Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible – 06 – Lean On Me

It’s not quite Valentine’s Day without a good rom-com, and this week Kubo delivers, featuring lots of sweet little moments in between Shiraishi continuing not to notice Kubo’s romantic interest in him. If patience is a virtue, Kubo is a saint…and may also be a masochist!

But if learning more about someone endears them to you more, Shiraishi made some progress this week. First, he learned the bookstore lady is indeed Kubo’s big sister. He also meets Kubo’s cousin Saki, who also notices him, and looks exactly like Kubo when she was in middle school.

Were Shiraishi a shrewd fellow, he’d use the adorable photo of middle school Kubo Akina gave him to mess with Kubo the way she often messes with him. It’s not like he isn’t aware she enjoys messing with him; it’s why he initially hesitates to ask her for help studying when they cross paths in the library.

In this case, Kubo-sensei doesn’t make fun of Shiraishi, because he’s genuinely trying his best to get a good grade. Kubo also turns out to be a very good tutor—and the fake glasses she borrows from her friend contribute to her teacherly aura.

Both Kubo and Shiraishi are looking forward to meeting in the library tomorrow to study, but when tomorrow comes, Shiraishi is absent with a fever. Kubo misses him immediately, and the entire day goes by in a haze as she tries to find the right message to send to him.

She settles on a question: Are you coming to school tomorrow? He says he will, and then sends an I miss you that causes her heart to skip. He then immediately texts back that his little brother sent it on accident (the truth). She sends him a Lonely without you sticker in reply, then says her sister sent it (not the truth!)

This was a case where Kubo could have really been more aggressive, asking the teacher if there are any printouts so she has a good excuse to pay him a house visit. The next day Shiraishi is back, but is late for first period and considers waiting in the hall until the second.

That’s when Kubo leaves the classroom looking very out of it; she also came down with a fever. She’s headed to the nurse’s office, but Shiraishi is concerned with how woozy and unsteady she is, so he offers to escort her. He says she can even lean on him, and boy howdy does she take him up on that!

While her face is flush due to her fever, there’s no doubt she loves the fact that Shiraishi took the initiative for once; it makes up a bit for her lack of action on the day he was sick. Once he has her in bed, he starts to look for the nurse, but she stops him by taking his hand, saying it feels cold and nice. He, in turn, says her hand is warm.

The nurse shows up, and with Kubo in good hands (and fast asleep), Shiraishi takes his leave, feeling…different. In fact, for the first time he can recall, he feels like a main character. Not surprising, considering all of the firsts he’s experiencing thanks to Kubo’s friendship.

Spy x Family – 17 – If You Have Love, You Can Fly (But Jets Work Too)

Anya’s initial attempt to impress Damian with news of her new dog failed, so she’s brought a new family portrait to “accidentally” drop when Damian is passing by, hoping he’ll see it and marvel at Bond’s grand floofiness.

Unfortunately it doesn’t go as planned, as Damian and his toadies ignore the photo. It flies off and is picked up by Becky, who is immediately smitten with the hot guy and asks Anya if he’s “seeing anyone”. A dismayed Anya responds “Papa is married to Mama!”

In a stroke of luck for Anya, she and Damian are paired off for and arts-and-crafts project: making an animal. Becky ends up making a model of Loid with a “battle suit” from her dad’s company, and when substitute teacher Mr. Henderson tells her the assignment was animals, she once again demonstrates her precociousness by stating “In the end, humans are animals too”, something our mustachioed paragon of elegance cannot dispute.

Anya doesn’t fair so well, as she’s as bad at arts and crafts as her Mama is (or at least was) at cooking. When she reads Damian’s mind to make a griffin, the heraldic beast of his family, she magnanimously offers to assist, but proves absolute rubbish, building legs with jet engines and uneven feathers. Damian is so pissed by her uselessness he makes her and another girl cry, inviting a scolding from Mr. Henderson, who exclaims “Not Elegant!”

Henderson understands Damian probably wants to impress his father, but he tells Damian there’s no need to rush; all he can do is what he can with the resources he has. The resulting “griffin”, with Anya’s interpretation of a griffin beside it, looks like a disaster, but it invokes patriotic fervor in one of the bigwig judges, and the pair end up winning first prize.

The griffin is proud-looking despite its sorry state, while what is interpreted as “the corpse of an innocent baby griffin” moved the judge to strong emotion. It’s a great bit of still art.

Unfortunately, Anya doen’t really make any progress in her friendship to Damian, nor does the prize include any Stella. But as big of a jerk as he often is to Anya, I couldn’t help but feel bad when he called home and had to settle with talking to the butler Jeeves, since his father is away in more ways than one, and generally disinterested in his second son.

The episode switches gears to do a brief profile of Sylvia Sherwood, AKA Handler, AKA Fullmetal Lady, so-called due to her flawless performance as a spymaster for Westalis. Varying cinematic shots of her walking down the street create a sense of paranoia, but her tail turns out to be a couple of easily-fooled guys who never considered she’d use the public pool locker rooms to change into a disguise and give them the slip.

We witness two separate meetings between Sylvia and Loid, with the episode underscoring that every meeting threatens both of their lives. So it’s amusing both that Loid makes sure not to tell the Fullmetal Lady that the tag on her dress is still on, and also that his “report” to her on Operation Strix involves Anya’s athletic progress.

The final post-credits skit, basically an omake, is a flashback to when Anya would cook dishes for Yuri to eat (all of which are pixelated and feature worryingly unnatural colors), and Yuri scarfs it down with a smile in between projectile vomiting. When he tells her she’ll make a great wife, she gets bashful and slaps him so hard he bounces off the floor and spins horizontally to the far end of the room.

This combination of being repeatedly poisoned and thrashed about due to his sister not knowing her strength is what makes Yuri the excellent operative he is today. He’s been toughened to such an extent that getting his by a truck is of absolutely no consequence. After all, Yor’s tougher than a truck.

A Couple of Cuckoos – 19 – Onii Is as Onii Does

After sustained insistence from Nagi, Erika finally shows him the photo of the two of them when they were little kids. Only Erika claims the black-haired, blue-eyed boy isn’t Nagi, but his biological older brother, Amano Sosuke, with whom Erika grew up with before his mysterious disappearance.

Sosuke is the one Erika has been hoping to find via Insta, and now all of her interactions with Nagi since they met on that bridge are placed in the context of Nagi reminding her of her long-lost Onii-chan. Nagi takes this news relatively well as Sachi returns to the house after recovering from her fever.

While he has no reason to doubt Erika, the photo and her explanation alone are sufficient for Nagi to paint a complete picture of just what the heck happened with the Amano and Umino families, so he decides to meet with his biological father, Mr. Amano, for further insights.

As Erika explains the situation for Sachi, who now knows why Erika went out of her way to be a good big sister (because she too was a little sister), Erika’s dad doesn’t offer a whole lot to Nagi, insisting that he has not brother while confirming the authenticity of the photo.

Those two positions either mean Erika’s dad is confirming it really is Nagi in that photo, or for whatever reason is invested in maintaining his position that Sosuke never existed. Did he die early? Was he disowned? Dad’s cavalier wishy-washiness makes me question whether there was a Sosuke even though Erika insists there was one. I also can’t rule out Nagi losing his memories of growing up with Erika due to some kind of accident.

That said, one thing Mr. Amano is clear on is that he wants Nagi to marry someone. At first he believed that should be Erika, but he sees no reason why it couldn’t be Sachi (if, as I suspect, he doesn’t really care how the two people raised as blood siblings would feel about it). But I believe that’s the first time Mr. Amano has offered Nagi a choice of whom to marry, perhaps to better the odds of getting what he and the Uminos want: a united family.

Obviously the odd girl out here is Hiro, who remains Best Girl and the most logical choice for Nagi to date/eventually marry as she has no connection to either family. The episode slips her in to explain the scenario with dolls to confused kids, but she’s never felt more outside looking in than now, when it seems like fate is asking Nagi to choose one of the other girls. As for whether Sosuke actually exists, if he’s alive, and if so if we’ll ever see him … there’s five more episodes to sort that out.

A Couple of Cuckoos – 18 – Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb

When Sachi’s fever doesn’t go down, her mom takes her to the hospital, but Sachi insists they don’t tell Onii. When Erika hesitates to tell Nagi what she wanted to say, he scares her from the bushes, and she reveals that she’s been going commando. After purchasing some underwear at a nearby konbini, they complete the test of courage by arriving at a shrine.

There, the two have a really sweet moment, with Erika saying she’s glad she met Nagi, and Nagi concurring. He also wishes things “stay this way”, which Erika not wrongly asks him to elaborate. By “this way”, does he mean the two of them remaining engaged? On that note, Hiro learns the shrine is a marriage shrine, so she and Shion forfeit.

Dinner is finally addressed after the test, and it turns out Erika did buy enough ingredients for an eclectic barbecue. While Hiro missed out on being with Nagi for the test of courage, she still sneaks in an indirect kiss by eating Nagi’s ear of grilled corn (which is the best corn).

Once they’ve done everything else one can do at a study camp, the group considers actually studying, but Nagi surprises them all by suggesting they stargaze instead. Turns out he quickly agreed to the camp because the Capricornid meteor shower would be visible in Karuizawa the night they were there.

Everyone has a great time, but then Nagi gets a text from his mom saying Sachi’s in the hospital, and he catches the last train back home to visit her. She calls him an idiot for ditching his first camp with friends, but also thanks him for being there for her.

The next day Nagi regrets so impulsively ditching the others to see Sachi. While Erika says it’s “fantastic” that he has “someone to rally to” like that, both he and I sensed a little tinge of resentment in her words, as if she should be (and likely is) the same kind of “someone” to Nagi.

That’s doubly true if the truth of the past is that Nagi and Erika grew up together, at least for a couple of years. We learn that Hiro got a look at the photo, which Erika’s dad left in the vacation house as a kind of “bomb”. In doing so, he probably signals that he wants Erika and Nagi to quit reveling in their cozy little limbo and actually start to make some choices.

And it works! Hiro doesn’t know what to make of it, but I’m sure she’s eager to learn more, and considers an alliance with Shion so she can end up with Nagi (a plan probably doomed to failure). Then, in a gorgeously lit scene at the pool, Erika and Nagi exchange some splashes, Nagi makes it clear he wants to know the identity person Erika wants to contact—whom he assumes is someone to her who Sachi is to him.

When he splashes him again, it’s almost signaling that it’s him, and asks him solemnly if he’s truly prepared for what she’s going to say. If that person is Nagi, like I’m assuming and who seems to be the natural choice, and Nagi learns this for certain, the narrative momentum is poised to pick up fast.

Love After World Domination – 10 – An Invincible Couple

LWD did a beach episode, so you knew at some point they were probably going to put their hero/villain spin on the school festival episode. Desumi really wants Fudou to come on the third and final day, because that’s when a traditional moon sculpture is unveiled. Couples photographed at that moon will become “invincible.”

Fudou and Desumi know it won’t be easy for the two of them to pull something like that off at a busy festival, but Fudou didn’t expect his comrade Hayato (AKA Blue Gelato) to catch wind of him going to a festival and make him his horse for the day. Meanwhile Desumi has to deal with Anna’s aggressive advances.

This is the high school Kiki and Kyouko (Beast and Steel) attend, but while the latter brings Culverin Bear as her date, as disciplinary officer Kiki is fixated on breaking up lovey-dovey couples.

The lovey-dovey-est of them all are our protagonists, who finally manage to get some alone time in a haunted house, only to be found out by Kiki (who luckily doesn’t recognize her comrade in the darkness).

That said, Desumi ends up right back in Anna’s clutches, while Hayato once again mounts Fudou as if he were a conveyance. If the couple has any chance of getting to the moon sculpture, they’ve gotta shake off these pests.

While the animation of this episode is spotty at best, it kicks into high gear when it counts, like during Anna and Desumi’s high speed chase through the halls. Desumi seeks refuge in the nurses office, where Blood Princess happens to be on duty.

Having bought a little time, Desumi tracks down Fudou, only to find him being used as a horse for Hayato. She can’t very well just stride up to Blue Gelato, but nor can she do nothing with her sweetheart in peril.

Fortunately, Hayato spots Kiki, whom he recognizes at the beach, and they engage in their own breathless chase through the school. This leaves our couple alone again at last, but with the minutes dwindling to get their photo, they’re not sure how to pull it off, considering how recognizable Fudou is as Red Gelato.

Finally, their surroundings tell them what to do. The school is lousy with cosplayers—Kyouko even lost Culverin and ended up with a guy in a bear suit—so they decide to transform into Red Gelato and Reaper Princess…a “fanfic” pairing if ever there was one, but an effective one.

Rather than suspect them of being the real thing, the other students simply chalk it up to amazing cosplay craftsmanship and attention to detail. Desumi and Fudou get their snapshot at the moon sculpture, and with it verification that they are an invincible couple that can accomplish anything together.

That being said, they would have been that even if they hadn’t gotten their picture taken; these crazy kids don’t need their love propped up by legends. Kiki prevails over Hayato, Anna and Blood Princess rest one one another’s back after a great fight, and Kyouko introduces the fake bear guy to her bear guy. All’s well that ends well at the festival.

Love After World Domination – 04 – Can’t Take Me Home

This week showed that while many of the characters play rather cartoonish heroes or villains, at the end of the day everyone’s a normal human being. Desumi even attends high school and has normal friends while she’s not “at work”. But while hanging out after school, she spots Fudou with the new Pink Gelato, and her reaction—running away in tears—is as intense as her friends are confused.

Pink, AKA Haru, is also confused…by the photo of Fudou with what looks an awful lot like a girlfriend. She and Fudou aren’t on a date; she needs to ask him about the photo. But instead he intuits the reason for their meet-up is that she’s interested in upping her physical training regimen. Haru is helpless to stop him from going off on his favorite topic, and she ends up relieved, as there’s simply no way Fudou would have a girlfriend.

But he does, and she’s pissed. When Fudou and Haru’s coffee is interrupted by a call of duty, Fudou finds and engages with Desumi expecting them to go through their usual dance, only this time Desumi’s dropkick lands. He thinks it’s an accident, or they’re just a little out of sync today, but eventually he realizes Desumi is hitting him on purpose.

The two end up in a secluded warehouse, where Desumi admits that even though her brain didn’t really think Fudou was cheating on her, the sight of him with Haru sent her heart into such turmoil she didn’t know what to do with herself. In fact, she started to think maybe someone “girly” like Haru would be better for him than a jealous, violent, loathsome outcast like her.

Fudou is swift in both his comforting hug and his rebuttal: he will only love her, with everything he’s got, as long as he lives. With her totally undeserved self-loathing out of her system, she and Fudou simply exist together for a bit, hand in hand, planning an afterschool date in their school uniforms…when all of a sudden they notice that Pink Gelato is sitting right next to them.

Fudou and Desumi are certain they’re 100% busted and doomed. But the thing is…they aren’t, at least not for the time being. They both believe Haru is planning something, and simply biding her time before she drops the hammer. But Haru is conspicuous in not only not telling anyone what she saw, but acting like she never saw it; like everything’s normal.

That is, until Fudou and Desumi’s after-school date. After a civet(!)-based false alarm, Desumi realizes Haru is lying in wait, and sends Fudou off on an interminable and ultimately doomed Starbucks run. Haru doesn’t mince words, challenging Desumi to a duel. Despite her transforming into Pink Gelato, Desumi handles her easily even in her school uniform. After all, Pink’s only been at this six months; Desumi’s a veteran enemy commander.

Desumi puts the end to the fight by knocking Haru out, but Haru is shocked to find that when she wakes up, Desumi is still there beside her. She admits that she joined Gelato 5 because she was in love with Fudou. She always suspected someone so amazing would have a girlfriend, but never expected it to be someone else she knew. Turns out Desumi rescued her from some thugs in an alley…and inspired her to become stronger.

Haru heard everything Desumi said to Fudou in the warehouse about how “love was making her weak”, but after fighting her, Haru assures her she’s as strong as ever. As for why she didn’t snitch on them, well…as much as she wanted Fudou to be hers, it just wasn’t in her to steal happiness from Fudou or Desumi. When Haru says this her eyes well up with big soppy tears. Desumi can’t help but hug her, and then she starts crying too.

When a very confused Fudou sees Haru’s head in Desumi’s lap and asks what’s going on, Desumi simply shushes him; let Pink Gelato rest a little more. Once she’s awake and back in her uniform, the three walk a bit together. Having experienced a catharsis, Haru is now rooting for Fudou and Desumi…but playfully won’t rule out stealing Fudou if given the chance.

It’s amazing how quickly this love triangle came together this week, and how affecting it was throughout its progression. From Desumi’s early jealous spiraling and Fudou’s stalwart vow he’ll never leave her side, to Haru’s discovery of their tryst and how she handles it, this was Koiseka at its best and most heartwarming.

Love After World Domination – 03 – Never Want to Touch the Ground

There haven’t been any battles between Gelato 5 and Gecko for two weeks, and both Fudou and Desumi are missing each other something fierce. So when Gelato detects a new weapon at Gecko HQ, Fudou impresses both Misaki and the Professor by valiantly volunteering to undertake a potential suicide mission alone.

Naturally, his comrades are unaware he just needs to see Desumi really bad. Dropping in suddenly makes her happy, but she has to use her lightning speed on more than one occasion to keep him from being spotted by her comrades. This results in her sitting on his face, then getting smushed into her locker with him and her bras.

When Culverin Bear comes in her dressing room, it looks like the discovery of their secret forbidden love is imminent…until Desumi lashes out in embarrassment, sending Fudou flying out of the locker, knocking Bear unconscious and activating his new weapon, which then self-destructs. Fudou gives Desumi his phone number, only for her to learn it’s the land line of his family home.

Fudou’s drop-in is followed up by a meeting of colorful, eccentric Gecko baddies, naturally led by a boss named…Bosslar. The various villains try to come up with the manner and location of the next battle against Gelato, and all Desumi comes up with are fun date locations, because she wants to see Fudou again. Bear actually backs her on the suggestion of an amusement park.

Misaki, suspicious of Fudou’s new smartphone, decides to stalk Fudou when he heads to the amusement park, dragging Haru with her. While Misaki clearly has a tendency towards sisterly meddlesomeness, Haru is more trusting of Fudou, and also seems to be hiding a hidden crush on the big lug.

When Fudou and Desumi meet as planned and begin to grapple, they are both surprised by the sudden arrival of Yellow and Pink Gelato. No matter; they speed away to fight a duel as in previous battles, only here they change into street clothes and ride a series of fun amusement park rides. All the while, both Misaki and Haru are convinced that Fudou is just his usual good hero self and nothing is up.

Despite being a superhero, Fudou gets motion sickness form the rides, including the intimate Ferris Wheel. Desumi no doubt finds this cute about him, and is happy to learn something about her sweetheart she didn’t know. But she also uses it as an opportunity to take Fudou’s hand, which causes his sickness to subside, replaced by warm, happy vibes.

Those vibes may not last much longer, however, as Haru has a quick passing glance at photos of people on rides and spots Fudou riding a roller coaster with some woman. If we’re going by anime logic Haru can’t recognize the Reaper Princess unmasked, but the fact Fudou is with a girl at all is a huge shock for Haru, and will likely have far-reaching repercussions. One thing I’m sure of is that the added stakes won’t detract from the snappy comedy or the sweet romance.

86 – 11 (Fin) – All Over but the Crying

We arrive at October 30th, the day the five remaining members of Spearhead get into a scrap with the Legion and lose Fido as well as all but Shin’s Juggernaut. Things are getting desperate and they’re running low on ammo, fuel, and food, which means soon their recon mission will be at an end. All of them know what that means, but rather than dwell on that, they simply keep living their lives until the time fate decides to take them.

This means taking shifts piloting the ‘naut while the others rest or watch the rear from the remaining cargo bot. Thanks to Shin’s instincts and a rainstorm they manage to evade another Legion patrol, but the Legion become more legion by the day. The group finds an abandoned town and decide to take shelter in a school—the first school Kurena’s ever been to. They take a final roll call, and “graduate” the next day.

When they hit a literal wall of sheer rock, Shin suddenly asks to switch with Anju, who is piloting, claiming he’s bored. Once they switch, he cuts the tether to split off from the others and uses his grappler to bring down some rocks so they won’t follow. He sensed more Legion were coming; Legion they wouldn’t escape unless he lured them away. The others aren’t okay with this. Raiden, Anju, Kurena and Theo all agree to go after him.

With no Juggernauts, they have to go on foot, and arrive just as Shin’s ride is trashed and a Legion prepares to crack it open like a tin of sardines and claim his head. Only the weakest of the charging Legion are susceptible to their small arms, and even then only headshots, and there are too many of them. First Theo, then everyone else goes down fighting. The light of the Legion prepares to take Shin’s head—but he has his sidearm. Does it succeed?

We finally check in on Lena, who is under house arrest for her little stunt with the mortars. Even so, she pays a visit to the front lines, and to Spearhead’s HQ. A new group of 86 are being processed. The cycle continues.

Lena is greeted by Lt. Albrecht, who reveals he’s an Alba like her whose wife and daughter were 86 and died in battle. Thanks to Shin, he was given a measure of solace in knowing they didn’t become Legion, as Shin never heard them call Albrecht’s name.

Lena then walks through the now abandoned living space like a ghost looking so out of place after having been in essentially another world the whole time. It’s just so heartbreaking that by the time she was finally able to make it here, everyone she spoke to over the Para-RAID was already gone.

While the cycle of using 86 as cannon fodder continues, there was at least a crucial change. Lena and Shin forged a genuine connection, and it rubbed off on the others too, as they left her a memento: Theo’s drawing of her with handwritten notes from him, Shin, Raiden, Kurena, and Anju. More importantly, they left a Polaroid of the whole group, helpfully labelled by Theo “so she wouldn’t cry” about not being able to tell who was who.

In the end, as a practical matter, all Lena was able to do by breaking protocol and getting in trouble was extend the five’s lives by a few more days. Instead of dying on one battlefield, they died on another. But with Fido gone and his records destroyed, Lena now holds some of the last remaining artifacts of their existence—other than the wrecks and bodies they left behind somewhere out there, after reaching their final destinations.

Lena will surely treasure these things, as well as the cat left in her care, but they’re also primed to fuel her continued rebellion against the broken evil system she’s blindly served for too long. She couldn’t end the injustice for Shin and the others, but perhaps with enough allies and some luck, she can end it for others. Or maybe not. But like them, she’ll fight until fate comes for her.

Maybe then they’ll all get to finally reunite…for the first time.

So ends the first cour of 86. What a powerful show. We’ve known since the start there would definitely be a second one, but now we know there will be a “Special Episode” in between the two. What I’m a little fuzzy on is what exactly became of Shin.

I’d like to hope he managed to shoot himself in the head, and that seems to be supported by the fact he reunites with his brother, whom we know he freed from the Legion. We also see Shin’s headless body. But nothing is certain, which is why I’ll just have to keep watching to find out.

Zombieland Saga: Revenge – 06 – Tae-Tae’s Big Adventure

Ookoba Shinta needs a big scoop to maintain his sanity in Saga, and he can’t quite take his eyes of the group of lookalikes of deceased famous people that is Franchouchou. He’s not a fan (though I guess he’s not not a fan either); he wants more answers about who they are and what their deal is.

Well, their deal is pretty simple: they’re 20 million yen in debt, all thanks to Koutarou (who brazenly ignores that fact, thus rejecting reality and substituting his own). They’re out of their creative slump due to the past few events that also didn’t cost them anything, but they still need to get that paper.

He even calls out Tae as someone who really should be at least trying to make some money, though Yuugiri simply sends her on a grocery errand. Ookoba encounters “Number Zero” in a crosswalk and decides to start following her. What he—and we—witnesses is a delightful day in the life of Yamada Tae!

A kind old lady gives her a snack. Some soccer kids give her a snack. She has a snack of edible offerings at the Yamada family ancestral grave. Then she shows up at the supermarket…where my favorite pint-sized bozozoku girl Amabuki Maria has a job trying to pay for a new bike for her mama. Maria can’t help but talk Zero’s ear off whenever they meet; probably because Zero is such a good listener!

Maria and her two BFFs have decided to “tear it up” in a new way, through dance, and invite Zero to a pharma-sponsored dance-off where they proceed to put on, shall we say, a heartfelt and upbeat but ultimately underwhelming performance. They’re no match for the five-time champion Cocco-kun, who is someone in a chicken suit.

Because Cocco-kun represents Tae’s ideal—a chicken big enough for her veracious appetite—she joins him in a breakdancing duel, scaring the shit out of the pharma PR exec but also blowing the top off the competition with her inhuman moves, including spinning on her head so fast her head looks motionless…because it is! Ookoba tries to snap a photo, but Romero ruins his shot.

Tae easily dethrones the fully human Cocco-kun and claims the ¥30,000 Grand Prize, but seems only interested in the Bonus Prize: a 10kg bag of onions—and tosses the cash in the trash. Fortunately, Maria fishes it out and tries to give it back to Zero-chan, attracting the attention of Saga Policeman A.

He recommends she spend it at the tracks…not the horseracing track, as he repeatedly pleads to his chief, but the boatracing regatta. There, like Maria and her little dance troupe, Korosuke’s princess Misa has also found a new way to tear it up, even though she’s yet to win a single race and wipes out almost every time. While the cop is busy, Tae places a bet, demonstrating how easy to use the machines really are.

Misa spots Maria in the grandstand and it lights a fire in her belly, because she’s a Misa on a mission, channeling Saki on her bike and pulling the legendary “eel goby turn” while shocking everyone who bet on her to DNF once more.

Maria and Misa’s Korosuke crew are elated, and then Maria takes a look at betting ticket and realizes to her shock that Number Zero increased her money over six hundredfold with a perfect trifecta (or something…I don’t know all the terminology!)

This means she turned her ¥30,000 into a cool ¥20 million—thus erasing all of Franchouchou (really Koutarou’s) debt in one day, while out on a little grocery errand. She either took Koutarou’s insistence she get out there and make some money, or it happened entirely by accident (after all, she did try to throw that ¥30K in the trash at first).

Zombieland Saga loves the fact that we both desperately want to know and don’t want to know more about Yamada Tae, and spent an entire Tae-centric episode proving that it really isn’t a detriment for her shroud of mystery to remain fully intact, even unto the end of the series. Tae more than proved she can carry an episode without singing, speaking, or her past being revealed, while Ookoba followed her all day only ended up with more questions.

Cheif among those crops up right at the end of his stalking session. When Tae’s head pops off and falls on the ground, Maria just happens to have her back turned, and Saki keeps it that way by pulling her into a romantic embrace. But Ookoba not only sees Zero’s head come off, he snaps a photo of it. Just when he was about to give up, his underling’s joke about those famous girls being revived as zombies suddenly doesn’t seem so far-fetched…

Read Crow and Irina’s discussion of this episode here!

The Quintessential Quintuplets – 23 – Give and Take Five

Yotsuba walks in on Itsuki just as she’s hiding the photo of Fuu with “Rena”. Commenting on how things aren’t so hot among the sisters, Yotsuba invites Itsuki out shopping, where they run into Fuu and Raiha, who is imparting on Fuu the importance of buying belated birthday gifts for the quints. Raiha also mentions “the photo”, and Yotsuba demands to know details. Raiha goes on to say the girl in the photo was her bro’s first love.

On the Shinkansen to Kyoto, Ichika, Nino, and Miku continue their war through spirited card games, while Itsuki joins in just for the card competition, while Yotsuba is a little intimidated by how heated things have gotten. She’s hoping this trip can be an opportunity for the five of them to make up…but also an opportunity for Miku to give Fuu her clandestinely-made baked goods.

Nino unilaterally decides to follow Fuutarou’s group up the temple steps, and while the others don’t have any objections, Yotsuba brandishes her card game victory on the train to insist that she and Miku go up the right steps while Ichika, Nino and Itsuki will go up the left steps. Some mild sniping between Ichika and Nino ensues, while Itsuki is left bemused.

When Itsuki and Nino use the restroom, Ichika abandons them and continues her descent, determined to see Fuu first and calculating she can beat the faster Yotsuba as Miku is surely slowing her down. Unwilling to take back the lie she’s already told Fuu, all Ichika thinks she can do to stay in the fighting is continue to lie and block Miku by posing as her.

But while she’s the first to reach the top, Fuu isn’t there. The next to arrive is Yotsuba, with Miku on her back, and they both see that Ichika is impersonating Miku. When asked for an explanation, Yotsuba says Ichika is trying to get in the way of Miku’s confession to Fuu. She says this just as Fuu makes it to the top, and hears what she said.

Miku runs off in tears as Nino and Itsuki arrive, and Nino has had it with Ichika’s bullshit now that she’s made someone cry. But Ichika doesn’t want to hear about it, considering how cutthroat Nino has been. It’s here where Nino admits she was being overly harsh, and that in reality she’d want to celebrate with whoever ended up “winning” because the bond between the five of them was just as important to her as Fuu.

Speaking of Fuu, he tries to lower the temperature, but it’s too late; Nino is already also crying, and orders him to chase after Miku. He’s unsuccessful, but Itsuki ran after her earlier and saw her get on a bus back to the hotel, so Fuu gets on the next bus, and Yotsuba joins him. She blames herself for making Miku cry, and may have created a monster by encouraging Ichika.

Fuu assures Yotsuba that he was already pretty sure of Miku’s feelings, such that the Fake Miku seemed fake even to him, “Uesugi the Dense.” He tells her she worries about the others too much, but Yotsuba still feels she owes them for making them follow her to another school when she was the only one to flunk out.

She wants to know how everyone can be happy, but Fuu tells her there’s only so far you can go; ultimately someone’s happiness must be gained by taking it from someone else. Like, say, when many girls like the same boy.

Back at the hotel during dinner, Nino informs Yotsuba and Itsuki that there’s a creep sneaking photos of them (as evidenced by the shutter sounds she’s heard behind her several times). When the three decide to go check on Miku and Ichika, Miku doesn’t answer the door, but they all hear another shutter and freak out.

Ichika, meanwhile, manages to bump into Fuu in the hall, and asks if he’s free tomorrow, because she needs to talk to him about something. Hopefully to come clean about impersonating Miku…but probably not! Meanwhile, Nino calls Miku to ask if she’s free to talk tomorrow.

The next day, Fuu ends up running into Itsuki and Yotsuba again, this time from the top of Kiyomizu Temple. Itsuki all of a sudden adopts a super-affectionate and clingy attitude, having Yotsuba snap a picture of them with the view as a backdrop. She’s hoping to jog his memory about another certain photo from six years ago.

Nino gets to stay at the hotel by impersonating Miku (which is apparently all the rage these days) and when Miku asks her what she wants, Nino jumps on top of her in order to rattle her cage. She says her rival “backed down by herself” on this class trip that should have been a golden opportunity for her to make progress. Now all she needs to do is defeat Ichika, that “sly fox”. Long story short: Nino is taking Fuu.

Miku may have fallen for him first, but as far as Nino’s concerned she loves him the most, even if it’s her first time in love and she’s not sure what’s right or wrong. To this, Miku voices her protest, insisting she’s not done fighting for him yet. It’s just…she’s scared. Scared that she’s not good enough; scared of fighting fair and square; more scared than she thought she’d be. But even if it’s scary, she’s not going to quit…not yet.

That’s good, because Itsuki knows for a fact that the sister who posed with Fuu in that six-year-old photo is none other than Yotsuba!

Episode Eleven Quintuplet Ranking:

1. Nino: Nino was busy this week! She was the sister who decided they were following Fuutarou’s group, setting some potentially cathartic scenes in motion. Calls out Ichika’s scheming, but also admits that she’s just as ruthless in trying to get what she wants. Most importantly, when Miku runs away crying, Nino puts the war on hold and sends Fuu after her. Finally, is the one to rattle Miku’s cage. Total Points: 43 (1st)
2. Yotsuba: Turns in another strong showing by hanging with Fuu at the mall, serving as Miku’s emotional support, winning the card game so the sisters were forced to split up the way she dictated, literally carries Miku on her back, and has a solemn and frank convo with Fuu on the bus about the limits of happiness for all. Oh, and she’s the damn girl in the photo! Total Points: 34 (2nd)
3. Ichika: Love or hate her, there’s no denying Ichika is a woman on a mission, and it’s take-no-prisoners. Her second use of the Miku disguise compounds the throne of lies upon which she sits, but when it backfires she doesn’t want to hear Nino scold her when Nino said she’d step over anyone who got between her and her man.  Total Points: 29 (Tied for 4th)
4. Itsuki: There’s actual signs life in Camp Itsuki this week, as she plays big sister to Raiha at the mall. However, her cute photo moment with Fuu at the temple wasn’t self-serving so much as designed to get him to remember the Kyoto trip years ago. Total Points: 30 (3rd)
5. Miku: While Ichika’s Fake Miku act didn’t work on Fuu, the fact Yotsuba blurted out her desire to confess sent her into a spiral of inadequacy, and she remained confined to her hotel room far too much to do anything. That said, she has nowhere to go but up! Total Points: 29 (4th)

The Millionaire Detective – Balance: UNLIMITED – 08 – Much Ado(llium) About Something

19 years ago Chou-san’s fruitless obsession with the Kambe Sayuri murder began. But Daisuke actually witnessed his father killing as a lad. Far from joining the force to protect the Kambe family and its interests, Daisuke is as eager for answers about the murder—and his fathers suicide—as Chou-san.

Haru, who has basically been swept up in all this by Chou-san and Daisuke, thus becomes a willing member of their re-investigation team. While he’s initially tasked with what appears to be busy work—poring through piles of family files, it’s clear Daisuke is counting on Haru’s detective’s instincts to find something.

Meanwhile, Chou-san is served weird rich people food while he conducts an interrogation of Takei in a secure location within the Kambe residence, offering Takei expensive whisky as no sake is available. Unfortunately, Takei seems too scared to say anything more than they learned with the VR machine.

Daisuke’s grandma similarly stonewalls his efforts to acquire any further information about his parents’ deaths and the “third laboratory” where they both worked and where the mysterious Adollium was researched—a lab now suspiciously missing from the Kambe org chart.

When Suzue tries to bypass an uncooperative HEUSC by basically scouring the internet for mentions of Kambe’s father and the lab, an informational page suddenly shoots a 404 error and the remaining search results are suddenly reduced to zero before her eyes.

She clandestinely informs Daisuke that not only is HEUSC refusing any questioning, it’s now actively working against them, using their own voices and body language to keep them one step behind. She does this by taking a very confused Daisuke by the hand, throwing him on the bed, and covering the two of them with the sheet.

When Haru sees them slightly disheveled, there’s a whole lot he could say considering Daisuke told him Suzue is related to him; but more importantly, he’s found a clue in a photo of Daisuke and his folks that indicates a mountain summer mansion was the location of the Third Lab.

Daisuke and Haru head to the lab, with the latter serving as a auto-missile-chucking diversion so the former can infiltrate the lab. It’s good to see the two working side by side on the same case again, even if Haru was left in the dark about the exact nature of the heavy pack on his back.

As Daisuke gains access to the lab, Suzue reports an intruder back at the residence, who is having success breaking her firewalls in order to gain access to Takei’s cell. Stranger still, the computer identifies the intruder as Kambe Shigemaru, Daisuke’s dad. When the power to her control center is knocked out, she heads off the intruder, only to be knocked out cold.

The intruder than enters the cell, but despite being given an emergency escape route, Chou-san has no intention of crawling to safety like a rat. After one last drink of expensive liquor, he takes out his handcuffs and prepares to confront the knife-wielding intruder head on, and Takei stands beside him. It doesn’t go well.

So, things are a bit clearer now: Daisuke’s dad never committed suicide, but his death (and dental records) were faked…perhaps so he could continue his work without further interference. His wife clearly expressed moral and ethical objections about that work, but they were ignored. It’s possible Shigemaru snapped when Sayuri left him, and he certainly remains snapped to be able to slash two detectives to ribbons.

That said, there must be a method to his madness. He could be behind HEUSC working against Daisuke and Suzue, and he clearly exhibited the faculties to infiltrate the highly secure residence and its network. Whatever the state of his mind (and, incidentally, his research), Haru blames Daisuke for not coming to the doomed detectives’ aid sooner.

That said, Daisuke did give Chou-san an out from the start, but he made his choice (as did Takei). Chou called the Kambe Sayuri case his “life”, but now the case has outlived him. Here’s hoping his and Takei’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain, and Daisuke and Haru will be able to complete Chou-san’s 19-year search for the truth…and for justice.

Oregairu 3 – 02 – This Has to Be Done Now

The tipsy Haruno invites everyone upstairs so Yukino can say what she wants to say, and even pops out some solo champagne as she listens. The  operative word there is listen: she actually does so, now that she can tell Yukino has something to clearly say.

Haruno says she’ll support Yukino in her efforts as a big sis should, but warns that if she goes back home, she may not be able to leave for a while. Yukino already knows the difficulty of what she’s doing, but she can’t win (her independence) if she doesn’t play, so she’s decided to finally take the field.

As Yui stays over to help Yukino pack her things, Haruno walks with Hikigaya, and expresses her astonishment over her little sis finally making herself clear. The ol’ Haruno cynicism is still there, citing that “nothing will change” whether thing works out Yukino or not, but that giving up on “various things” is part of becoming an adult, and it’s good to see Yukino take those first steps.

She also confides in Hikki that she’s not actually drunk, even though her face is flush and she’s favoring his shoulder. The flushness suddenly fades and she stands straighter, and her demeanor and voice suddenly more closely resemble Yukino’s.

No matter how much Haruno has drunk, a part of her has always been able to stay calm and observe and temper herself. And she has a sneaking suspicion Hikki is the same, whispering “you can’t get drunk” in his ear.  Whether it’s alcohol…or love.

The next day at school, after a slight problem unlocking the club room, the trio are back at their places sipping tea when Isshiki Iroha makes her first appearance this season. She hooks up a portable projector and plays a TV drama, but not to just goof off. Instead of the end-of-year “thank you” party for grads, she wants to throw a prom, like Western high schools.

With so little time to prepare, it’s going to be a close call whether Iroha can actually get such an undertaking off the ground, and it wouldn’t even be for her class, but she’s determined to make it happen, stating her desire to be Prom Queen to be her primary motivator.

When Yukino tells her she’ll be queen for her own prom in two years even if she doesn’t “lay the groundwork”, Iroha stands her ground, insisting the prep is crucial to achieving her goals. Left unsaid is that within her selfish motivation there likely lies a desire to see Hikki, Yukino and Yui have a prom.

Yukino can probably sense this, and considering she has a lofty goal of her own, she’d be hypocritical if she pooh-pooh’s Iroha’s. So she agrees to help Iroha, but as an individual, not a Service Club member. She also tells Yui and Hikki they’re under no obligation to help her since it’s not an official request, but a personal one.

While they realize she wants to try to do this on her own, they’ll always be around to help out when needed (which is certain to be the case).

When Yui comes home and sees the photo of her between Yukino and Hikki, she frowns, and tells herself to forget the thing she saw while helping Yukino move: a photo of Yukino holding Hikki’s arm on the water ride, hidden behind the stuffed animals on her bed. Of course, Yui can’t forget what she saw, because it’s just another confirmation of the “place she can’t get into”, no matter how many times she stands in front of the door.

She interprets Yukino’s treasuring of that photo as further evidence she has feelings for Hikki. Yui has feelings for Hikki, but also loves Yukino, thus leaving her perpetually on the outside looking in. She’s had to be content with that limbo, in which her and Yukino and Hikki’s genuine feelings—and the conflicts they create—have been left unsaid, clearly or otherwise.

But with Yukino starting to speak clearly, that’s coming to an end. There’s an unavoidable element of destruction inherent in all acts of creation—in this case Yukino’s New Start, but also the overarching physical and psychological transition into adulthood. Yui sees that on the horizon and fears she’s unprepared…but isn’t everybody?

Kakushigoto – 11 – Out With a Bang

When Hime calls for a “family meeting”, the fact there’s no dedicated meeting room in their house becomes an issue. As Kakushi goes on a walk to ruminate about it, he encounters two others dreading their own meetings in Tomaruin and Ichiko.

Of course, when all three converge at a disused well (the ancient equivalent of a water cooler), they each assume the other two are talking about their own meeting, and come away with heightened opinions of each other. Tomaruin’s editor’s meeting results in him securing a fancy dinner for himself, Kakushi, and the Editor-in-Chief.

Kakushi interprets this as a signal that his manga is about to get the axe. The conversation remains vague and never gets to a point where Kakushi’s misunderstanding is resolved. When it does enter details, such as the EIC mentioning “colored pages”, Kakushi believes that’s finally being offered as a way for him to “go out with a bang”; in reality the EIC just thinks Kakushi wants colored pages after a long time without.

Kakushi then relays this misunderstanding to his assistance, and they not only take it well, they all believe the timing is perfect for them to travel, finish school, or work on their own thing. Because everyone thinks this is it for the manga and there’s nothing to lose, Kakushi goes all out, and both editors and readers respond favorably.

It isn’t until Hime’s friends’ detective agency locates a suitable spot for a meeting with her dad (i.e. another well) that Kakushi learns the manga isn’t going anywhere, and never was. Tomaruin loses the manuscript pages down a well, and when he’s counting them as he retrieves them, he sounds for all the world like a ghost.

This freaks out both Hime and Kakushi, postponing their meeting, and Kakushi has Roku pull Hime to safety before discovering it’s just his editor. Once he has the right of things, he informs the assistants, who were all gung-ho about moving on, and a dark cloud settles over their heads.

Ultimately the meeting Hime wanted was about learning to make karaage to bring to a friend’s birthday. Since she’s too young to deep-fry, she wants her dad’s help, and Kakushi warmly accepts. Fast-forward six months, and the eleventh episode portrays not one but two parties for Hime’s eleventh birthday.

The first one is a cookout with both Hime’s and Kakushi’s friends and associates, and a good time is had by all. The second is just for Hime, Kakushi, and Roku, with a cake and a gift of a music box. Hime looks forward to spending more years with her dad, thinking these good times will never end.

But at some point, we know they did, and Hime and Kakushi became separated…somehow. The show is still coy about the particulars, but the day Hime turns eighteen is decidedly grey and morose.  With a big old Roku beside her, Hime wistfully flips through the album of good times past and secures her music box.

Then there’s a sound at the door, and when she answers, a key and a map were left behind, along with a note stating “secrets lie here”, referring to the marked location on the map. With just one episode left, we’re sure to get the last pieces to make the clearest picture yet of What Exactly Happened between her eleventh and eighteenth birthdays, and—hopefully—What Will Happen Next.