Rent-a-Girlfriend – 33 – 99 Lies

I’ll admit it, like I always do: this episode got me. I was lucky enough to know all four of my grandparents when they were strong and full of life, but also when they were weak and passed on. Anyone who has experienced a grandparent (or anyone, really) passing away would be able to relate to Chizuru’s situation.

Just when she felt like she wasn’t quite “good enough” to shine on the screen for her granny, Kazuya barges in, but only to silently set up a projector and laptop so Granny Sayuri can watch, or at least listen, if she can hear. Chizuru was mired in the depths of despair, but Kazuya gave her one last chance to fulfill her dream.

Sayuri is incredibly weak at this point, but she’s still able to open her eyes for about ten minutes of the film. However much else of the film she’s able to hear, we’ll never know, but we do know that she hears Chizuru crying as she’s suddenly unsure whether to tell her the truth or not.

Part of Chizuru knows she’ll regret telling Sayuri, as it feels like she’s only doing it to make herself feel better, and it would let her down in her final moments. But she’ll also regret not telling her. She’s stuck in a state of indecision, but in one more show of strength, Sayuri lifts her hand and places it on Chizuru’s cheek to comfort her.

When Chizuru comes out and says she lied to her, Sayuri says she’s similarly unsure of whether she wants to know or not know. But she wants Chizuru to know that whether she tells her or not, she’ll accept it. She says that our lives our 99% lies and 1% truths, but she’s proud of what a strong and fine young woman her granddaughter has become; a woman capable of searching for those rare truths.

In the end, Chizuru doesn’t come right out and say she and Kazuya aren’t a real couple. Instead, she lets her gran say the things she needs to say with her final breaths: she was so beautiful in the film, and she loves her very much. Chizuru reciprocates, and embraces Sayuri as she passes away. Folks, this scene wrecked me. Many tissues were spent.

We transition to the next day or so, when Kazuya informs Mini of Sayuri’s passing. Mini’s cartoonish bawling almost felt out of place, but she’s genuinely grieving. She also rejects Kazuya’s feeling that perhaps Chizuru is strong enough to get through this and live her life all alone. She may indeed be strong, but as Mini says, “No woman is an island.”

Kazuya’s last interaction with Chizuru was to ask her if she was okay, after she told him to go home and rest up and walked away. She only turned around once, with her brightest Rent-a-Girlfriend smile, and said “I’m fine.” But she really wasn’t fine, and Kazuya should have known that.

Kazuya cleans up for the wake, to which his own grandmother accompanies him, as she and Sayuri were best friends. She addresses Chizuru on behalf of Kazuya and formally offers her condolences for her loss. Chizuru is calm, collected, and keeping it together, but one can still sense the searing pain just below the surface.

Kazuya’s gran doens’t spend long in front of Sayuri’s grave, surprising him as he assumed she’d make a bit ruckus bawling. She says she doesn’t want to be a bother, and will also see Sayuri again before long. She then tells Kazuya to figure out what it is only he, her boyfriend, can do for Chizuru.

They leave without speaking to Chizuru again, but back home, Kazuya wrestles with his dilemma. He assumes Chizuru only sees him as just a neighbor, especially now that the film production is over. But he’s selling himself short. He’s become much more than that to her, even if they’re not “officially” girlfriend and boyfriend. Hopefully he heeds Mini and his granny’s words and realizes that soon.

CERTIFIED GODDAMN TEARJERKER

Rent-a-Girlfriend – 32 – The Sad Reality

After a week off, RAG chooses to start up with the strangest scene: Mini buying snacks at the store with an extremely focused face you could even call troubled. The next we see her she’s back to her normal self as she’s come to celebrate Kazuya losing his virginity to Chizuru. Is that what that face was about…does she have feelings for him?

In any case, Kazuya doesn’t let her in, because no virginity was lost. As she and Mini continue whispering, they’re interrupted by Chizuru, who scolds them for being discourteous to their neighbors. Then Ruka shows up, shoos Mini and Chizuru off, and pulls Kazuya into his apartment to “shower with him” (not happening). While watching her laundry, Chizuru softly utters Kazuya’s name, then blushes and chastens herself.

After getting approval from the hospital, Chizuru takes Granny Sayuri out to see the theater where her film will be shown to a crowd of 200. Why exactly she takes this risk so close to the actual showing is beyond me, but even the empty theater brings tears to Sayuri’s eyes as she imagines Chizuru up there.

After seeing Sayuri’s intense reaction, Chizuru excuses herself so she can have one of her own, flashing one of her biggest smiles in the whole run. It’s the smile of someone who was able to achieve her dream and make her granny—and late gramps—proud.

While alone with Sayuri, Kazuya continues to be troubled by the fact he and Chizuru are lying about being a couple. But rather than say anything it’s not entirely his place to say, Kazuya simply tells Sayuri that Chizuru is “more important” to him than labels like girlfriend. He wants to remain by her side no matter what, even if he isn’t her girlfriend.

His words don’t give up the ghost, but do remind Sayuri of her departed husband. Specifically, she remembers yelling at him for getting Chizuru’s hopes up. But Katsuhito is as stubborn as Kazuya: dreams do come true, and he believed until the end that they would for Chizuru. Now that it’s come to pass, Sayuri admits she was wrong to doubt it.

Chizuru stops Kazuya outside the bathrooms and once again thanks him for everything he’s done, and how happy it made her granny. They go to grab some coffee, but find that Sayuri, whom they left alone, has collapsed and fallen out of her wheelchair. As they drop their coffees to rush to her, Kazuya sees a face of abject panic in Chizuru that he’s never seen before.

At the hospital, Chizuru tells Kazuya that the doctors don’t expect Sayuri to recover, and that tonight will be “make or break.” Chizuru adopts a stiff upper lip and “oh well” attitude, a brave face that makes Kazuya’s heart hurt. He wipes away his own tears, because this is not about him, but in trying to put Chizuru’s feelings first and foremost, he brings up an uncomfortable topic: telling Granny Sayuri the truth about them.

Chizuru remains of the mind that hurting her granny with the truth in her final moments accomplishes nothing. But Kazuya is thinking of the future, when Chizuru may come to regret never coming clean about the lie, because after Sayuri dies she’ll never be able to. Still, Chizuru remains firm: to hell with “the sad reality.”

As Chizuru heads back in, Kazuya laments that there’s nothing more he can do for her. But then he gets a text from the editor, no doubt reporting the completion (or near-completion) of the film. If Granny Sayuri wakes up, and if he can obtain a copy to play in her room, the dream isn’t dead yet.

Rent-a-Girlfriend – 31 – The Ruka Line

It’s August 26th, Ruka’s birthday. And for her birthday she wants to go on a date with Kazuya, so on a date they go. Her goal is to make her heart race as well as his, so she has Kazuya take her to the pool, she dons her first bikini, and she asks Kazuya to apply sunblock to her back and legs. It turns out to be an overload of stimulation for the both of them.

After the pool, ice cream, and a sumptuous hotel buffet feast, Kazuya and Ruka head to the beach, which both note is a place where several other couples are getting frisky. Kazuya feels guilty for continuing to lead Ruka on as her “trial” boyfriend, and tries to lay the groundwork for gently extricating himself from the relationship.

Naturally, he tries to make it about him not deserving a girlfriend as angelic as Ruka, and apologizes to her for making her go out of her way for his sake. The tack doesn’t work. She slaps his shoulder and tells him he’s not doing this for her sake, or to get one up on Chizuru. She simply had a dream of going on a fun date with her boyfriend on her birthday…that’s it!

Kazuya really is a cad for not so much as bringing a physical birthday gift, but Ruka forgives him even for this, because she wants a gift he can give her right there and then. She wants to drop the honorific and call him simply “Kazuya”, he agrees, and makes her happy beyond belief.

We’re now past the halfway point of this third season, so it made sense to re-introduce Ruka as a legitimate threat to Kazuya and Chizuru getting together, and they don’t encounter one another in the whole episode. Instead, Sumi comes with flowers for her gran, along with some much-needed words from a third party.

Sumi tells Chizuru that Kazuya worked so hard, and how many times he almost gave up, only to get back on his feet each time, all for Chizuru. She says Chizuru’s desire combined with Kazuya’s support to make something amazing together. The sentiments bring tears to Sumi, and Chizuru’s genuine smile shows that she appreciates them.

After Sumi departs after shyly saying hello, Granny Sayuri notes how Chizuru seems to have made more friends since meeting Kazuya. Unbidden, Chizuru starts talking about Kazuya, initially with irritation with how little he knew about filmmaking at first and eventually with admiration and fondness, her whole face lighting up as she remembers him falling in the drink and having to cross dress.

Watching Chizuru go on like this about someone brings a smile to Sayuri’s face, and she tells Chizuru that true love begins when you’re having the time of your life talking about them. Chizuru insists it’s not like that, as is her wont, but her blushing face suggests otherwise.

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.

The Day I Became a God – 12 (Fin) – The Easy Way Out

Up to this point, The Day I Became a God had told a compelling and reasonably plausible sci-fi tale about a child who was given a new lease on life (i.e. “became a god”) thanks to bleeding-edge technology, only to have that tech stripped away when the ramifications of its wider use were considered too constructive.

That decision was made by the highest world powers who had to that point played no role in the narrative, and play no role afterwards. Thanks to Suzuki Hiroto’s hacking, Youta is able to find the Hina who is no longer a god and even gain entry to her care facility.

Youta put the consequences of his fraud out of his mind because he held out hope one more miracle would occur: Hina would not only remember him and their happy summer together with his friends and family, but make the decision to return home with him.

Rather than accept the new normal and move forward, Youta insisted on getting everything back to the way it was—on moving backward. And while I certainly sympathized with, and may even have acted as he did in his position, in the end he was wrong, and misguided. Just being in that facility under false pretenses marked him as a criminal.

Throughout the sanitarium part of the series, Shiba had been painted as Youta’s adversary; his rival for the deciding of Hina’s future. It was even implied Shiba had a personal stake in remaining in the here-and-now Hina’s care, which is considerable and not to be undertaken lightly. This week she confronts him about his fraud, but rather than expel him immediately from the facility and turn him over to the police, she gives him One More Day.

The show had me until then, then lost me as soon as that decision was made. I understand this is a fictional show that makes choices out of dramatic license, but for someone who claims to be so committed to Hina’s health and safety, Shiba’s “small kindness” to Youta is as baffling as it is reckless.

Sure, we may know Youta means no harm, but have neither the training or experience to know the extent of how much he may harm her nonetheless. Shiba does, and rather than immediately remove a potential agent of further harm, she lets him not only linger, but take Hina away.

Youta is depicted as being at his lowest point as he’s roughly escorted out of the facility to a waiting car. That should be it, but Shiba takes Hina out into the freezing cold to allow for an extended goodbye, during which it dawns on Youta why Hina kept discarding the card with the drawing of him. The real him was already there, unlike the others, so his card wasn’t needed.

With the real Youta now about to be “missing” Hina verbally protests, repeating how she “loves Yoha[sic]”, jumping out of Shiba’s arms, steadying herself, then walking barefoot into his waiting arms. Finally, Youta has evidence that her memories aren’t gone. She remembers him and his family and friends.

The Hina he knew is still “in there”, merely in a more frail body with a smaller vocabulary, and we can deduce that she wants him to remain in her life.

And hey, that’s great! It really is! But Hina remembering Youta, and even declaring she loves him, doesn’t mean he can immediately take her back home like nothing happened! Shiba was preparing to take Hina to a better facility overseas, implying that the current facility—clearly no slouch itself—wasn’t quite up to spec in terms of being the best place for Hina’s continued care and development.

Youta’s house may be a loving home, but I have to question whether Youta and his parents truly have Hina’s best interests at heart. None of them have caregiver training for special needs children. Worse, Youta returns home immediately, and it’s clear his house hasn’t been modified for Hina’s needs.

If there were plans for Shiba to take Hina abroad, why would she simply give up guardianship and custody to someone she knew was a high school student pretending to be a pediatric researcher? At the very least, Shiba would move into Youta’s house to help with Hina. I’m sorry, but none of these events make any logical sense if you push past the emotional manipulation and think about any of it for one second.

Instead, things carry on as if Hina had simply been kidnapped and returned safe and sound. Youta figures out that the things she did as “Odin”—playing basketball, eating ramen, making a film, etc.—were things the pre-chip Hina wanted to do but couldn’t due to her Logos Syndrome. But then why did pre-chip Hina want to revitalize a restaurant…or get Youta laid by a mahjongg otaku??

Youta decides that Hina always was a god, and even remains one, and credits her with helping him decide his path in life: he’ll go to college to become the foremost researcher on her condition. Wonderful sentiments, but the fact of the matter is he is woefully ill-equipped to help her now.

While he’s plugging away at the books (pre-med is no joke), Hina will need 24-hour care. Assuming he’ll leave that to his parents, will they get the training they need? Again, the fact Shiba simply vanishes without a trace is maddening.

Sora finally finishes her movie, which turns out to be a reflection of Youta and Hina’s arc: a guy rescuing a girl the world needed sacrifice in order to save it. The film sidesteps what effect the actual end of the world would have on their happiness; I guess they’d just enjoy their lives together until the oxygen ran out, because that’s better than being apart and the world going on?

The film is followed by the making-of segments, during which Hina sits down and gets real about her time on the earth with Youta & company. She likens the memories she’s made with them to be a chest full of dazzling jewels she’ll treasure for all of her days—even if “the world should end.”

You’d be forgiven for tearing up during this scene, as with other touching scenes designed to invoke tears. Youta and the others were tearing up. Heck, I teared up too! But once the tears dried, I was simply frustrated to the point of indignation.

This was a show that had all the resources to deliver a realistic ending, in which the acceptance of the loss and change in Youta’s life would spur his own growth and change, bolstering the change God-Hina had already caused. The previous two episodes paved the way for that kind of ending. It would have been difficult, and sad, but it would have felt genuine.

Instead, the show took the easy way out and gave Youta everything he wanted in a painfully artificial happy ending that shredded all previous nuance or appeals to realism. There are no apparent consequences for the fraud he committed, nor for removing Hina from a highly-controlled care facility and dropping her into the chaos of his family and friends.

Youta claims to now know the path he wants to walk, but reached that epiphany only after being unjustly rewarded for his missteps and ignorance. He learned that if he was stubborn and passionate enough, all obstacles would fold and he’d get his way…and they did. Finally, the less said about any romantic undertones to his bond with Hina, the better. I wish this ending didn’t leave such a bitter taste in my mouth, but here we are.

Fune wo Amu – 03

Though it felt very dreamlike, Majime’s encounter with a beautiful raven-haired woman under the full moon wasn’t a dream; the woman is his landlady’s granddaughter, Kaguya (who happened to be born under a full moon), who is living at the boarding house for the time being as she trains to be a Japanese chef at Apricot, a nearby restaurant.

Majime’s interaction with her is…minimal so far, to say the least. He isn’t able to get a word out when they meet in the doorway, and he’s very troubled by this. Their initial encounter on the balcony was also portrayed as dramatically and profoundly as it must’ve felt to Majime, who is, after all, still a virgin and a total novice when it comes to women.

By all indications, Nishioka isn’t exactly a casanova himself, but he’s Hugh freaking Hefner compared to Majime, and vows to take Majime under his wing in this endeavor. While he can claim more experience talking to, courting, and yes, sleeping with women, it’s Majime who’s far more at home and leading the way in the office, and Nishioka can’t help but be swept up in his search for word definitions.

When Matsumoto brings up the necessity of the editors of The Great Passage to check their biases and think about the experiences of those not like them when working on the dictionary, Nishioka can’t resist bringing up Majime’s virginity, and how that could adversely effect his performance on subjects pertaining to romance.

This leads to the other editors asking about Kaguya, and when Nishioka learns she works at Apricot, the whole gang goes out to eat there, giving Majime a solid in. Kaguya is surprised he picked up on her hint to drop by so soon, but then again, she can clearly see he has friends in his co-workers willing to nudge him along.

Only baby steps are taken here, but Kaguya seems like the patient type. Like the builders of The Great Passage, she is undertaking something that will take years to master, but there’s no other way to feed her passion, so she’s going to do it. Majime can relate: he wants to accomplish something too, no matter how long it takes.

Unfortunately, if that’s completing the Passage, a wrench is thrown into his goal late in the episode, but very early in the show: while in the bathroom in the new main building, Nishioka overhears that the Passage may be scrapped.

Looks like in addition to building the ship, the Dictionary Department will have to defend her value to the bureaucracy, lest The Great Passage never feel the lapping of the waves against her bow.

Fune wo Amu – 02

When I was in Tokyo, I availed myself of the impeccable (compared to my city) mass transit, not just to get from Point A to Point B, but because I have an affinity for trains, and subways in particular. It was like I had died and gone to heaven: the unique aesthetics of the individual stations, the elaborate yet useful signage, the machines that sold everything from drinks to books.

Oh, and the people. Never did a single person block the opening doors of a train. People got in tidy lines, often using the lines on the platform, and ingress and egress were smooth and efficient, and ultimately quicker than if it was every person for themselves. Especially in the early mornings, it was a rush and a crush, but it all worked, and it was all polite and precise.

When Majime speaks almost wistfully about the way people on the subway got into neat lines (as if controlled by some unseen power…called courtesy!) and rode the escalators up and down, I could relate. I was on vacation after all; I had no particular place to be, nor any particular time to be there. Majime also takes his time, and Araki and Matsumoto are impressed by how he’s able to express how he enjoys his “hobby” of escalator-watching.

The point is, everything is “fun” for someone, even if it’s boring for others, or even most people. Majime finds observing humans on the go fun. Matsumoto and Araki find dictionary-making fun—why else be in the business so long? And Majime’s new job, for which he seems preternaturally well-suited, also looks like a lot of fun.

His new office is an old, dim, dusty building (once the main building for the company), and there are stacked books with colored tags and shelves full of tiny cards, containing hundreds of thousands of words and their definitions. It is, to use the symbolism of the show, a shipyard—the place where the ship The Great Passage will be built, patiently, steadily, over a period of ten years.

Majime seems pleased with his new position, and eager to contribute…but it’s working together with other people (rather than simply observing them) that troubles him. He’s unsure he’ll fit in, and even more worried he’ll let the others down.

His landlady Take asserts that he really shouldn’t be sweating such things at his age. Socializing with people is give-and-take, plain and simple. Take the two of them: she essentially exchanges hot, tasty meals for company, but through multiple encounters over however many months or years he’s lived in the boarding house, and it’s as if a different symbolic ship has been constructed—a friendship, to quote Mr. Burns—and Take’s able to say with confidence dictionary editor is the perfect job for young Majime.

This episode is called “Encounter”, and it’s not just his new job, his new colleagues, and the great new undertaking he encounters. It’s a beautiful young woman, posed perfectly in front of a huge yellow moon, whom he encounters by chance while looking for his big fat orange cat Tiger.

Majime is literally taken aback by the sight of this striking person, and likely even more intrigued that she’d playfully take the words meant for Tiger (“There you are…I’ve come to get you”) as words he meant for her. No doubt she’ll play a big role in Majime’s growth in the coming episodes.

Sore ga Seiyuu! – 10

As the OP states, even though Kohana Rin is only fifteen, she’s been working for ten years. As such, she’s by definition not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill fifteen-year-old junior high schooler. She’s a special case, which is why her counselor counsels her to seek education at a high school better suited for special cases such as hers, in which she can take acting classes and her work-related absences can be worked around.

The whole reason Rin’s been working so long (in addition to being talented) is that she used to be so painfully shy, so her parents put her in a theater trope. Since then, she’s simply gone with the flow, but it isn’t until now, when she’s now faced with going to a different school than her oldest and best friend, the heart-eyed Sayo, that she starts to doubt whether she even should be a seiyu.

The episode makes it a point to show that unlike Futaba and Ichigo, her present situation didn’t come about as a result of a choice she consciously made; her parents made it for her in hopes it would help her social skills. Futaba and Ichigo don’t lets their doubts get the best of them because they know they’re on the path they want to be on. But Rin isn’t so sure anymore.

Things become a little clearer when, suddenly and coincidentally, her manager hands her a script for an anime film where she’ll be playing the little sister of the lead, voiced by Kamiya Hiroshi (making his second appearance on SgS). The director specifically chose Rin because he wanted a real 15-year-old actor.

With few actors her age out there with as much experience, she seems the perfect choice, but Rin’s recent realization she hasn’t led a typical 15-year-old’s life makes her uncertain. The director cuts several times because she’s either sounding too responsible or too young. But that’s to be expected, considering Rin is more responsible and composed than most kids her age.

Even Kamiya tells her she impresses him; when he was fifteen, all he did was goof off, and even though he’s regarded as one of the industry’s top voices, his own opinion of himself is of someone constantly unsure if he’s even cut out to be a seiyu. He can be negative and overthink things. He never thinks he’s good enough, so he’s always polishing.

Learning this insight from such a towering voice works wonders for Rin, now that she knows she’s not the only one who feels the way she does. And however her career started, she is a seiyu, and she wants to become a great one. For that, she decides she’ll change schools for high school.

When she breaks the news to Sayo, Sayo takes it as you’d expect. She can’t hide her sadness or tears, but nor does she think it’s the end of their eternal relationship; not by a long shot. In fact, Sayo’s tears are both of sadness they won’t see as much of each other, but also joy and pride that her once-profoundly shy friend has grown so strong, and can now stand on her own two feet.

Of course, Rin still needs Sayo’s help with one thing, and will continue to year after year, no matter what: their annual end-of summer giant parfait.

Blood-C 12 (Fin)

Fumito reveals himself as the mastermind of Saya’s entire ordeal. He captured her, a being with the strength and abilities to go toe-to-toe with elder bairns, but rather than human blood, she feeds off of elder bairn blood. He made a half-elder bairn play the role of her father and created the whole shrine maiden artifice as a vehicle to propel her to fight the bairns Fumito sent at her. After killing all the cast save Amino, he escapes to Tokyo, shooting her in the face as she lunges at him…but the game he started isn’t quite over.

For those who wanted the bloodiest, most disturbingly goretastic finale, well, you got one; though most of that gore was covered up by censors. That’s okay, I just ate a rich dinner, and was thus relieved to only have to catch the gist of the carnage. I’m not sure if a future Blu-ray release will be uncensored or not, but if it is, I must remember not to eat a big meal prior to re-watching it. Notably, after making themselves far less likable last week, Nono, Nene, and Tokizane get their bloody, karmic comeuppance. But there wasn’t just grisly death on display; we were also treated to some exquisite Saya ass-kicking that got downright lyrical and reached a fever pace.

Fumito’s obviously an immensely powerful person, but also an immesely sick, disturbed, evil person, and the multiplying elder bairns he unleashes on the fake village to slaughter all the extras just drives that point home. That being said, he’s a human being. He doesn’t believe Saya can kill a human, but if ever there was one for whom she could make an exception, it’s him. This whole series could be boiled down to one, long, harrowing, emotionally and physically torturous practical joke played on Saya. Come next June, she’ll look to settle the score in the film that will wrap this story up.

Rating: 4

Hanasaku Iroha 17

Pretty much around the time Yuina was jumping out of a second-story window and she and Ohana were getting riddled with bullets, I started to wonder exactly what this film was about, anyway. Well, it didn’t matter, because it was all a scam. The funny thing is, hardly any of the staff skip a beat about it. Especially Ohana’s spirits remain high.

Of course, there are some bruised egos. Takako feels like a fool and rightly so for advising Enishi, and rightly so, but initially tries to run away and pin all the blame on him. Their long, complicated relationship reaches a catharsis of sorts, in the pool, of all places, where a memory of Enishi’s still drives him.

When his perfect sister is out-swimming him in the pool, he looks up at the sky and sees two jet fighters screaming across the sky; one trailing the other. Like he trails her. But after some whining and lamenting, Enishi eventually sucks it up, takes the blame, and even calls for revenge. He doesn’t regret trying to elevate Kissuiso’s standing with a film. He’d do it all again if given the opportunity.

His scenes with Takako, his mom, and his phone call with his sis are easily the best things going here; it’s a shame no cameras were turned on his drama. Contrast this with Ohana, Minchi and Nako’s roles, which were really tiny and peripheral these past couple weeks. So far this season, Ohana has taken a backseat to Yuina and now Enishi.

Rating: 3.5

And now for some pretty charts!

We here at RABUJOI have watched a lot of anime. Not as many as some, but no trivial amount. So we were wondering, which animation studio has churned out the most works we’ve watched? The below charts are the result. We took all of the tv series, OVAs, and films we’ve seen in the anime genre and sorted them by cheif animation production company.

A few notes: These are only works we’ve watched and rated, not all the works the companies have produced.  A few works (e.g., Shikabane Hime) are co-produced by two companies (in its case, Studio feel. and GAINAX). So those shows count for both companies. So when sorting by total number of works (series + OVAs + films), here’s what was revealed:

That’s right, GAINAX and Ghibli are tied for the top spot with fourteen works each. Not too surprising. While GAINAX is a mix of formats, Ghibli is pretty much just films. We haven’t seen any Ghibli films since Tales from Earthsea, so Ponyo and Arriety aren’t included.

But what about pure episode count? Trickier, but doable. More caveats: we included the full count of episodes for currently airing Summer 2011 series (e.g. all 11 Usagi Drop eps, although we’ve only seen the first two). Concurrently, for past series we’ve either dropped or only watched part of (e.g. Bleach), we only count the episodes we’ve watched, not the sum total aired. Finally, we don’t count films as episodes, but we do count OVAs. With all that in mind, let’s have a look at the top ten studios, ranked by total episodes we’ve watched:

The “Other” column on the left is a mélange of 39 different studios. Pierrot’s lofty figure isn’t surprising, as we confess we have watched a lot of Naruto and Bleach in the past…their episodes aren’t typically that high-quality and are extremely drawn-out and filler-prone, so the high ep count should be taken with a grain of salt. Bones and J.C. Staff churn out loads of series, while Sunrise’s count is high due to big (50-episode) Gundam series.

There are some companies (including P.A. Works, Tatsunoko, David, Beetrain and Daume) we really like who are either not yet prolific enough for this list or we simply haven’t watched enough of their works yet.

One thing’s sure, perennial RABUJOI favorite GAINAX’s work count will continue gaining with their current series, Dantalian no Shoka, the continuation of Panty & Stocking, and the final two Eva films. Perhaps our second favorite studio is financially-crippled GONZO, who haven’t done much since Shangri-la, but plan to have a Last Exile reboot out late this year, which is very promising.

Hanasaku Iroha 16

It’s lonely at the top…or at least one step below the top. Like Yosuke last week, the manager’s son Enishi is a boss – not the boss – at the moment, but one day Kissuiso – or whatever’s left of it – will be his. Not just his inn but the entire town of Yunosagi is struggling to survive in the cutthroat Japanese hospitality industry.

He hired Takako as a consultant to help come up with crazy ideas to create revenue and/or buzz. And to her credit, Takako hasn’t torn the traditions of the inn to shreds. And now it seems she’s helped reel in a director interested in making a film on the premises, and even letting the staff audition for roles. Nothing like a film to create buzz for a location.

This plan is not without risk, and there’s no sure guarantee it will help the inn. Enishi even shoos away other innkeepers wanting a piece of the action, firmly stating it will be a Kissuiso film alone. To some, this means putting the PR fate of the entire town on his inn’s – and his – shoulders. But in doing so, assuming success, Enishi may finally step out of his sister Satsuke’s (Ohana’s mom’s) vast shadow.

His mother seems to be giving him his chance. If he screws up, it will only justify his lack of faith in himself, and (what he perceives as) her lack of faith in him. Looking at her with typical younger sibling’s eyes, Satsuke seemed to him like a more advanced form of human (note how dolphin-like she seems in his daydreams) – which is particularly amusing considering we (and Ohana) know all too well how flawed she truly is. But whether he’s chasing reality or merely an ideal, Enishi has never seemed more assertive.

Oh yeah, the girls just play with the hose in the drained pool this week…so they’re suddenly twelve now…I guess. Rating: 3.5

Tron Legacy

No, Tron Legacy is not an anime, so I can’t rate it here. But I will say that while it didn’t have a lot going for it in the plot department, it was an exceedingly awesome-looking and -sounding film. It owes a lot of this to Daft Punk, who were also partially responsible for Interstella 5555, which was an anime. They were also totally responsible for an rippin’ good score. They were one of the three reasons I went to see this. The other two were Olivia Wilde and all the cool future stuff.

There’s a great scale to everything, and a great sense of perfection you get from artificiality. Although Avatar’s effects were arguably better, its story was far sappier and more derivative, its acting was far worse, and all the goofy fantasy animals and silly blue Na’vi and the invincible old man all kinda chipped away pretty seriously at my ability to…take it seriously. Tron had none of these flaws, and even though many of its characters are just manifestations of programs, they had a surprising amount of humanity to them, as the actors did the best they could with what they were given. Well, except Michael Sheen…he just tried out his best Johnny Depp-as-Wonka impression.

This film also proves that you can never have too much Jeff Bridges. And that you can wait twenty-eight years to make a sequel and that sequel can be better than the original (to me, at least; as I didn’t see the original in 1982and so wasn’t as blown away as I should’ve been). One final note: Quorra looked like an anime character. I guess everyone else did too, but she looked most like one.