Synduality: Noir – 13 – The World Today

One thing we learn right away is that Kanata is most assuredly not an M. If he was, he’d relish the opportunity to be constantly run down, insulted, and belittled by Mystere, Noir’s bad-tempered alter-ego. But while he’s irritated by Mystere’s constant verbal abuse (she only ever calls him “Hack”) he mostly misses Noir and wants to find out how to get her back.

To that end, he takes her to Maria, who pretends to have uncovered nothing from her investigation while trying to provoke a strong emotional response in Mystere. She confirms that Mystere’s original Master was someone named Pascale. When Mystere leaves and is pestered by Flamme, Maria tells Kanata that she found a black box, but otherwise can’t learn more without the same equipment used to create Type Zeros.

Mystere scoffs at fellow Type Zero Flamme and says both Masters and Magus have become “wimps” in the 20 years since she was last online. But Claudia tells her if the world has gone from being a place where it’s all you can do to survive to a place where you can be “a bit of a wimp” and still go on living, there must’ve been some progress made. Kanata then gets Mystere out of the garage and takes her on a tour of the world today.

That tour is one surprise after another for Mystere, who cannot believe there’s a whole town, open-air market, and water park. She’s also struck by how Magus are for the most part treated equally, and shocked by the fact that humans come in droves to hear Ciel, a Magus sing. She quietly notes that “Master’s Project” wasn’t in vain.

After the show, Ciel shares a shower with Mystere, and tells her that Kanata isn’t just thinking about Noir while interacting with her. She tells Mystere that Kanata is a good person who views humans and Magus equally, and thus deserves a chance. Mystere, perhaps a little to eager to speak to Kanata, runs out into the garage naked and tells Kanata that she may be inadvertently blocking Noir from resurfacing due to her desire to meet her Master again.

Kanata agrees to do what he can to help Mystere learn more about what might have happened to Pascale in the last two decades. He and Ciel take her to the place where he found Noir, only to find the Coffin missing. He then gives Mystere the camera, which dredges up a memory of her and her Master taking photos together.

Certain her Master wouldn’t abandon her, Mystere concedes that she must have died. Kanata apologizes to Mystere, who calls him “Kanata” for the first time before telling him that’s why he’s a hack, then reverting back to Noir. Apparently satisfied that reuniting with her Master wouldn’t be possible, Mystere was able to lift whatever was blocking Noir from awakening.

That said, no sooner do Kanata and Ciel get Noir back home does Kanata mention offhandedly that the fact Mystere didn’t laugh at his mention of Histoire must’ve meant she wasn’t all bad, Mystere reawakens once more, pulls Noir’s coat back over her shoulders and activates its plug-suit like form-fitting vaccum, and orders Kanata to get ready, because they’re going to Histoire. Apparently, she’s remembered the way.

If you enjoyed Synduality: Noir’s first cour, which was a bright and colorful throwback to early 2000’s quirky mecha anime, you’ll enjoy the start of Part 2. Koga Aoi puts on a clinic voicing Mystere (who a lot like a pissed-off Love is War’s Shinomiya Kaguya), but it’s also satisfying to watch her hard edges gradually wear down in the fact of Kanata and his friends’ earnestness.

Now that she can come and go at will, I’m looking forward to going on an adventure with her, and learning more about the Histoire Kanata is so obsessed with. At the same time, we know that Ciel is an operative for Macht, while Tokio is getting into fights with unsavory groups looking for someone, so there’s a lot going on.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride – S2 21 – Picking Up Your Pieces

Zoe intercepts the she-werewolf and freezes her with his Medusa eyes, but quickly grows fatigued. When the wolf starts to struggle, another layer of Zoe’s medusa side surfaces, one he didn’t think was necessary. However, in this form he inadvertently destroys the curse placed on the werewolf by Lizbeth, and all of her memories of her family come rushing back. She thanks Zoe, referring to him as her “god”, then takes her leave.

We then learn that Alcyone was carrying Philomela’s soul within her body for an undisclosed amount of time and with her consent (as much as Philomela can consent to anything). But even when she produces the soul and places it back into Philomela’s body, she continues to deteriorate.

Between Zoe freeing the werewolf and Morrigan handling all of the Sargeant forces, Chise, Elias, Lucy and Isaac are able to enter the mansion without any issues. Alcyone meets them and asks them if they’re there for the book or for Philomela’s sake.

Isaac assures them it’s the latter, so she lets the three kids go, but insists Elias stay behind since he’s not thinking about Philomela. No doubt he’s thinking about Chise … and what he’s going to do to appease Morrigan when this is all over.

But there’s still quite a bit to do. Upon entering the office Philomela’s root-like tendrils attack them, but Chise’s amulets hold. When the tendrils start to slip under Isaac’s hood, lending us the first look at his eyes, he slashes at them and freaks out.

Lucy sees a framed spider on the wall, kicks Philomela, grabs her by the tendrils and demands an explanation. All Philomela can do is apologize. Clearly both Isaac and Lucy are being sidetracked by their own baggage, so Chise steps in, and then dives into Philomela’s dreams.

There, Philomela is a little kid like in the OP; unlike the OP, Chise is also a kid. She guides Philomela around her dream, which takes the general form of a school, and helps her collect lost “pieces” of herself, which manifest as various memories, both good and bad.

This includes the wooden puzzle with which she once played with Rian, the dungeon where her grandmother imprisoned her when she failed to measure up to her, and the photo of her as a baby with her parents’ faces blacked out with marker. Philomela also gets glimpses of Chise’s psyche, which Chise says is a matter of the two of them getting “mixed up” in this non-corporeal place.

While Philomela continues to collect her pieces and witnesses some of Chise’s, she starts to form a picture of Chise as someone perhaps similar to her. Neither of them knew their parents faces, and both of them faced long stretches of cold, barren, lonely darkness.

But all of that despair is washed away once they reach the school rooftop, replaced by a gorgeous sunset. Now that Philomela has all of her pieces back, it’s on her to decide what to do, and what she wants others to do for her.

When she asks Chise why she’s helping someone who tried to kill her, Chise admits she’s trying to save her past self, whose eyes were identical to Philomela’s. The two go on to find a little Isaac crying on the top of a mountain of debris, and it’s Philomela who comforts him by placing her hand on his head.

While they’re all in younger forms, all three remember who they are and who they are to each other. All that’s left is to find Lucy, who is in a library full of cobwebs. Like Isaac, she had been crying alone until the others came, but was eager to find them so she could stop crying and do something; move forward.

She asks nothing less of Philomela: stop whining and either run away, do something else, or say something, anything, for herself. Alas, when Philomela drops her flashlight and it starts projecting a recording of the events that led to Philomela being present for the assassination of Lucy’s family, well, let’s just say it kills the redemptive mood.

Lucy grabs her and demands to know why she killed her family, but Philomela doesn’t know. She never had the right to know, and at the time Lucy’s family was killed, there was nothing she could have done to stop it. But while her past self was powerless, her present self isn’t.

She’s allowed to speak now. Chise tells her she can’t remind silent if she wants help; she has to shout out for it; that’s just the way of the world they live in. Philomela finally does manage to utter what she wants, which is for Chise and the others to help her.

Unfortunately, just as she says “help me”, her dark version appears and swallows her up in her tendrils. When Chise reaches out for her, kid Philomela turns into a cloud of flower petals and is scattered into the darkness. Just when it felt like genuine progress was being made and we were close to a breakthrough, we may be back to square one. As such, this episode ends on a bit of a downer. Hopefully, all hope for Philomela isn’t lost.

Kimizero – 05 – The Last Man

You’d think Ryuuto would be keeping better track of how long he’s been with his first girlfriend ever, but Runa has to remind him of their upcoming 1-month anniversary. Seriously dude? Rookie mistake. So is letting Maria have his LINE contact info. Gotta turn that shit down, man. Nothing good can come of her having your digits.

That said, Ryuuto proceeds to have a lovely beach date with Runa, gets to see her in a gorgeous bikini with matching manicure courtesy of Nicole, and must apply sunscreen to her back. He even picks a time to compliment Runa on her swimsuit when she’s least on-guard. For all the critical hits she scores on him, he can make her heart flutter too.

Their fun in the sun doesn’t last, however, as a forecasted typhoon ends up cancelling their return train. They head to a hotel for the night, which is over twice as expensive if they get two rooms. Runa says it’s okay with her, though, so one room it is.

As you’d expect, Ryuuto feels all kinds of ways about this. Was Runa just okay with the one room, or all the “other stuff” that tends to happen when two people who are dating he night together? Runa can probably sense some tension, but after his bath he plays it cool.

In their adjoining futons in the dark, Runa asks Ryuuto if he wants to do it. But he suspects she’s doing it out of obligation, and when he asks, he’s right. While she does want to do it with him eventually, she doesn’t particularly want to now. Such is the experience of someone with boyfriends who didn’t consider her wants or needs, she never had a choice.

While he’s super-nervous, I’m sure Ryuuto would probably make love with Runa on this night, but only if it’s what she really wanted. Since she doesn’t, he’s perfectly fine with them simply sleeping. He’s not disappointed, nor does he want Runa to be. They end the night with a hug that they both enjoy, and fall asleep holding hands. It’s honestly sweet as hell, in addition to being a pretty nifty exercise in consent.

What isn’t sweet is Maria up in the middle of the night as the typhoon churns outside, trying to come up with a way to be “more like Runa.” In the morning when the storm clears, Ryuuto walks Runa home. Turns out he didn’t sleep a wink last night, but there’s no rest for the weary as Nicole accosts him and pulls him into the restaurant where she works.

She offers him a staff meal while asking how things are going with Runa. She remarks that Runa can be clingy, and messages every day, but Ryuuto actually likes that because it means she’s always thinking about him. The reason Nicole is still concerned is that every boyfriend Runa had before either cheated on her or dumped her (or both) before their two-month anniversary.

Those previous boys were scum, who didn’t subscribe to the “two-way road, two-way road” philosophy of balanced relationships. They simply took what they could and then ran. Nicole has seen enough of Ryuuto to believe he won’t follow that trend, but she wants him to go farther. He can’t do or say anything to make Runa worry about not reaching that 2-month anniversary. He solemnly promises that he won’t, and a rare Nicole smile is his reward. Love Nicole. Such a good friend/big sis to Runa.

Alas, with Maria working behind the scenes throughout the episode I knew that promise would immediately be put to the test. He gets a LINE audio call from Maria’s number, but the person on the other end is talking with Runa’s voice. She says her phone died, so she’s using it to ask him to meet her in the school later that evening.

Perhaps due to how tired he is from lack of sleep, Ryuuto accepts the sudden invitation. And when he arrives in the P.E. storage room, Runa appears to be standing there in the pitch dark, telling him that she wants to do it with him after all. I’m going to assume he can’t see her reddish eyes, because that should be a dead giveaway this is not Runa but her twin sister in disguise!

First of all, goddamn is this Maria a calculating piece of work. This is a new low for her. She’s also got at least some luck on her side, because at this point Ryuuto is probably seriously fatigued. Secondly, it is 100% anime silliness that he can’t discern Runa from Maria, but I’ll allow it because … this is an anime.

Even if he only cheats on Runa accidentally, stupidity and falling for Maria’s tricks is no defense, so whatever medieval torture Nicole enacts upon him will receive my enthusiastic stamp of approval. You’re on thin goddamn ice, Ryuuto … sharpen the fuck up, or you’ll lose the best girl … and, far worse, hurt her.

Rent-a-Girlfriend – 28 – Chin Up

Chizuru says it’s “ridiculous” to have a conversation about Kazuya being in love with her without Kazuya there, reiterates that he already told her his feelings, and steers talk back to photographing the rewards. When they part for the evening, Mini tells her merely wanting to see her succeed as an actress or helping her grandmother isn’t enough motivation to do all Kazuya is going.

There’s more there, and she believes true love can start even from something fake or on borrowed time. When Chizuru reacts to that, Mini snaps a photo and bids her goodnight. Right after that, Kazuya comes home, and Chizuru is too embarrassed to face him, and so retreats to her apartment without talking with him.

The next day, Chizuru meets with her actor friend Umi-kun, asking him to spread the word about her upcoming film. He agrees to retweet (re-X?) her crowdfunding page to his 200k-plus followers, but asks for something in exchange: that she go see a play with him. The date of the play happens to be July 28, which is not only today IRL, but the last day of the crowdfunding window.

Chizuru agreed to hand out fliers that day, but if she turns Umi down it will be awkward considering she asked him to promote the project. She relays this info to Kazuya and Mini, and despite Kazuya’s misgivings, Mini gets him to agree that Chizuru going on a date with the hot famous guy is the right move. He’ll have to lose this battle to win the war.

Kazuya is concerned that anyone who wants to go on a date with Chizuru either has designs on it going further, or just naturally arrives at that point because she’s so amazing. Unfortunately, he turns out to be correct in his assessment; Umi immediately struck me as someone who didn’t just ask a friend to fill in for his girlfriend.

Kazuya is down in the dumps about Chizuru going on the date, but snaps out of it when he realizes that both Ruka and Mini are still helping him. He tells Ruka he wouldn’t have gotten as far as he has without her and thanks her for everything (which makes her blush).

After the play, Chizuru is brimming with joy and giddiness about the performance she and Umi saw—just as Umi expected. He admits to her that he actually broke up with his girlfriend a week ago, and decided he wanted to pursue someone who was more serious about acting…someone like her.

Frankly, it’s a bit shitty for Umi to drop this on Chizuru, especially right after she just had a bunch of fun at the play. At the same time, I have to respect him for not settling and going after who and what he wants. When Chizuru declines his offer of a fancy dinner at an exclusive restaurant, he asks her if she’s in love with Kazuya.

He asks her this because he noticed the change in her demeanor around the same time she started spending more time with him. It’s not just Mini now saying this to her: Umi is convinced she likes Kazuya. All she can tell him there and then (after some smarmy school kids walk by) is that she doesn’t like Kazuya…but she doesn’t not like him either.

I don’t think that’s a cop-out, either; it’s as close to the truth as she can get right now. But the fact she didn’t stop at “I don’t like him” is huge. Despite being turned down by the girl he likes for someone he likely deems as far inferior in almost every way, Umi still follows through and retweets the crowdfunding page. That clinches it for me: Umi’s a good kid!

That retweet isn’t the only reason Chizuru and Kazuya not only meet the funding goal before midnight, but exceed it by 30,000 yen. But it is most definitely the push that was needed. I can’t imagine how demoralized the team would be if they’d come up just short. In the end, Umi chose Chizuru’s happiness and success over resentment or jealousy.

And when Kazuya shows Chizuru the met goal on his phone, her reaction of pure unbridled joy is even more powerful than after watching that play. They’ve got their script and their film crew, and now they’ve got their budget. It’s Go Time!

Rent-a-Girlfriend – 27 – Operation 203

Take it from someone who made a student short film: making one can feel like an endless checklist. But one thing Kazuya and Chizuru are able to check off relatively quickly this week is the script: they found a good one. Kazuya also managed to get their college’s film club to film it. Progress!

When Kazuya and Chizuru meet up for a meeting with the club president, she levels a joke at Kazuya about charging him for their “date” that gets him hook, line and sinker. It’s a little thing, but it says so much about how far they’ve come that she can mess with him.

At the end of the meeting it’s raining, and Kazuya runs off to buy an umbrella. The club prez tells Chizuru he had to meet the actor with whom Kazuya was so smitten he prostrated himself before the entire film club to get them to film his movie. Kazuya putting all this effort in motivates Chizuru to work just as hard in her role.

But while production logistics are taking shape, the crowdfunding page has stalled, with no new backers in the last 24 hours. While dropping in to ask her shisho about his progress with Chizuru, Mini catches a gander at the page, and offers her expertise and experience in crowdfunding and marketing.

Despite being a “zoomer” who pauses every two minutes to take a selfie, Mini proves she’s serious and diligent in her offer of assistance. This isn’t just apparent to him, but Chizuru and Ruka, when the two of them are summoned for a strategy meeting. Ruka identifies Mini as another threat, but she’ll do anything to help Kazuya, even if it means making a movie starring Chizuru.

While not doing producer work, Kazuya is pressed into service handing out fliers with Ruka, but when she can’t be around, he isn’t able to pass any out. Who should happen to cross paths with him than Sumi, making her first appearance this season.

While Kazuya puts on a brave face, Sumi is determined to help him out, because she’s an abominably good girl. She even delays dinner with her dad and overcomes her fear of speaking out loud to help him hand out fliers, and because she’s so goshdarn cute she has no trouble doing so. It’s not nearly enough Sumi Time, honestly, but I’ll take what I can get!

Finally, Mini visits Chizuru’s “main heroine” apartment for the first time, and is rightfully impressed. Chizuru made a good start in gathering some personal items she can offer as tiered rewards for backers, but Mini insists they have to take things further. Chizuru may see no value in a 100-yen scrunchie, but Mini says the fact it touched her skin makes it priceless to a potential backer.

Even though Mini knows she shouldn’t go through Chizuru’s unmentionables, instinct compels her to try anyway, resulting in a brief tussle with a Chizuru who has to draw the line somewhere. But the end result of the evening is an impressive haul of Ichinose Chizuru effects to use on the site.

Mini uses her time with Chizuru to try to get more of a sense of how she feels about Kazuya, starting with asking if she has a boyfriend, then asking if she’d ever considered him for the role. She acknowledges his good qualities—honest, kind, straightforward (most of the time)—but insists that his interest in her is “just as an actress”, and he wouldn’t be stupid enough to fall for a rental GF.

Mini makes clear to Chizuru right then and there that neither of those things Chizuru is so certain of are true at all. Kazuya does have romantic feelings for her, whatever he may have said in the past. Not only that, Mini is certain most if not all of Chizuru’s clients dreamt at one time or another that she’d become their real GF. The line in the sand between rental and real is just that: all too easy to cross, or wipe away entirely.

This information from Mini, a new but not altogether untrustworthy source, may well be the catalyst needed to move the needle on the Chizuru-Kazuya impasse. It’s more than a pact, and has been for some time. That doesn’t bode well for Ruka or Fumi, but hey, there can only be one. I was skeptical of Mini at first, but I’m really enjoying competence in marketing strategy, as well as in her self-appointed role as matchmaker.

To Your Eternity – S2 13 – Fushi for the People

With Fushi having to build quicker to make his daily quotas, he isn’t home a lot, so Eko decides to bring dinner she made to him. It tastes terrible, but it’s the thought that counts. While everyone else is keeping Fushi on task, Eko and Kahaku don’t want him to forget the little things that make us human. But while Fushi appears to be sleeping in his room, it’s just a dummy; the real Fushi is out rebuilding through the night.

One of Renril’s biggest remaining vulnerabilities is its underground water and sewer system, which has to be completely rebuilt to make it Nokker-proof. During this process, Eko notices the water is dirty, tracks down the source of the fouling, and alerts the proper channels, all without saying a word. She even pitches in with the demo work, one stone and plank at a time.

At this point Kahaku has taken on the role of house husband, keeping an Eye on Eko, cooking meals, and keeping the Booze Man’s house clean. He also continues to worry about how hard Fushi is working. Eko lures him home with a clay pot vision of a feast of all his favorites. While he’s initially disappointed to find hot pot instead, once he tastes it, he gives his complimnents to the chef—in this case Eko. It wasn’t her cooking that was bad, but the city water.

Eko’s hard work spurs Fushi to work even harder. Messar gets the princess to agree to extend Founding Day to a week to keep the bulk of the citizens in the festival area, allowing Fushi to rebuild the network of towering walls one by one. The more he builds, the more sensations—both good and bad—he feels. If he focuses too much on them, they overwhelm him. He realizes he can’t help anyone. There are too many people with too many problems big and small.

Fushi’s in a charitable mood the next day, when he agrees to take the fall for Cam in a fighting tournament so he can impress the girl he likes. However, stuff happens that attract the suspicions of the citizen soldiers and Fushi’s little favor to Cam nearly exposes him. That night, the soldiers decide to head out looking for the one doing all the building, wondering if its the Fushi demon the Church of Bennett condemned.

The soldiers end up catching Fushi in the act…of rebuilding a wall. Fushi accepts that he’s been caught with cool resignation—a kind of do your worst, ya ingrates stance. He also boasts that even if the church captures him again, he knows his way out of molten metal now, and will be free again in two days. But by shifting into various forms the soldiers all know, they realize it was Fushi who helped them and their loved ones all those times in the past days, weeks, and months.

The next day, an adamant Fushi decides to walk out onto the streets in his regular form, whatever slings and arrows come his way. But to his surprise, both royal knight and citizen soldier salute him, and he gets nods of approval and thanks from the other citizens. Bon and Messar flank him as he continues his walk, not of shame, but of honor. The people have spoken: if Fushi is a demon, he’s a demon on their side.

Bocchi the Rock! – 03 – Extroversion Abounds

Bocchi recovers from her self-inflicted fever after a couple days, and while brushing her ahoge tells her little sister it’s important for “people like her” to attend class lest her classmates forget she exists. Her little sister says her sister is “a pain in her own ass” and she’s not wrong! That said, Bocchi is still feeling confident now that she’s made two friends, joined a band, and gotten a part-time job.

That confidence evaporates when yet again no one approaches her in class, and when she hears two girls engaging in band talk, she loudly yelps to get their attention. Not only do they know her name, but they seem open to hearing her out, but poor Bocchi can’t get any words out. She didn’t prepare adequately! So she retreats to a dark corner of the school to eat lunch in tears.

When she encounters Kita Ikuyo, a red-haired girl that everyone says is great at karaoke, Bocchi observes her from afar, but is too intimidated by how much of an extrovert the girl is to get any closer. When the girl notices her anyway and also knows her name, Bocchi once again can’t say any words—she can only beatbox!

When Ikuyo beatboxes back, Bocchi shouts an apology, bolts, then returns to her hiding spot to serenade us with a ballad of melancholy. However only we hear the lyrics; Ikuyo followed Bocchi there, heard her playing, and thinks she’s awesome!

Bocchi, unaccustomed to praise, laps it up like honey and instantly deems Ikuyo a good person. Bocchi finally manages to blurt out the reason she’s been wanting to approach Ikuyo, and Ikuyo tells her she’s sorry, but she can’t join her band. Bocchi assumes she’s the reason and makes up all kinds of things to make her bandmates sound cool as hell (and they look kinda like Panty & Stocking in her mental image!) … to no avail.

Ikuyo says she can’t join a band for the same reason she flaked out on the band she joined to be closer to her senpai: she can’t actually play the guitar. Hearing her say she thought the neck was “for decoration” astonishes Bocchi, but despite her inner voice telling her “say no girl!”, she agrees to teach Ikuyo how to play in between school, band, and work.

After texting Nijika and Ryou to bring lots of energy drinks and blast EDM when they next meet, Bocchi takes Ikuyo to Shimo-Kita, and ends up having Ikuyo lead the way, using her as a shield to avoid the stares of others (while actually attracting more staring in the process).

When Bocchi mentions STARRY, Nijika and Ryou, Ikuyo tries to back out, saying she can’t go back there, but Nijika and Ryou arrive, arms bursting with energy drinks, and she can no longer run away. Once inside, Bocchi can tell how uncomfortable Ikuyo seems and wants to say something nice, but Ryou beats her to it.

Ikuyo wants to make it up to Nijika and Ryou for ditching them, and Nijika’s sister suggests she work a shift with the others. No doubt recognizing her talent for public relations, Seika dresses Ikuyo up in a maid outfit and has her handle admissions and drink tickets.

Bocchi immediately starts feeling inadequate and redundant, “losing her identity” and turning into a mist that rises up the club stairs as Ryou looks on. A “Thanks for Watching!” card flashes as if to herald yet another premature end to the series, but she snaps out of it when she’s asked to show Ikuyo how to serve drinks.

Unfortunately, being watched makes Bocchi so nervous she burns herself with coffee. Ikuyo wraps her hand in a handkerchief, and Bocchi notices something about Ikuyo’s hand. When Ikuyo asks why Bocchi joined a band, Bocchi lies and says “world peace” because she’s self-conscious about having “impure” motives like wanting fame and popularity.

But then Ikuyo turns around and admits her motives are impure (too): she joined to be closer to her senpai, Ryou, whom she once watched performing on the streets and fell head-over-heels in love. Honestly, I can’t blame her; of the four leads, three are extremely high-strung, while Ryou’s never not an island of cool tranquility.

When the music’s over and the house lights are back up, Ikuyo prepares to depart from her first and only shift at STARRY. But even earlier, Bocchi had been building up the determination to say something to Ikuyo to make her stay. Unfortunately, her body moves before her mind can get all its ducks in a row, and she ends up tripping, ripping down a black curtain, and smacking her noggin on the wall.

While it’s not how she wanted to do it, it does keep Ikuyo there, if only because she’s concerned about Bocchi. She even gleans that Bocchi was going to try to say something to convince her it was okay to stay, but says she can’t join a band she already flaked out on once, especially when she can’t really play the guitar.

Bocchi tells Ikuyo that she ran away before the concert too, and threw herself in a trash can. But she also felt Ikuyo’s hands when she was treating her burn, and she felt the calluses one only gets by working their butt off practicing. That is all Bocchi needs to know that Ikuyo is committed enough to join, or rather re-join Kessoku Band.

Nijika and Ryou agree with Bocchi: Ikuyo should join them. They’re not even mad that she flaked out the first time, because if she hadn’t they wouldn’t have meet Bocchi! But the fact remains, Ikuyo’s guitar ignorance is such that she’d been practicing on a six-string bass all this time without knowing it, attributing the bomm-bomm sound it made to her being terrible.

Ryou buys her bass (and ending up broke and eating weeds) and lends her an actual guitar to practice with as Bocchi teaches her in STARRY’s back room. Ikuyo’s progress is slow and she’s easily frustrated and whines a lot, but Bocchi recognizes all of the ways she gets frustrated because that was her three years ago. Now she has the skills to not only play, but teach.

Bocchi was right about Ikuyo, she’s a very nice person. She’s so nice, she almost deprived herself of her dream of playing with her beloved senpai because she thought her misdeeds were too serious to be forgiven. But Bocchi, Nijika, and Ryou are also good kids, and knew the band would be better with her than without.

That Bocchi worked so hard in recruiting Ikuyo speaks to how she continues to make progress interacting with people. Her anxiety and myriad neuroses were likely remain a part of her for a good long time (if not forever) but she’s gradually learning that she, like everyone else, deserves a happy life and friends to rock out with.

Bocchi the Rock! – 02 – Welcome to the Workforce

The stinger consists of Bocchi filling up the tub with ice and slipping in, which I initially took to mean she had just gone through some intense physical exertion. Rewind a few days to the band’s first meeting, and Bocchi is too scared to go inside alone. Nijika and Ryou eventually arrive, and they use a giant thrown die to pick conversation topics.

If the goal is to learn more about Bocchi, then mission accomplished, as each question offers her bandmates new insights into the depths of her social anxiety, from the tragic story of her school life to this point to avoiding music with lyrics that refer to happier school lives.

When the discussion shifts to the business side of things, Nijika concisely explains ticket quotas, and how they’ll have to pay Starry if they can’t meet said quotas. That’ll require cash, which means jobs. And people, Bocchi is not into a job. Not beause she’s lazy, but because it would just be too much.

Unfortunately, her anxiety is such that she’s unable to refuse (we also learn she considers Ryou a loner who likes being lonely while she’s lonely, and doesn’t) which brings us to the ice bath. She’s not icing her worn muscles, but intentionally trying to catch a cold.

Alas, her good health prevails so she heads to Starry after school. Again she’s paralyzed by the prospect of entering alone, but that’s how she meets Seika, the manager, whom she quickly labels as someone “scary” that she can’t deal with. She also forgot that Seika is Nijika’s big sister.

Nijika gives her a tour and quick overview of the process of serving drinks, and Bocchi, who has never had a job before, is quickly overwhelmed and whips out her Gibson to play a song with lyrics to remember everything. Seika notes that Bocchi is playing is much better than when she was in a box on stage, and it reminds her of someone (probably guitarhero).

Before Bocchi knows it, the doors are open and the customers start to flow in. She initially does not fare well, hiding under the counter and slapping drinks on it for customers to take without looking at her. This is obviously not optimal customer service!

But they get through the initial drink run, and when the band that’s playing takes the stage and starts their patter, Ryou takes a break from the ticket desk and joins Bocchi and Nijika to watch the band play … and learn from the experience.

When Bocchi sees how much both the band and the concertgoers are enjoying themselves once the music starts, and compares it to her first show, she resolves to put on a better performance, to honor both the venue and the people who paid money to see her.

When a girl orders an orange juice, Bocchi decides to start now, giving the customer eye contact and smiling (after a fashion). It’s a creepy smile, and Bocchi nearly passes out, but it’s undoubtedly progress, and Nijika gives her the praise she deserves.

She takes another important step forward when she says “see you tomorrow” to Nijika and Ryou when heading home, which she does at full speed and with a big smile on her face. Starry, a place that she was too scared to even enter on her own a few hours earlier, is now a place she can’t wait to get back to so she can continue with her progress in both working and performing.

So it’s legit heartbreaking that it’s only then that she comes down with a bad fever and has to skip her second day of work. But hey, that’s what comes of soaking in icy water for too long then sitting in front of fans. She’ll get better and go back to work, so that’s one hurdle out of the band’s way. The next one is finding a fourth member and vocalist, and the one we cut to doing karaoke looks to be the one.

Bocchi the Rock!’s magic formula so far is Bocchi’s inner turmoil, outer face game, and her friends’ reactions to it. My middle school life wasn’t as tragic but it was close, while it took me a while to find my people in high school. The show strikes the perfect balance of mining comedy from this scenario while giving us room to sympathize and empathize with Bocchi. It helps that it’s a great-looking show, too! Forget the 3-episode rule—I’m in now!

My Dress-Up Darling – 08 – Love at First Fries Thrown at Hawk

Wakana is impressed and Marin is in awe of how talented and mature Sajuna’s little sister Shinju is, and how adept and knowledgeable she is about photography. By the same measure, Shinju really comes out of her shell when bombarded with questions about something she loves to do.

Indeed, Shinju resembles a magical girl with her complex flowing locks when she brightens up about how much she loves her sister and the “Juju-sama” identity she created for her. Despite looking the part, Sajuna ironically has no interest in cosplaying herself at the moment, wanting to focus on taking photos of her sister.

Chatting with Sajuna gives Marin and Wakana a lot to think about going forward with their own cosplay photography venture. Wakana in particular really gets loud when he finds out how expensive cameras that don’t even come with lenses can cost, which in turn causes Marin to burst out laughing, since Wakana is so rarely so loud!

The four really hit it off, to the point Sajuna invites Marin and Wakana to join her and Shinju as they scout an abandoned hospital that resembles the place in the anime where Shion does some soul-searching. Marin and Shinju run ahead and have a lively conversation about lighting, but Wakana stays back as he notices Sajuna doesn’t do very well at all in dark, creepy places.

He offers to scout the place for her, worried she’s pushing too hard, but Sajuna tells him straight up she has to do this. She asks him what his dream is for the future, and Wakana has it locked and loaded: the guy who paints the faces of Hina dolls. Sajuna admits it’s a beautiful dream, then tells him hers: to be a magical girl. As she grew older she learned that magical girls were make-believe, but then one day in middle school she discovered one could cosplay as Shion.

She snatched up the pre-made dress in the store, locked herself in her room, and donned the ill-fitting costume with a sloppy wig and no makeup. As Sajuna recalls, it looked awful, but at the same time, she’d never felt happier. Her dream had come true! Then, much later, after she’d been established as a social media cosplay star (thanks to Shiju), she found those photos of Marin in the Shizuku-tan cosplay Wakana made…and she was jealous.

Sajuna surprised herself with this jealousy, but knew she had to find the person who made Marin’s outfit and have them make one for her. Sajuna struggles with the words to describe how she felt, but settles on “love at first sight,”, which not only resonates with Wakana, but takes him back to that very same pivotal moment when he first laid eyes on his gramps’ dolls.

He knew right then and there he wanted to follow in his footsteps. A weeping Wakana takes Sajuna’s hand to thank her, unaware that since she attends an all-girls school and has never held a boy’s hand! Combined with her lingering fear of the abandoned hospital they’re in, she promptly passes out!

I for one was charmed and moved by Sajuna’s story, and loved how it butted up against Wakana’s since both of them can track their passions back to their exact moment of origin. But as much as I’ve come to love the Inui sisters, I was also miffed by the relative lack of Marin-and-Wakana time. Thankfully, the remaining third of the episode is all them, as they go to the beach after school.

It takes a minute for Wakana to realize there’s no practical purpose for going there, nor any reason related to their cosplay venture. Marin just wanted to go to the beach…specifically with the man she wuvs (not that Wakana is aware of that yet).

The two deal with a hawk stealing Marin’s burger, then they share the second one (which technically counts as indirect kisses). Then Marin ditches her socks and wades in the cool water, and when Wakana joins her she learns he’s never been to the beach.

Wakana is happy he came, which is to say he’s happy Marin brought him, since it fulfills his gramps’ wish that he’d get out in the world and observe more to become a better dollmaker. Tickled pink by Wakana’s sentiments and how she helped him experience something for the first time, Marin blurts out that she wants to invite him everywhere this coming summer…just the two of them.

And while I’m not 100% sure Wakana fully understands that heartily agreeing and stating how happy it makes him essentially means he and Marin are going steady now, I’m sure he’ll find out before long. Even if Marin runs away to hide her red blushing face, shocked, surprised, and delighted that she managed to say what she said. We’ve got ourselves some solid forward momentum!

Bokutachi no Remake – 08 – How It Oughta Be

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sonny Boy – 06 – Director’s Cut

When it comes to anime, or any television or film, really, I’d rather not quite know what’s going on and be entertained than know what’s going on and be bored. Sonny Boy is definitely the former variety, and this is its trippiest episode yet.

I honestly had no idea what was coming from one scene to the next, but was thoroughly enjoying the ride the whole time. Heck, it starts by revealing that the voice in Hoshi’s head that knows the future is none other than Dr. Strangelove, timeless avatar of contradiction and inscrutability.

It becomes apparent that Dr. Strangelove of Sonny Boy is this universe’s God, or at least one of them, and likely the God of whom Aki-sensei speaks and acts on behalf of. Heck, by manipulating Asakaze, she’s built something of an army on the island complete with barracks and barbed wire for the express purpose of tracking down Nagara and his co-conspirators before they bring about the end of the world. Shit got serious in a hurry.

Still, even in its creepiest or most reality-bending moments, Sonny Boy has never put the lives of its students in mortal danger. No one has died. The “penalties”, while essentially torture, did not result in permanent damage. There isn’t even a shortage of food or supplies, the usual problems with your students marooned on an island.

But then Mizuho encounters a big black dog named Yamada Kunihiko in the Costco where she’s grabbing lunch for Nagara and Rajdhani. Yamada was not only once a human, but a student at their school. Yet despite being three years younger than them, he’s been trapped in This World for five millennia. In that time he’s taken on the velvety lilt of Tsuda Kenjirou—who I’m a little surprised wasn’t chosen to voice God.

Yamada is certain it’s too late for him, but Nagara and the others still have a chance to get home. It’s not impossible; just improbable. That hope proves feasible when the gang stumbles upon a world full of film reels, including reels of the original world where they came from.

After fiddling around with the projectors and reels in this world, Nagara and Rajdhani figure out how to edit the reels and splice and layer them together to create a “director’s cut”. This is the latest and best hope of returning to the world: building it from the myriad parts at their disposal, along with Nagara’s ability.

They only have one, no, two…actually three problems: the three other factions. There’s Hoshi and the StuCo; Aki-sensei and Asakaze, and then Ace and his group of no-longer-it-people. Hoshi, who again has heard the future will be and that it doesn’t involve going home, has instead built an “ark” that will protect his faction from the coming “storm”.

Here’s when things get a little nutty, in the episode’s version of a “battle scene”, as Aki-sensei and Asakaze battle Nagara and Rajdhani’s adventurous director’s cut, all the while traveling aboard Hoshi’s cubic ark. The visuals become downright kooky as groups of people simultaneously stand around statically and fly through wildly undulating landscapes and psychedelic patterns.

By the time reality “settles” back into the world and the school they know, it soon becomes clear that it’s not actually their world; or at least not anymore. Time has gone on and their class is graduating, but there are changes, chief among them that Nozomi died. While other students observe their alternate future selves, no one can see or hear Nozomi, and she phases right through people. It’s a nightmare.

Dr. Strangelove eventually confronts Nagara (while standing, oddly enough), telling him he didn’t create any worlds, but only observed them, thereby opening a “box of possibilities.” The alternate world where Nozomi is dead exists because the Nozomi who lives is on the island, along with Nagara and Mizuho and everyone else. They have been sequestered, and judging from Yamada’s fate, that sequestration is meant to be permanent.

They are unneeded copies, not chosen to continue in the world they used to inhabit. This is just the luck of the draw, mind you; just like being born with natural talent or into money. They got the short end of the stick…or did they? The world they caught a glimpse of didn’t seem “all that great”, to borrow Nagara’s words when questioning Hoshi’s ability to read the future.

It’s certainly not a world Nozomi liked, considering she was dead, but it also might explain why she and no one else can see a light up in the sky; it’s the same light her other self must’ve already stepped into when she passed away.

While others may contemplate whether their lives are better or worse—Nozomi now knows that this life here is all she has. Then again, it’s all any of her classmates have too. They may have split into multiple facets, but they’re still on the same island, in the same boat, with identical status of not being chosen.

If that sounds like a huge bummer, I’m still not convinced it is, especially when I think of the friendships Nagara has forged and the exciting adventures exploring new realms with them. If there’s a set limit to how far they can travel before bouncing off the boundaries of the island, well…how is that any different than the bounds that, with vanishingly few exceptions, keep us fundamentally tethered to our world?

Sonny Boy – 05 – The Creator

If you thought Sonny Boy was going to pick up right where it left off with the Bond Girl-like arrival of a teacher (like ahem me) well…you haven’t been paying proper attention. Sonny Boy, you see, picks up where and when it feels like it: in this case, a 2D Pac-Man-like world that Nagara, Nozomi, Asakaze and Mizuho manipulate in order to “liberate” all of the digital mice.

Their “reward” for “conquering” (i.e. clearing) this world is a corded desktop mouse with the power to unravel things, from computer code to sweaters. Turns out each time a world is conquered, a new power is “unlocked”. Back at Rajdhani’s lab on the beach, he’s recording and cataloguing all of the team’s successes and failures, gradually narrowing down what can and can’t be done…slowly unraveling the big tangle that is their predicament.

The rest of the class probably would have tolerated this as long as they were kept fed and busy, but along came that Aki-sensei, who claims to have been sent by “God” and only seems to be their to stir up some shit. She immediately plays favorites with Asakaze, and encourages him to take up the mantle of the class’s savior. With him, she’s less Swiss Family Robinson and more Mrs. Robinson.

She also insists that no matter what they do, none of the students will ever be able to return home. She also assigns a scapegoat in Nagara, cultivating the idea that the only one of them with the power to teleport was trying to escape the world they came from, and happened to drag them all along with him. The StuCo brings Nagara before the class, but due to his social anxiety and ineloquence, his answers only make them more suspicious and angry, and even Hoshi can’t sway them to take it easy.

Happily, Nagara at least gets a small respite from all the finger-pointing when he joins Nozomi for some nighttime fishing. When she spots “guardian angels” in the otherwise inky black water, she dives in without hesitation, and pulls Nagara in with her. Under the water they soon become surrounded by a shimmering silver school of minnows, a wondrous and beautiful moment in an episode full of bleak cynicism. Nagara is glad he jumped in. He’s also glad he met Nozomi.

Things go south when Nagara is again confronted by the class, with Aki-sensei apparently trying to get everyone to turn against him as the one villain on whom they can pin all their blames. One student even shoves Nagara to the ground, causing him to run away once again. As she pulls Nagara down she builds Asakaze up, as he demonstrates he can cut through the world Nagara teleported them to and return to the island.

But that’s the first clue that Nagara’s power isn’t actually teleportation. He ends up escaping to a burned version of the island from before they set up a barter system that obeyed the world’s rules of fair exchange. Nozomi, Mizuho, and Rajdhani end up being able to travel to this burned island where they find Nagara. Mizuho in particular masks her genuine concern for him by being super prickly with him upon their reunion.

But the fact that the burned island wasn’t healed, but a second island created, seals one of the many theories Rajdhani’s simmering in his head: Nagara isn’t a teleporter…he’s a creator. Each and every one of the worlds they’ve visited was made from his power.

With Aki-sensei grooming Asakaze into Nagara’s nemesis, destroyer of those worlds, and savior of the class, all while painting Nagara as the devil, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before things boil over into something ugly.

Bokutachi no Remake – 07 – Noncommittal by Necessity

Rather than being a fifth wheel, Sayuri clings to Tsurayuki during her extended visit while both Shinoaki and Nanako start clinging to Kyouya, no doubt feeding off Sayuri’s romantic vibes. Sayuri doting on Tsurayuki gives them license to dote on Kyouya. But both we and Kyouya soon learn that Tsurayuki just…doesn’t love Sayuri that way.

When not trying to feed Kyouya, Shinoaki is showing him stills of sex scenes then kneeling between his legs to sketch his crotch. When Nanako emerges from her room whining, Kyouya goes in and assures her the digital music she composed will do just fine, and she “recharges” by hugging him tight from behind, not letting him go.

While Kyouya is being an supportive emotional rock to his dormmates, while Sayuri ups her efforts to return home with Tsurayuki in hand by trying to seduce him in a see-through nightie, Kyouya himself finds support and comfort in his café sessions with Eiko.

She must confess she’s impressed not only by the progress he’s made with the game, but in so easily getting Tsurayuki and Shinoaki to change their styles to something more commercial.

But as the game progresses, Kyouya has a very date-like Christmas Eve out in the city with Shinoaki, and the four make a New Years shrine visit where both Aki and Nanako most certainly hope for more progress with Kyouya. Their implicit trust in his producing abilities is turning into a full-on love triangle, with neither girl prepared to lose to the other.

But, again, as Kyouya makes clear to, who else, Eiko: he doesn’t like either of them that way. And that’s okay! Forget about the fact he’s mentally much older than either. Kyouya didn’t get into this to become either Aki or Nanako’s boyfriend; he did it to remake his life.

Even though this past Eiko doesn’t yet have the history and heartbreak they shared in the future, you can just tell by the way she’s his confidant and emotional rock that these two are the superior couple in the long run.

While Eiko would normally call someone being as wishy-washy as Kyouya a scumbag, she sees why he’s doing it, and it’s not just because he’s scared of hurting them. He’s scared of poisoning the group dynamic and ruining the game they’re working so hard to complete by April 29. Eiko’s advice to him is to continue to feign obliviousness…but considering how bold tAki and Nanako are getting, he probably can’t get away with that much longer.

On top of that love triangle, we have Sayuri continuing to disrupt Tsurayuki’s creative flow, her own goal of returning him to the home and life she believes to be good and right for him clashing not only against Kyouya’s goals, but Tsurayuki’s own dreams.

After Tsurayuki finally blows up at Sayuri and she doesn’t come back, she rolls up in her family’s classy Toyota Century (with its towering, intimidating chauffeur), takes him on a ride to the docks, where Kyouya starts getting unhappy mob vibes. Fortunately, Sayuri isn’t there to threaten him.

However, Sayuri has come to suspect that she’s lost her hold on Tsurayuki due to him being in an emotional and physical relationship with Kyouya. Kyouya denies vociferously, but her suspicions aren’t that out of whack. What she’s wrong about is that Kyouya and the others are leading Tsurayuki down a risky path.

Kyouya maks sure Sayuri understands that Tsurayuki is going down his own path, knew the risks from the start, and is doing it anyway. If she sees Kyouya supporting his friend as he walks that path as unwanted encouragement, fine; but Tsurayuki isn’t being manipulated by anyone. He’s doing what he wants to do, and he’s happy.

Thankfully, Sayuri is a grown-up about this and doesn’t force the issue—though she does leave Kyouya stranded at the docks! She bows and asks Kyouya to continue helping Tsu-kun “find happiness”, which is a heartbreaking thing to hear Tsu’s betrothed to say…but again, Tsurayuki never chose Sayuri, she was chosen for him.

By the same token, Kyouya never chose to be caught between Shinoaki and Nanako, while in their own subtle gradual way he and Eiko seem to be choosing one another. The question is, can he stave off the potentially inevitable destruction-by-drama of his group long enough to finish the game? After that, will Kyouya end up losing both Aki and Nanako after making his feelings clear?