Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro 2nd Attack – 09 – That Doesn’t Sound Like You

Who would have thought a four-eyed, fluffy-haired, creepy pervy bean sprout Senpai could rekindle Hayase’s long extinguished passion for judo? I did, because I could see it coming a mile away. But of course it’s not whether everything would work out for these two lovebirds at the judo tournament, but how it would work out.

Obviously Naoto feels he owes it to Hayase to try to snatch at least one win as thanks for her lessons. But he also wants to impress the girl he likes, and show her that he’s not a complete wimp (though she already knows this). On the other hand, while Hayase easily beats her first round opponent, her next opponent is Orihara, a candidate to represent Japan, who easily beats Gamou (who unlike Sakura is no slouch herself).

Not only that, Orihara is the very person who caused Hayase to walk away from judo altogether. Since she was a kid she loved judo, and was good at it. She regularly beat Orihara, who didn’t have as much raw talent, and Orihara bawled her eyes out every time. But she got better with every match, and the day she finally beat Hayase, she was just as elated in victory as she was distraught in defeat.

It wasn’t that Hayase was being a sore loser per se, just that she had never dealt with defeat before and tied the constant victories to her love of judo. When she leaves the dojo to sulk outside and Naoto checks in on her, she finally opens up to him about this, then walks in wanting to get the loss over with.

Naoto rightly says she doesn’t sound like that Nagatoro he knows. She shoots him a furious look, asking what the hell gives him the right to talk like she knows her. But he does know her, and knows she’s strong and skilled enough to make it a fight. And as he says during his match, he’s decided he does have the right to not want her to make that forlorn face.

Hayase decides to make things interesting: If he can walk the walk and win at least once, she’ll give Senpai an honest-to-God smooch. While flustered by the idea, it nevertheless motivates Naoto. Even when he’s up against a musclebound brute of an opponent in Sasai, he remembers her training, and how size and brute strength aren’t always what decide a judo match.

He fights so hard, Hayase’s friends start to cheer for him, and eventually even Hayase can’t help but cheer for him too. He doesn’t let Sasai get a full point, and while he loses by ref’s decision, he never gave up, and wins not only Hayase’s adoration, but Sasai’s genuine respect.

Next up is the title bout, and as soon as it gets started, it’s clear the two black belts are in a different league than everyone else assembled. But what’s also clear is that even if she’s a bit rusty from being out of the sport, Hayase can still hold her own against a national candidate. That’s not only due to the fact she knows Orihara’s fighting well, but because she too is fueled by the cheering on of the person who likes her.

Like Naoto, Hayase fights hard and with heart, and even gets to show off her signature throw against Orihara. Unfortunately, she’s out of bounds when she does it, and like Naoto, loses by ref’s decision. Finally, she and Orihara shake hands in mutual respect. Hayase promises she’ll beat her next time, and Orihara is looking forward to it. Just a couple of golden-hearted, tough-as-hell ladies throwing down…What else could you ask for?

A kiss, perhaps? A real one, not a peck on the cheek or forehead or with lips separated by something? Well, the deal was Naoto had to win, and he didn’t, so no kiss this week. But Hayase comes up with a new bet, with the kiss this time dependent on whether she beats Orihara next time. She wants to beat Orihara, ergo she wants Senpai to kiss her. She could technically just skip to the kiss, but that’s not how these things work in rom-coms!

When he gets all flustered and decides she’s just messing with him again, she tells him, with a straight face and neutral tone, that no,  despite the title of the show, she is not messing with him in this case. Then she sprints off before her face turns completely pink in front of him.

Thus a challenge has been leveled, and one of the more satisfying, sweet, and heartwarming episodes of Nagatoro-san comes to an end. But with Sana’s little sister(?) about to enter the mix, will our couple’s heretofore smooth sailing hit stormy waters?

Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro 2nd Attack – 07 – Ski ga Kirei

Naoto has decided he wants to try ditching his frames for contacts, but after failing to get them in the previous night, he gives up. When Hayase spots the box, she immediately volunteers to put them in for him. A few “is it in yet?” double entendres later, and Naoto is seeing the world—and Hayase—clearly without frames for the first time. When Hayase puts on his frames and flusters him, we learn he’ll do his glasses-straightening tic regardless of whether he’s wearing them.

Ditching the frames means he’s able to do more energetic activities, like skiing. As luck would have it, he and his guy friends are at the same ski slope as Hayase and her friends. The difference is, Hayase and her friends are much better at skiing and snowboarding. That hardly matters to Hayase, who invites her senpai to join him, aweing his friends by being so friendly with one of the “popular girls”.

But again, Naoto is bad, even on the beginner slope Hayase normally wouldn’t bother with. That said, she relishes the opportunity to teach him, and when he steers himself into the sides, creating a sequence of Snow Naotos, she doesn’t laugh but shows genuine concern for his progress, which is slow and, at least to him, not very noticable despite her pointers.

That night, when Naoto and his friends expect to be done with skiing, they spot the popular girls (and guys) going out for night skiing. Again Hayase invites him to join her, but he passes, citing sore legs. Hayase is clearly disappointed but respects his choice and leaves. Gamou and Yoshi then gang up on him, asking him if he’s sure, and he explains he doesn’t want to slow Hayase down from having fun. The other girls assure him that Hayase going at her own pace is not the point.

Naoto suits up and heads out, surprised he’s suddenly gotten into something like skiing, which he wouldn’t expect of himself had he not met Hayase. As he’s practicing, a younger skiier loses control and careens towards a tree. Naoto forgets all his hang-ups and skis beautifully in order to catch the guy before he injures himself.

Hayase saw him do this, and I’m sure she thought it was pretty cool. She’s also surprised to hear him ask her upfront if she’ll keep teaching him, which is, of course, what she wants to do on that slope more than anything. When she notices he’s always looking down at his feet, she skis a bit ahead of him and tells him to keep his eyes on her.

A backlit Hayase, with her black hair shimmering and snow-dappled trees behind her, makes for an undoubtedly arresting sight. Unfortunately, Naoto is overconfident the next morning, and when Hayase tells her friends to watch how far he’s progressed, he faceplants into the side once more.

Back at school, Sana tells Naoto that she got into art school, which was totally expected but something for which Naoto congratulates her nonetheless. Sana then asks her kohai what he plans to do, and he says with a level of confidence that surprises her that he’s going to try for art school too. She chalks up this confidence to “the cat-eared girl’s” influence.

Naoto denies this, but in his head, he looks back at the year he’s known and hung out with Hayase, and concludes that she really has influenced him. But even after all this time, there’s still so much he doesn’t know about her, and wants to know, like what plans she might have for the future.

Maybe he can apply his newfound assertiveness to keep cutting through her teasing smokescreen and ask her about serious things like that. I think if he does, he’ll find she’ll be quite happy to tell him.

Spy x Family – 16 – The Taste of Family

This episode opens with a dead-serious face, as Yor can barely hide her assassin’s glare from her family when she arrives home late. She definitely can’t hide all the cuts on her hands, which at first I thought might be from a particularly unpleasant client. Anya sees the future through Bond: her mama crying. Alone in her room Yor laments that she could lose her family if this doesn’t succeed. So what’s ‘this’?

I really should have known from all the hand cuts that the mission had nothing to do with assassination, but secret cooking lessons from Camilla, who grudingly agrees to coach Yor when her husband Dominic blurts out at work that she’s a great cook. The bloody bag Yor was carrying was just crushed tomatoes. It’s a great heavy buildup that made you breathe a sigh of relief whenever you figure out everything will be fine.

Dominic invites Yuri to help be the taste tester, but also possibly to preserve his own life. The “smoking, oozing purple/black poison food made by the terrible chef” is an anime cliché that’s been around longer than Truck-kun, and Spy x Family leans into the disgusto-factor of her eldritch creations. It also wisely shows that Yuri’s usual way of eating his sister’s food—while vomiting part of it up—and not keeling over shows that she’s had a poor judge of taste all this time.

Yuri should be commended for basically building up a tolerance and even a love of his sister’s cooking (though part of it is the last thing he wants is for her to be unhappy, or contribute to it in any way). When Camilla suggests they think back to what kind of food the Briar siblings’ mom made, they remember a red southern stew with a fried egg. Yor starts again under Camilla’s close watch, and hey-presto, she’s able to make her first edible, tasty dish!

When Yor returns home in a much better mood, Loid and Anya are understandably worried about her handling the dinner duties. But she sticks to the recipe for her mom’s stew, and after a tentative taste, they discover it’s a really good, soothing flavor. Yor is so happy her family is acknowledging her cooking, she cries tears of joy, not sorrow, into her hands—the very future Bond foresaw.

The final gag is that the dessert she improvise does send her family to the floor. But with about a third of the runtime left, the episode doesn’t let Yor’s cooking epiphany overstay its welcome, but shifts to … Franky’s love life? Ugh…fine, I guess. Turns out Franky is as bad with women as he is good with intelligence gathering. He asks Loid to help him determine the best way to talk to Monica, the pretty woman at the cigar shop.

After Franky demonstrates stalker tendencies with the wealth of intel on Monica and scoffing at Loid’s elaborate conversational flow charts, Loid dresses as Monica, a bit that doesn’t really get any play. Similarly, we don’t get to see Franky being shot down, only the aftermath and Loid buying him a commiseratory drink. It’s a very lightweight segment, but after the excitement of the Mister Dog Trilogy I understand the need for a downshift.

The Devil is a Part Timer!! – S2 E01 – Back on the Job

This episode of The Devil is a Part-Timer—the first in over 3,330 days—is all about reorientation and re-acclimation. We’ve got Team Maou, consisting of former Demon Lord Maou Sadao and his two generals Ashiya Shirou (now an anal-retentive househusband) and Urushihara Hanzou (now a NEET).

On Team Hero we’ve got the ever-irreproachable Yusa Emi, who lives in luxury compared to the former bad guys, and her elegant ally Kamazuki Suzuno (who shares a wall with the lads). Then there’s Team MgRonald: Maou, Sasaki Chiho (who harbors a crush on him) and their cool boss Kisaki.

We’ve also got Sariel, originally there to retrieve the Hero Emilia’s sacred sword, but now addicted to “Big Mags” but unlike the guy in Super Size Me does not wear it well.

Being gradually re-introduced to everyone, I had a feeling of things gradually coming back to me. I didn’t re-watch the first season…though I probably should have, as I’ve watched literally hundreds of series since. But in it’s leap from the Obama to Biden administration, I can report the show has lost none of it’s charm.

Ashiya futilely attempting to school Urushi on the finer points of housework (like how to work a…semi-automatic washer?) is fun, especially since these dudes used to be evil generals. Emi visits Suzuno and overhears their mundane bickering. Chi-chan jumps at the chance to help Maou when it rains and he forgot his umbrella.

The episode is full of little cozy laid-back moments…right up until an unknown creepy presence asserts itself.

The whole gang comes together in the outdoor hallway as the culprit behind everyone’s side glances finally makes its appearance: a cockroach, AKA Taro-kun, AKA Blatella Germanica, hilariously pixelated for our benefit. I truly love how that’s the biggest “threat” in this episode!

Hanzou and even Maou shrink before the sight of the rampaging insect, but it’s ultimately Suzuno who puts an end to all the excitement with her hairpin hammer, smushing the bug with authority and style. The episode could have had her miss and kept the madcap battle going, but it didn’t need to, and I’m fine with that.

Near the golden hour of another hot summer day one year since Maou & Co. arrived on Earth, the gang calls a collective truce to burn some flax stalks Chiho brought in preparation for Bon. The serene scene is interrupted by the appearance of a gate, out of which pops…a giant golden apple.

Maou and Emi then start lobbing insults at each other, leading to Emi drawing her sacred sword. She has every intention of slicing Maou in two, but he shields himself with the apple, which sprouts tiny arms that stop her strike dead. Out of the apple pops a tiny girl who sneezes and falls right to sleep.

They bring the girl inside, where she awakens, introduces herself as Alas Ramus, and proceeds to call Maou and Emi her “mama” and “papa”, like a baby animal imprinting itself on unwitting bystanders.

Only once all the familiar faces are accounted for does a new face show itself and shake up the status quo. I did not expect this show to ever return after so long, but by the end of this episode I’m very happy it did!

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation – 07 – May I Have This Dance?

Winter comes to Roa, and while Eris continues to excel in swordsmanship and earns praise from Ghislaine, she’s just as hopeless as ever with her academic studies. Nevertheless, she’s persevering. While she’d once throttle Rudeus if he told her her answers were wrong, she now simply puts her nose back to the grindstone to find the right answers.

One night, while inspecting his shamelessly realistic statuette of Roxy, Rudy gets a visit from one Edna Rayrune, who tells him about the particulars of Eris’ upcoming birthday party. She’ll be presented as a potential match for a lad form another noble family, whether she wants to be or not—it’s just the way this society works.

As such, she’ll need to perform a dance at the event, and it will have to be perfect, or she’ll bring shame on herself and the Boreas and Grayrat families. Bottom line, Edna wants to take some of Rudy’s tutoring time to spend Eris’ dancing lessons. Rudy is all too willing to get some free time, which he soon uses to explore the world’s other languages.

Winter turns to Spring, and Edna returns to Rudy, having made no progress with Lady Eris. Thus, the inevitable happens: Rudy tracks Eris down in her usual hiding spot in a barn and tells her he’ll help with her lessons by being her partner. While she reacts violently, she also accepts the offer. But in every lesson, Eris always ends up going faster than the music’s rhythm, resulting in their spinning out of control.

In between his dance lessons with Eris and brushing up on the beast god language with help from Ghislaine, Rudy finally gets a letter and package from Roxy, who is amazed he is tutoring the daughter of a lord, and also very much not appreciative of the creepily accurate statuette of her now in the possession of her perverted prince student, who she must immolate regularly.

Within the package is a hand-written textbook in the Demon God language with which Rudy is having the most trouble, despite being young and picking languages up much faster than an adult would. He says he can’t thank Roxy enough, but he could have done so easily by simply not distributing that statuette!

Eris’ big day arrives, and while she looks the part and greets her first suitor properly, their dance goes haywire fast, leaving her face down on the ground as all of the assembled nobles murmur about how the Boreas family is “doomed” with someone like her as their asset.

This is when Rudeus steps up to the plate, asks Eris for a dance, and tells her to close her eyes and not think about dancing, but to think about sparring. As we’ve seen in the past two episodes, Eris is a natural at swordsmanship, including pacing, body control, balance, and footwork. In other words, she’s already good at dancing, just not the usual kind you’d see in at a social function.

With Eris trusting in Rudy and Rudy trusting in her, the two captivate their audience with a gorgeous and lively performance. By the time Eris opens her eyes to see how well they’re moving, she can’t help but smile as widely as possible. As has been the case with their sparring scenes, the dancing is wonderfully staged and animated.

The party is more of a success than Rudy had expected; he captures the attention of several lovely single ladies, and draws the gentle ire of Philip, who’d still prefer if Rudy didn’t draw too much attention to himself—likely for political and strategic reasons.

That night, Rudy, Eris, and Ghislaine have a private after-party where he presents them with wands, as is traditional for a magic teacher to do. Eris, it should be noted, wants one of his statuettes. Ghislaine also gives Eris a gift for passing her swordsmanship lessons: a gold ring that supposedly keeps wolves from attacking you at night.

Rudy wakes up to find Eris asleep in his bed and defenseless, but before he can try anything sleezy he spots the ring and her wand, and decides not to do anything. He credits that with the ring doing it’s job, but I’d also like to think he felt a genuine pang of morality.

He then makes his way up a tower to the sound of Lord Sauros raping one of his beast-woman servants, another instance of Mushoku Tensei taking an unblinking look at the injustice, inequality, and inherent brutality of this time period, when a lord could do as he pleased with members of lower rungs of society. Rudy seems to shrug it off as just The Way Things Are.

After the servant runs off, Sauros points out a strange red orb in the sky with two sets of Saturn-like rings, telling Rudy that whatever it is, it’s not necessarily “a bad thing.” It’s a very awkward way to end the episode, but I’m sure we’ll see more of that orb next week. Until then, we continue to take the good (Rudy and Eris dancing, Ghislaine teaching Rudy) with the bad (Philip, Sauros, and Roxy’s prince)

Read Crow’s review of episode 7 here!

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation – 06 – Calculating Change

After a major shakeup last week, MT slows down as we remain in Roa for the duration. Rudeus learns that while he played a vital role in protecting Eris, Ghislaine is to be given all credit for reasons related to the intricate politics of the Greyrats and the land they rule. He meets Phillip’s father Lord Sauros, the ruler of the Fittoa region of the Asura Kingdom, which includes the city of Roa.

Rudy immediately sees how much Eris both takes after and imitates her grandfather, from their penchant for punching to the way they cross their arms. As for Eris’ mother, let’s just say she doesn’t seem too fond of young Rudy—particularly the way his gaze lingers on her bosom.

Eris asked Lord Sauros to ask Rudy to teach her magic, but Rudy insists that Eris learn to ask for things on her own, and Sauros agrees. Rudy is shocked when the “proper” manner of asking him is for Eris to hold her hair like drooping beast person ears and say “nyan” after every sentence!

A month of tutoring passes. Eris learns to summon fire, and is all about sparring with Rudy, since she always mops the floor with him. Honestly, the animation is so good I could watch her beat him up all day. Her reading, writing, and math lessons, on the other hand, leave much to be desired. Whenever she’s tired of learning, she runs away; when he catches her, she punches him.

One of these times, she falls asleep in a barn, and Rudy sees fit to try to assault her by copping a feel and then attempting to steal her underwear. After two straight episodes of behaving himself, it’s disappointing to see him reverting to his baser ways. At least he gets immediate comeuppance: a brutal beating from Eris in the barn, and again when they spar and she doesn’t hold back.

One day during lessons, Eris simply snaps, and it dawns on Rudy: he hasn’t given her any time off. So the two of them and Ghislaine head out to Roa to see the sights and shop. While Rudy takes notes about the prices of goods in different parts of the market, a merchant who can tell he’s from the Lord’s manor presents him with across a fancy aphrodisiac that costs the equivalent of a million yen.

Rudy also checks out the magical tomes, and Eris, feeling generous, offers to buy him one. When he learns she’d simply get the money from her gramps, he offers her another lesson: only give gifts with money you earned. She learns how little he makes compared to her Sword King bodyguard, while he says they’ll ask her dad to start giving her an allowance.

As the sun starts to set, an odd shadow dances across the buildings and streets, and for the first time since arriving in Roa, Rudy spots a massive floating fortress in the sky. Eris and Ghislaine tell him it’s the fortress of the Armored Dragon King Perugius, hero of humanity who along with twelve servants defeated the Demon-God Laplace over four centuries ago.

It’s a lot of world lore suddenly dumped on us at once, but it’s nevertheless intriguing, and I hope we one day get to explore that fortress with Rudy. Until then, the tutoring continues back at the manor. Eris casually presents him with the vial of aphrodisiac which she bought with her allowance as a gift to him. The catch is, she doesn’t know what it is, and insists he tell her.

Once he lets slip that it’s an aphrodisiac, Ghislaine is on to him, and has no qualms about restraining him while Eris tries to tickle it out of him. The vial eventually breaks, and it’s a good thing too—I was dreading either Ghislaine or Eris suddenly becoming love-drunk. Still, my distaste for the insistence on keeping Rudy a pervert affected my score.

Check out Crow’s episode 6 review here!

Cop Craft – 06 – Jump Out If You Want To!

While they’re a formidable duo when they’re on duty, I might just like Tilarna and Kei better when they’re off duty, as it presents so much more opportunity for the two to talk and interact off-the-cuff. And both professionally and personally, they’ve built up a nice rapport. Just take Tilarna using an elixer to eliminate Kei’s cat allergy, but not to tell him about it until he wakes up with Kuroi in his room and is breathing fine.

Even so, things only go so far, and Kei would rather continue to live alone, so he’s trying to find a place for Tilarna, with little success (realtors in San Teresa are apparently racist). And when their leisurely crepe lunch is interrupted by a stolen truck shearing off the side mirror of Kei’s car and he gives spirited chase, Tilarna would kinda rather be anywhere but in the passenger seat, losing years off her presumably otherwise extremely long life.

With a bit of reckless driving, Kei manages to wreck the rig, which is full of…legal porno mags. Tilarna decides to be useful and move Kei’s car out of the flow of traffic, but neglects to set the parking brake, so it rolls right back into traffic, into the grill of another passing truck, and into utter ruin.

Tilarna gets to see a whole new side of Kei at the station; that both of someone who just lost some(thing) precious too them, as well as someone who acts like a little kid who wants their toy when they meet with Chief Zimmer for a new ride. Tilarna also gets her first look at human porn, which is doubly shocking to her considering how little photography exists where she’s from.

Kei gets his colleague Tony to pose as a fence and arrange a deal with the Semanian truck thief, who is indeed trying to make a killing selling the stuff across the gate. One wonders why he didn’t simply buy up a lot of porn legitimately, as there’s no doubt he’d still make a profit re-selling it in Reto Semani. Kei also gets his new car—a repo’d Ferrari 812 Superfast (which costs over $360,000 US) and takes it for a spin while Tilarna meets with Cecil.

Tilarna came to Cecil for driving lessons unaware that “ex” meant “ex-lovers,” something that embarrasses her. When asked, Cecil isn’t sure whether she likes Kei, but she doesn’t hate him, and simply wishes he’d treat her as an equal rather than a kid, hence her desire to learn to drive. Cecil warns her that might be tricky, as there’s a good chance Kei sees a lot of his lively younger sister, whom he lost ten years ago, in Tilarna. They have tended to act like siblings, haven’t they?

The next day, the porn deal goes south when the Semanian kid is double-crossed and Tony is captured at gunpoint. Kei is temporarily blinded by being too close to a gun blast. so Tilarna grabs his hand, tosses him into the passenger seat of the Ferrari, and shows her what she’s learned. (The automotive pedant in me would question whether she’d know how to work the controls of a car so different from the Jeep Cherokee she trained in, but never mind.)

What matters is, Tilarna doesn’t quite drive like anyone else Kei has ever driven with—which is to be expected—and she gets an absolute goddamn kick out of it; a true need for speed! It’s immensely fun to see the tables turned for once, and Kei begging for death and being given the option to jump out the car window. Tilarna launches the F12 like a projectile into the fleeing baddie, wrecking them both.

Thanks to modern automotive safety, nobody is seriously hurt and the perp is arrested. When Kei starts to scold her again, Tilarna speaks up for herself and gains a deserved apology from Kei for going too far about the Mini before. At this point he believes the Ferrari is still reparable, and agrees to go with her on more driving lessons, but it soon bursts into flames, GTA-style, and he’s back to the same blind rage and despair when his Mini was busted.

He eventually cools down, and when he arrives home (by bus) from a meeting with the real estate agent, he finds Tilarna has already made a cozy home for herself on the lower level of his house, and invites him in. Looks like he’s not going to get rid of her so easily…if that’s even what he wants at this point. After all, it’s not every day you get to have your beloved little sis back in the form of a knight from another world!

Fruits Basket – 03 – The Different Shapes of Kindness

Yuki, Tooru and Kyou’s class decides to do an onigiri stand, and we see again the dynamic between Prince Yuki fangirls and Tooru’s delinquent friends, as well as the fact the class has warmed to Kyou despite—or possibly partly due to—his hot temperament. Oh, and because cute cats flock to him!

Still, when they criticize his idea and accept Yuki’s, he storms off to skulk on the roof. Kyou opens up about his long-held resentment of his “golden boy” cousin, who was always respected and trusted more than him, and excelled at everything he did better and faster than Kyou. He admits if he could be like Yuki, he would be.

That sentiment proves vital to Tooru as she attempts to figure out why these two hate each other so much. She gathers more intelligence when Kyou becomes the life of the party when the class plays cards, while Yuki is off rejecting the umpteenth girl to ask him out. She tells him he’s nice, but closed off to people, and that everyone says a “normal girl” isn’t worthy of him.

It doesn’t sound like a compliment to him, and it puts him in a sour mood when he ends up in Kyou’s presence. The two go at it verbally until Yuki loses his cool and kicks Kyou across the room. All Tooru knows is that this is about more than the fact they’re rat and cat; and probably quite a bit about Kyou waning badly to become the thirteenth member of the Zodiac.

In what feels like a non sequitur of a mini-scene, Tooru falls down the steps at work after her shift is over and encounters a strange blonde who speaks German to her and kisses her before Tooru runs outside. Obviously, we’ll see more of this person in the near future, but all I could do for now was chuckle at Tooru’s extremely flusteredness around someone seemingly not from Japan.

When Yuki arrives to walk her home, Tooru tells him he and Kyou are both so kind, and Yuki flashes a sad smile and turns to walk. Tooru stops him to say he can tell her anything that’s troubling him and she’ll listen and try to help. She’s so passionate about this point she doesn’t notice the drunk salaryman who shoves her into Yuki, transforming him into a rat.

While walking with Rat-Yuki, he tells her his deal with Kyou, which is basically that once the ice is broken it’s easy for him to fit into a group of people, who flock to him just like cats do once they learn the rough edges are only skin deep. Thus Tooru learns that Kyou and Yuki resent each other because they’re both jealous of the ways they’re not like the other. Tooru tells him how kind he is and how that draws people to him too, but Yuki dismisses his kindness as merely self-serving; phony.

When a typhoon suddenly hits, Tooru assists Yuki in protecting his secret base—a vegetable garden—from the harsh weather. Tooru tells him what his mom told her to be, which is a believer and not a doubter in people. When everyone is born they have nothing but desires, but gradually develop their own unique “shape” of kindness; their hearts growing with their bodies and minds. To her, Yuki’s kindness is like a warm, bright candle.

Yuki apologizes for bringing this stuff up, but she assures him she’s glad he did, because it means he trusts her enough to share his problems, and that they’re becoming closer as friends. Yuki promises to try harder to interact naturally with people at school, even if it’s intimidating, because that’s what he wants.

After a night protecting the vegetables, Tooru decides to use some as she spends the rest of the morning experimenting with onigiri in the kitchen. Kyou wakes up before Yuki, but since he’s cat-based he hates the chive filling, and would prefer something meatier. He makes some of his own, showing Tooru that he’s actually a natural at forming onigiri, though he doesn’t think it’s so great.

Tooru disagrees. In fact, she decides to create another metaphor to describe both Kyou and Yuki’s issue, which is not so rare: if a person is a rice ball and the plum is what’s great about them, they have “plums on their backs,” meaning they can’t see them. But people are drawn to both of them, just as all people are drawn to their friends, because they can see those plums. Hence, both he and Yuki are great.

With that, Yuki arrives on cue and force-feeds Kyou a chive onigiri to show him that one politely eats something someone has made for you, even if you don’t like it. Then a knock comes at the door, and Tooru finds a shy young woman outside, asking about Kyou. Could this be an admirer of his, or another member of the Souma clan? Whoever she is, it seems pretty clear she can see his plum!

Tooru could come of to some as overly preachy and poetic this week, but she’s so goshdarn cute and sincere it’s hard to fault her. She had such a good Mama, and duitifully honors her memory by being the best possible person she can be, while sharing the lessons she learned from  her.

For all the loss, grief, and pain she endured, Tooru remains a staunch believer in people, as well as in her ability to help those people. If Kyou and Yuki can’t find each other’s good aspects or make any kind of peace with each other on their own, then she’ll lend them a hand.

Grand Blue – 03 – Stepping into a New World

Diving involves a lot of equipment in good order, which means it’s quite a costly activity for a college club to be involved in; far costlier than, say, the tiddly winks club or the pogo stick club. Iori and Kouhei are informed of this in a matter-of-fact way, meaning they will have to help contribute to club funds.

They already have a way for them to contribute right away: by participating in the Izu Spring Festival’s Inter-Club Men’s Beauty Pageant. But before that, Ryuu takes Iori out for his very first scuba-diving lesson. Before he departs, he gets words from encouragement from Chisa.

Chisa is clearly excited that her old friend is about to experience something she’s already familiar with—and which she loves. Things start out a bit rough, as Iori isn’t used to the kind of breathing one does in scuba gear, and when his mask floods he panics.

But once everything is readjusted, he remembers what Chisa showed him at the aquarium, and it’s like stepping through the doorway into a new world. You can see the switch flip in Iori’s head from panic to nirvana, and the look of joy and wonder on his face is plain to see—and something that delights Chisa. “Good, he gets it now,” she seems to be thinking.

The wonder and joy lead to excessive celebration, which is nothing new to Iori and Kouhei, but what is new is the manner in which Iori finds himself waking up: beside a buxom half-naked woman a couple years her senior. This is how he meets third-year student and fellow diving club member Hamaoka Azusa.

Azusa is the kind of girl who doesn’t mind sleeping in the same room with a bunch of guys, but she’s also a good cook, and teaches Iori, Kouhei and Chisa how to make okonomiyaki to raise more funds for the club at the festival. The festival where, in exchange for not having to compete in the boy’s pageant, the boys must convince Chisa to compete in the girls’ pageant.

The lads, likely still hungover, decide the best way to convince Chisa is to liquor her up so she’ll be more open to the pageant. However, each time they try to slip her a spiked drink, she either already has one, politely declines, it’s taken by Azusa, or one or both of them have to take the drink. Before long, they’re drunk as skunks.

Azusa also reveals she knows what they’re up to—to the heretofore unaware but now horrified Chisa—and forces them to confess their true goal. They ask Chisa to enter the pageant; she refuses; and they reveal that they’re trying to get her to enter so they don’t have to.

That night, the lads play naked rock-paper-scissors, which Azusa joins in but doesn’t have to shed a single article of clothing as she whoops everyone. She gets Chisa to admit that it’s not that she doesn’t want to enter, but more that she doesn’t want to bear the embarrassment of the pageant all alone. Azusa also points out that the only reason they asked her at all is because they were supremely confident all she’d have to do is enter and her victory would be assured.

So Chisa agrees to enter…but only if Iori and Kouhei enter too. Thus the embarrassment is shared, if one loses one of the other two could still win, and if all three win, the club funds are tripled, so everyone wins. When the means with which to enter a new world are so expensive, sometimes you just gotta shake what your mama gave ya…proverbially!

Grand Blue – 02 – Underwater Isn’t So Bad

Iori continues to contend with the constant nudity of his male peers, but everyone dresses for dinner, which is when Nanaka observes he’s gone out every day he’s been in Izu, and doesn’t even know where his room is!

Nanaka forcefully forbids him from spending a third night out, but when the boys say they’ll be having drinks with students at a women’s university, Iori begs Nanaka to let him go. She refuses.

Iori doesn’t give up there, an decides he’ll unpack his stuff and set his room up in a way that will convince Nanaka to change her mind. Kotobuki and Tokita volunteer to help, and eventually Imamura is also involved in various ill-conceived makeovers.

They festoon his room in porn, then lolis, then BL, and finally, in order to sway Nanaka most powerfully, slap Chisa’s face on everything. In the last case, Chisa ends up seeing their handiwork before her sister.

It’s a competent example of the “best laid plans” comedy trope, in which Iori keeps trusting his friends, things just keep getting worse, and he just grows more angry and frustrated. His own idea is worse still, suggesting the entire venture was doomed from the start!

Chisa banishes him to an isolated room that also happens to be the meeting room for the diving club; Iori only learns this when he wakes up to find a meeting taking place in the room, and the club ain’t vacating!

Kotobuki and Tokita decide to give the three freshmen—Iori, Imamura, and Chisa—some basic lessons. Chisa is forced to participate despite already being well-versed in said basics.

The swimming lesson goes south when Iori is treated to the sight of way more underwater manhood than with he’s comfortable. The senpais even trick him into totally disrobing just when Chisa emerges from the changing room in her orange bikini.

Iori just can’t seem to prevent Chisa from seeing him in almost exclusively embarrassing and shameful situations!

But when Iori idly says he’s not interested in underwater—something she’s painfully passionate about—Chisa has Nanaka take Iori to the aquarium after-hours.

This visit and the majesty of the underwater to which divers have access doubtlessly inspires Iori, but so does video he sees of an entirely different side of Chisa; one he never sees because he always looks like a jackass around her.

Nanaka is honest about Chisa telling her to take him and why, and the next time Iori sees Chisa, he makes sure to express his gratitude, both by being fully clothed, and by giving her a souvenir. Chisa would’ve preferred a cuter trinket, but she clearly appreciates the gesture.

This was by far the least cringe-worthy interactions between the two childhood friends, and hopefully the start of a trend of more cordial encounters. Still, I also hope the show doesn’t stop mining Iori’s embarrassment/jackassery around Chisa for comedy…it’s still a rich mine!

Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records – 02

Now that’s more bloody like it. Thanks, Akashic Records, for validating my optimism! After an episode that makes Mr. Radars look like a total loooser, this week starts much the same way, with Glenn picking a fight with Sisti over the value and utility of magic, then going so far he makes her cry and slap him before storming out of class.

At the end of the day, Glenn spots Rumia working on a magical circle, and decides to help her out. She (and by extension we) learn a little more about Glenn, and we learn a lot about Rumia. She’s super-gung-ho about becoming a mage because she’s both indebted to and inspired by a ‘mage of justice’ who once saved her life.

Chances of this dude being Glenn are around, oh…99.99%. Still, I like the dynamic between Sisti’s fire and Rumia’s water regarding Glenn. It’s as if she knows he’s a better man than he’s letting on.

Glenn also takes Rumia’s advice and properly apologizes to Sisti, which flabberghasts her, but also eases their conflict considerably. From there, Glenn, outraged by the “For Dummies” approach his class had taken towards magic thus far, decides to actually give a shit and teaches them what he knows.

Mind you, he still manages to tease “Shironeko” Sisti in the process, but turns out to be a really good magical instructor. The class starts filling with rapt students. Shit is getting done. Just as Rumia saw a good man somewhere in Glenn’s initial bastardry, his mentor Celica predicted he’d be a great teacher.

This episode has a very talky middle, but I didn’t mind because it’s all fascinating stuff that delves deep into the magical lore of the show’s world. I also liked how Glenn actually had the know-how to back up his constant posturing.

But when the other teachers peace out for some kind of magical conference, a group of magical terrorists take advantage. One confronts Glenn in the streets, while others invade the school, looking for Rumia, who they call “Princess Ermiana.”

Sisti stands up for her friend, but when it’s clear the terrorists ain’t messin’ around, she comes forward, with a distinctly defiant look about her. Her faith in Glenn hasn’t been extinguished; she believes he’ll come and rescue them.

Sistine’s attitude gets her in real trouble when one of the terrorists takes her into an isolated room with designs on raping her, calling her out for her facade of strength masking a scared and fragile girl, and stating her type is his favorite. Yikes…shit got dark in a hurry.

Fortunately, this asshole’s associate’s magic didn’t actually do squat against Glenn, who arrives just in time to put a stop to his assault. He uses his ‘original spell’ The Fool’s World to nullify all magic within a certain radius around him, then uses some fly physical martial arts to incapacitate the jerkwad.

As Rumia—or Her Royal Highness Princess Ermiana, if you’re not into that whole brevity thing—thought, this Bastard Magic Instructor isn’t going to stand by and let even bigger bastards hurt his dear students. The straightforward comedy of the first episode wasn’t bad, but I enjoyed that same cheeky comedy interspersed with danger even more. The fact the “Magical Punch” is a kick, for instance; call me easily amused if you must.

End-of-Month Rundown – December 2014

Click to view full-size

Here it is: the last chart of 2014. It’s smaller still than last month’s, due to our saying sayonara to five more shows we either couldn’t find time or ran out of enthusiasm for.

As expected, the battle for the top remained heated until the very last week, with Fate stay/night UBW ending up on top due to a strong ending.

Note that if we excluded episode 00, Fate would fall to two hundredths of a point below Uso…but excluding episode 00 would be silly!

The chart above is the culmination of 200 rated Fall episodes. The total episode tally of the dropped shows comes to 155 for a total of 355 rated episodes.

Some Lessons Learned (in no particular order) :

• Don’t stick with a show that may look and sound great but seems to be perpetually stalling. (Sora no Method, though Preston did watch the rest and it ended okay).
• Avoid shows you can’t say anything nice about. (Akatsuki no Yona, Nanatsu no Taizai).
• Don’t keep reviewing shows you can’t say anything at all about, aside from providing a summary (Ronja).
• Shows that air bi- or tri-weekly have a much greater chance of falling by the wayside (Sailor Moon Crystal).
• Don’t judge a book by its cover (Ookami Shoujo)…
• …Unless the cover is obviously representative of the book (Hi SCoool! Seha Girl).
• Drop shows quickly and focus on giving the shows you really love the attention they deserve; don’t drag things out (Many examples).
• While it’s nice to run comparisons between two similar shows (Daitoshokan and InoBato), it’s probably best to pick one or the other in a busy season.
• Don’t automatically commit to sequels. They might end up stinking (Chaika).

 

 

Barakamon – 05

This episode illustrates how Seishuu, formerly the outsider, is steadily becoming “one of the gang,” someone both the adults and children of the village can trust and rely on. Rather than shun a city slicker, they welcomed him warmly, and Seishuu has settled nicely into their flow.

While he’s periodically pacing around paper and slowly having all thought replaced by konomon, the girls (Naru, Tama, and Miwa) decide to enlist his help with their calligraphy assignment, and he takes to teaching like a fish to water, giving instruction and not suffering (or trying not to suffer) any dalliance.

I particularly like how Miwa describes Seishuu’s present style as “fuzzy” and “showy,” and that Seishuu won’t teach it to them until it’s acknowledged; i.e. won grand prize. Naturally, he goes a bit far in vocalizing his passion for the art, and the girls’ focus pivots from their calligraphy to the fact that calligraphy seems to be all Sensei thinks or cares about.

One would guess that Seishuu doesn’t have a girlfriend because he feels any time or energy spent on one would be time and energy taken from the calligraphy, which would be disastrous. But the fact is, he’s already spending a lot of time and energy with the girls and other villagers, and that energy is helping his work evolve and improve.

When Seishuu is asked to chaperone the kids on a trip to the beach. It’s a beach black rocks rather than soft sand. While he has trouble with his footing on the slippery rocks, one can say he’s definitely found his footing in the village. Having to watch the kids and keep them from killing themselves makes him realize how much he’s come to care for them.