed game arrives, with Shinoaki’s gorgeous, inviting art on the cover, the sense of accomplishment is only heightened.

They made this; all of them. It could not have happened without their individual contributions and without them hanging in there and relying on each other when things got hectic. But Nanako, Shinoaki and Tsurayuki also all agree that there’s absolutely no way Harusora would have seen the light of day without Kyouya’s confident, diligent direction.

Of course, none of them know that one day, in the future Kyouya came from, that they’d be known collectively as the Platinum Generation, three elite creative at the top of their respective fields. And that they were the ones who inspired Kyouya to remake his life when given a chance.

Yet while out on a crisp evening walk with Shinoaki, she stops and asks something she later apologizes for for sounding “weird”: “Is this really how it oughta be?” The team achieved great success, the game manages to sell the event at Tokyo Big Sight (thanks in no small part to Keiko’s doujin group’s clout). Everyone even makes bank!

But no sooner does Tsurayuki have his tuition money he himself made in his hands than he asks Kyouya to take a walk, stopping somewhere random where he has no other memories, good or bad, in order to tell him he’s dropping out of art school after all, and returning home, no doubt to be a doctor and husband this family and Sayuri want him to be.

The entire point of this project for Kyouya was to help Tsurayuki become the Kawagoe Kyouichi he’d become in the future, but he never stopped to think that Tsurayuki—that all of the Platinum Generation—achieved their greatness without Kyouya’s help. Having seen what Kyouya is capable of and how hard it is to make it writing for a living, this project had the opposite intended effect: Tsurayuki decided he can’t make it.

It’s a devastating scene that perhaps doesn’t need the gathering clouds, thunderstorm, or Kyouya on his hands and knees shouting his lament into the ground. But the added melodrama doesn’t really take away from the fact Kyouya’s entire life-remaking exercise ended up building him up, while erasing the future of one of the Platinum Generation.

The person who encounters him on the ground isn’t Nanako or Aki, but Keiko, who has this knowing tone and look that suggests she’s aware of what has been going on with Kyouya…and could even have a part in it. She smiles softly and asks what the future would be like after all that’s happened in this version of his past.

And then, just like that, Kyouya wakes up back in 2018, his present. Before he knows where or when he is, a tiny Shinoaki runs in and jumps on the bed; her kid’s drawings scattered on the wall behind him. It’s not Shino Aki at all, but Hashiba Maki, his daughter, and Shino Aki is her mother and his wife.

This is the life Kyouya remade. Is Aki even an artist anymore, or is she a housewife and mom full-time? There’s not enough evidence to see, but I wouldn’t be surprised if another member of the Platinum Generation never was due to Kyouya basically interfering in her past. No doubt Tsurayuki is a doctor in this future, while Nanako could well still be a singer.

Whatever their circumstances, and whether this is a future Kyouya is able or willing to correct once more, this is a tremendous time-shattering cliffhanger for next week, breaking the easy slice-of-life nature of the past art school episodes and launching us into the home stretch of the cour with panache.

Vlad Love – 07 – Vla Vla Vland

Vlad Love goes from the “cultural festival play” episode to the “let’s make a movie” episode, with Maki as the director and Mai, Mitsugu and Katsuno starring (Katsuno also fronts the more than $4K budget). Maki’s vision is a promotional video for the Blood Donation Club that is also a homage to French New Wave director Nicolas Truffant.

Needless to say, chaos reigns. Maki has the lingo and bearing of a film director down, and she also knows her cinematic history and can rear-project a driving scene with the best of ’em, but the shoot itself is an unqualified disaster from start to finish as Chihiro insists they film the whole thing in five days. Those days are marked by title cards reminiscent of The Shining. Also, Kaoru’s cat runs away, and the backup cat doesn’t give a shit about milk.

While Maki seems to have recurring dreams about being a little girl surrounded by everyone staring and judging at her (probably a reference to something), in the end those dreams are justified, as the final product is a mess. Unlike the first Star Wars, even editing couldn’t save Meet Mai, but Maki isn’t even there for the premiere—she’s scarfing down a bento on the Shinkansen.

The episode was hurt by having to follow up the best one yet, as well as being the second straight involving a production with a demanding director. Mitsugu and Mai barely say or do anything, and there are so many jokes and asides there’s no room for anything else—including much of a reason to care! Still, as always, Vlad Love looks great, even when it’s little more than empty calories.

Vlad Love – 06 – The World’s a Stage, Not at Stake

The title above is essentially the thesis for my review: by not involving combat aircraft or blowing up entire cities and simply focusing on something, Vlad Love’s quirky hyperactivity can be distilled into something competent, approaching greatness. Nothing like a good old class play to lend structure and purpose!

After the inaugural night class roll is called, Chihiro gets right to the point: they’re going to put on a show. Kaoru suggests an adaptation of the disk version of something very similar to Castlevania—an inspired choice not just because of the vampire theme but because earlier video games were so wonderfully elemental.

Mai is the final vampire boss/love interest, while the hunter is played by Mitsugu, with Nami, Kaoru, and Katsuno playing level bosses. Maki relishes filming a “making-of” docu.

The most controversial assignment is Sumida Jinko as director. Her Ultra-Type-A blood ensures a production fraught with tension and drama, as she immediately treats everyone as if they were professional stage performers and crew.

Every major cast member has something to do, and each voice actor is clearly having a metric fuckton of fun—looking at you, Kobayashi Yuu…Sasha lives on in Nami! The show puts a welcome fun spin on its beloved insets by having Jinko pop out of her windows to kick and push others around.

A tough day of rehearsal ends with a rarity these days—a scene with Mitsugu and Mai actually alone, staged like the yuri romance it should be, only for Jinko to interrupt with some midnight whippin’ lessons.

Before anyone knows it, it’s showtime. To its credit the rehearsals don’t go on too long, allowing the show itself room to breathe. Of course, there’s a crisis just before the curtain rises: Mai is suffering from anxiety-fueled acute anemia. She needs someone’s blood, and because things are so hectic, Jinko is chosen as the donor without thinking about it too much.

The play actually starts relatively smoothly, with just the right amount of following the script and improvising. I liked how Mitsugu had to exit stage left and run down steps, through corridors beneath the stage, and up steps to enter stage right…because it’s a sidescroller play!

Once Mai takes the stage, it’s clear she’s operating under the influence of Jinko’s perfectionist Type-A blood. As such, she decides to play her own role, ignoring the script. An enraged Jinko runs on stage to scold her, but Mai attacks her, and the curtain has to drop, and Chihiro manages to tranquilize Mai.

Jinko is beside herself and starts bawling from the fiasco that has unfolded, but Chihiro tells her to listen to the crowd: her play isn’t the disaster she thinks it is. The cast and crew walk out for their curtain call, and by the time the crowd is chanting “Jinko, Jinko, Jinko”, Jinko is holding back tears of pride and joy, which come after a veritable Odyssey of complex facial expressions.

This was the best episode of Vlad Love yet, and it did it by not biting off more than it could chew and simply capitalizing on the immense voice talent at its disposal. It’s the first episode where Jinko is utilized properly and Hikasa Yoko gives the Type-A stickler texture and appeal as her character transitions from outsider to “one of them”, them being the Blood Donation Club’s collection of big ol’ weirdos. Most importantly, this episode had a satisfying share of Mai x Mitsugu moments. Well played!