Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! – 12 (Fin) – Cool Like You

This finale starts, somewhat surprisingly, with Tsubasa and Minami sharing a hotel room together. Turned out they missed the last bus home because they read the weekday schedule on a weekend (I’ve done that too many times to count). But when Tsubasa calls his dad, he tells him a friend has a hotel he’s welcome to stay at to spend more time with his friend.

Whether his dad knows this friend is a girl or not, it’s clear his dad is looking out for him. His and Minami’s date essentially continues with a sumptuous dinner. Then Minami takes her shower first, and Tsubasa fantasizes about her coming out in a towel and kissing him. Instead, she comes out fully dressed, and he’s already fallen asleep.

Minami leaves him a note and leaves, presumably having been picked up by her mom. The next we see her, she’s dropping in on Sayuri, who was hanging with her kohai friend and her friend. Minami has her carry-on, so she must be on her way to the airport. She thanks Sayuri for the advice she gave, and is determined to come back from studying abroad “just as cool” as she and Tsubasa and Rena are.

Tsubasa, meanwhile, has spend much of break holed up in his room, believing from the note that Minami didn’t like him anymore. But when a little pink hairpin falls out of his backpack, Tsubasa takes it as it was intended: a little push he needs. Sayuri texts Tsubasa like the good friend she is, and fortunately for Tsubasa his dad’s able to reschedule a meeting and drive him to the airport.

Minami’s mom can tell her daughter is nervous about her impending trip abroad, but that’s not all. Minami is also watching her phone and waiting for Tsubasa to say goodbye. She’s walking into the departure lounge when he finally makes it, taking her by the arm before she leaves. He tells her he came to return her hairpin (just as she’d planned), but that’s not all.

He had to see her again before she left, because he wanted her to know just how happy he was to move to Hokkaido and meet her, and that whenever she comes home—six months, a year—he’ll be waiting for her. That’s when Minami tells him she’s be gone for—wait for it—two weeks. That’s it! Tsubasa totally misunderstood, but now that he knows she won’t be gone long. The relief washes over him, and he can wish her good luck with a genuine smile on his face.

He no doubt counts the days when Minami will be back, and on the day of her return, she’s late for class, arriving as the teacher is takng attendance. Tsubasa doesn’t wait until lunch, but hands her the gift of her favorite konbini chicken, which she starts munching on and even feeds him. I love how they’re just in their own little world. Not even the teacher making them stay after class can harsh their vibes. Minami’s back; that’s what matters!

While initially I wanted a confession to come out of this finale, the urgency of that was based on the fear she’d be gone a long time. Since she’s back after two weeks, there’s no rush there. It was actually a wonderfully stress-relieving revelation. All I ever asked of this show was to make me smile and experience some nice feels, and it never disappointed.

Tales of Wedding Rings – 12 (Fin) – Upping Their Game

Satou and his wives return to the ruins of Idanokan to find a battle between the imperial and the Abyss King’s armies. Nobody can put a scratch on the Abyss King himself, but after everyone wishes him good luck, Satou jumps into the battle, his five rings combine into one, and he disperses the Abyss King’s forces in one great explosion of light.

However, this attack is not quite enough to destroy the Abyss King. It merely wounds him, and Satou is completely out of juice, unable to lift a finger. The King prepares to kill Satou, but his wives leap in to protect him. Granart and Amber fight valiantly, but when the Abyss King re-summons his forces, they are woefully outnumbered. Satou tries to get his second wind, but passes out entirely.

After a series of flashbacks and dream sequences, Satou comes to on the back of a giant flying bird. Turns out Alabaster, with help from his former elven lover Smaragdi, were able to snatch him and his wives away from the Abyss King. Alabaster thanks Satou for wounding the Abyss King and sending his army into retreat for the time being.

Back home in Hime’s kingdom, Alabaster admits that there has been no record of the dark rings the Abyss King now wears, and that the only solution to defeating him once and for all is for the Ring King and his wives to gain even more power and fight as a unit. This will require them to “strengthen their bonds”, hence the arrival of the end credits scene of the wives sprawled across the bed in lingerie (though nothing happens).

In addition to growing closer to Satou, Hime will need more magical training so she can fight beside him. That’s where Hime’s powerful mage of a little sister, Morion Ravri Nokanakita, comes in, out of nowhere, just after Hime first mentions she even had a little sister she hasn’t seen in years. Need(akitta)less to say, this is not a true finale, but merely a stopping point for an confirmed second season.

Tales of Wedding Rings – 11 – Bearing the Weight of Destiny

After buying clothes to blend in with Satou’s world and having a meal at a local family restaurant, everyone tries to put a good face on things, but the fact of the matter is they are stuck here for the time being, with only four of the five rings needed to defeat the Abyss King.

It’s fun seeing Nef, Granart, and Saphir in casual clothes, enjoying a bathhouse together, and teasing Hime over her promise to Satou to consummate their marriage upon returning there. As for the expenses they’re wrapping up, Hime’s gramps arranged things so they’d have a place to live and all the money they’d need if they failed to defeat the Abyss King.

The mere fact that Alabaster created such a contingency convinces Hime that it wasn’t a certainty they’d have defeated the Abyss King even if they had five rings. But as the listless, normal days pass, Hime notices Satou has been returning to the spot where they teleported.

She doesn’t want Satou to worry about her world anymore, but to find his own happiness … with her. But his duty as Ring King clearly pulls at him, and is answered by the appearance of the fifth princess, Amber, or rather an artificial replica of her created by the Dwarves.

Sensing the Abyss King would destroy their civilization, they sent the replica of Amber to earth with the ring to wait for her time, and her king, to come. But now that he has, he wavers between returning to the other world to fight the Abyss King, and honoring Hime’s wish to forget about all that.

But it isn’t just the arrival of Amber, and the possibilty of returning, that changes that equation. Nef, Granart, and Saphir have become born and are truly starting to feel just how out of place they are in this world. The happiness Hime wants for all of them may not be achievable here.

Amber, who has waited for Satou for centuries, is content to wait as long as it takes, and even watch over him until he dies, if that is his will. But it isn’t, and he meets Amber on the roof of school to form a marriage contract with her, trusting her confidence that with five rings, their victory over the Abyss King will be a foregone conclusion. Only when he’s gone can the weight of his duty be lifted, and will everyone find true happiness.

Satou returns home to a distraught Hime, still crying about the loss of her grandfather. When she sees the fifth ring on his hand, he tells them they’re returning to Arnulus. When she voices her fear that he might be hurt or die, he tells her the task her gramps gave him to “free” her and the others from the duty of the rings, he didn’t mean run away from or forget it, but fulfill that duty so they can move past it together. She need not fear, because she won’t be bearing the duty alone.

Hearing the sheer dumb confidence in Satou’s voice, Hime is inclined to go along with him. But before they leave Earth, she wants to make love to him. It surely looks like they’re going to get to do the deed, but alas, Satou only makes it to second base when Amber interrupts them at the worst possible time. Worse still, she’s already activated the teleportation spell back to Arnulus, which she can only use once.

So just like that, it’s time to go. Granart arrives with Saphir and a Nef burrito, having picked up on everything that was going on with her advanced cat insight. And now that it’s time to go home, Saphir can’t hold back tears of relief; she really wasn’t enjoying her time there, and who can blame her, when among other things, she was separated from her twin sister?

Komatsu Mikako is effortlessly charming as the slightly mechanical, joke-cracking Amber, and both her design and personality are pleasantly distinct from the others. I also like how everyone was basically fated to return to Earth so that they could meet her and attain the fifth ring. I share Satou’s confidence that they can take care of the Abyss King. My only real doubt is whether he and Hime can manage go all the way before the dang show ends!

Vinland Saga S2 – 24 (Fin) – Prodigal Son

This week is nothing more or less than Thorfinn’s return to his home village in Iceland, an occurance for which multiple miracles had to take place. When he sees the frozen shores, Thorfinn is scared: What if no one recognizes or remembers him? He left when he was six, after all.

Sure enough, the first people to meet him at the shore don’t know who he is, and he doesn’t know their names. When he encounters his big sis Ylva, she’s already hot from arguing with a Norwegian merchant, and kicks Thorfinn in the face, as she assumes this is some kind of scam.

His less than warm reception has Thorfinn feeling down, but however those on this island feel about him, the fact of the matter is he is Thorfinn, Son of Thors, and he is home. Bug Eyes reminds him just how frikkin’ lucky he is that he was able to return to his family, and his family is still alive.

Buoyed by Bug Eyes’ words, Thorfinn meets with his mother Helga. Unlike Ylva, she can immediately tell that this is her son, because she remembers a young Thors, and Thorfinn looks just like him. In the family home, he reunites with Ari and meets his nephews and nieces.

When Ylva comes home, Helga assures him that this is indeed her little brother. So rather than punch him for being an impostor after inheritance, she punches him for having fucked off somewhere for so long without a word, only to return with a ponytail and beard.

Because there’s no Netflix in the 11th Century, Thorfinn regales his family with the tale of his life from when he left the island to when he left Ketil’s farm. It’s a story of hatred and strife, death and destruction, despair and regret, sadness and rebirth.

At the end of it everyone is speechless but no one is unmoved. Then Thorfinn tells his family what he must do to atone for the sins that weigh so heavy upon him: create a peaceful land in Vinland. His mother gives him her blessing, while even Ylva comes around and bonds with her brother over what a strong, kind weirdo their dad was.

That night, Einar joins Thorfinn on a promontory overlooking the roiling sea below and the undulating aurorae above…until it gets too cold and he heads back to Helga’s, where he’s welcomed as a son. Once alone, Thorfinn is confronted by his younger self, who asks him where people go when they leave the island.

Thors also appears, saying Thorfinn knows the answer, and all of a sudden the two of them are in the middle of a vast pasture, on Vinland, land of plenty and peace. Leif promises to help him get that nation started, while Ylva and Helga lament that they must part ways with their brother and son, respectively, so soon, while understanding why.

The morning of his and Einar’s departure, Thorfinn ditches the ponytail and beard, and ends up looking a lot more regal. As the prospective founder of his warless nation, he will be its leader, after all; at least at first. Like last season, this feels like the end of another beginning.

Now that he is free of the bonds of both war and slavery, Best Boy Thorfinn can set to work making his and his father’s dream a reality. Here’s hoping there’s a third season of Vinland Saga to cover that.

But for now, this final episode proved that after achieving a great victory—one that required neither a single swing of a dagger nor a single thrown punch—the greatest reward is simply to be able to return to a warm home, where the people who loved you still live and thrive. But that warmth and comfort is fleeting, for Thorfinn has much yet to do.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury – 18 – Go Forward, Gain Nothing

I’ll be honest: It’s weird seeing Suletta in the standard drab Asticassia uniform, but in true Suletta fashion she’s decided to take her fall from grace in stride: by going forward. She still has a wish list, and so she starts knocking items off, from asking “a cool question” in class o eating lunch with friends. Her cheerful attitude doesn’t sit quite right with her Earth House chums, particularly Chuchu.

Guel isn’t wearing his white Holder’s uniform, as he’s joined the ranks of High Schoolers Doing Adult Business, taking over Jeturk from Lauda. His new fiancée Miorine is also in a snappy business suit, a clear visual sign that they’re too cool for school. Mio has a Benerit Group presidential election to win, but neither she nor Guel have the track record to get the time of day from the real adults.

As with Shaddiq and his girls, there’s an air of “playing at being adults” to them, but the fact is with their fathers dead or incapacitated, Mio and Guel have no choice but to step up, regardless of whether they’re ready or deserving. It’s a blow to Mio to learn Shaddiq is also in the running for president, and also in the lead thanks to his alliance with Peil.

Suletta still tends the greenhouse I assume Mio has abandoned due to her new hectic work schedule. Lauda stops by to toss another “Mercurian wench” barb her way, but when Chuchu gets in his face, he, Petra, and Felsi thank her for saving his life. She’s not sure what to do with that, but is still pissed that Suletta is taking this the way she is.

But from Suletta’s perspective, Mio did nothing wrong. Suletta broke her promise never to lose a duel. Though, if she knew it was Mio who hit the kill switch on Aerial she might think differently. As for Nika, she’s still in purgatory with a dour Norea who just wants to kill Spacians and an Elan looking for something to do with Peil backing Shaddiq.

As protests on earth spread and grow more violent (which I believe is Shaddiq’s doing), Mio, while in confrence with Guel and Prospera, believes speaking to the Earthians directly is the kind of bold move that could help her make up her huge deficit against Shaddiq. At the same time, the Earth House arranges to have Suletta meet with Mio.

Bel runs afoul of Jun Feng. And then there’s Martin, who sold out Nika. He goes to a designated school counseling booth to speak to an automated Haro, only to be busted by Seceila of all people, calling him a “dirty rat.” This episode checks in on literally everyone.

When Suletta parts ways with her Earth buddies to see Mio, she ends up in a dark hangar, reunited with Aerial. She hops into the cockpit and flies out into space, where she admits to Aerial that she’s not so sure she’s gained two by moving forward. It hurts not seeing Mio.

That’s when Gundam’s light trim turns from red to blue, and Suletta finds herself in a kind of virtual construct where she meets Eri’s avatar face to face. Eri tells her she “filled in” for her admirably, and tells Suletta she’s one of her “repli-children” created from her genes.

Once Permet Score Eight is reached, Eri doesn’t need a pilot. Quiet Zero, which Suletta knows nothing about, will create a world where Eri can live, so Suletta isn’t needed anymore. So she urges Suletta to stop clinging to her, and to mom.

With that Suletta is ejected from Aerial’s cockpit, and drifts through space in a spin until caught by Prospera. Her mom tells her everything is just as Eri said, and it’s time she go back to school, which she says has all she needs “to fill her heart.” Both Eri and Prospera want Suletta to live freely, as Mio does, but without a bride, or duels, or Aerial to pilot, Suletta is feeling particularly empty and useless.

If the episode began with Suletta pretending everything was okay and moving forward, the end of the episode shows her in full existential meltdown. Everyone and everything has conspired to strip away all of the things she had used to define herself up to this point. Seeing (but notably not hearing) her sobbing as she floats in space sure feels like rock bottom.

The question is, what will become of this newly empty vessel; this blank slate that is Suletta Mercury? I am extremely interested to find out if she’ll finally move forward for real, and if she’ll chooses to reject the path of safety and tedium her mother, sister, and bride have laid out for her.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury – 17 – The Final Duel

Backed into a corner, Miorine agrees to take over Prospera’s Quiet Zero program. Prospera only asks that Suletta be allowed to participate in one last duel with Aerial, and then Mio can “do as she pleases” with her. Mio’s next interaction with Suletta demonstrates the strain of their still ill-defined relationship.

Based purely on Miorine’s reaction and not her inner morality, Suletta apologizes for “saying something weird” in the greenhouse (about killing if her mom told her to). When Mio asks if Suletta would ever give up Aerial, Suletta flatly says no; Aerial is family, after all.

Suletta then talks about celebrating Mio’s upcoming 17th birthday, unaware that it’s already the beginning of the end for her. At the Benerit Group Front, Business Wonder Boy Shaddiq voices his intention to run for president and form an alliance with the Peil Group.

Back at the greenhouse, Suletta is watering plants when Elan comes in. Having failed to steal Aerial, he confronts her directly to give it to him. When she tells him she doesn’t like him like this, he says the Elan she did like is gone and not coming back. Then he pulls a Taser on her.

She’s rescued…by Geul, who dispatches Elan with alacrity, then offers thanks to Suletta for helping inspire him “move forward and gain two.” He admits that part of her is what he fell for, and makes clear to her that she’s precious to him.

Suletta understands this is a confession, and politely rejects him, for she too has someone precious. That someone, Miorine, is hiding in the bushes listening, and eventually shows herself to declare to Suletta what she wants for her birthday: for her to win one last duel … against Guel.

I thought we were done with the “kid gloves” of the school duels, but this one is touted again and again as the “last” such duel, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. While Suletta simply asks that if she wins, Jeturk house align themselves with Earth House to stem the harassment from other Spacian houses, if Guel wins, he gets Aerial.

Miorine, who is present for the pre-duel ceremony, tells her those stakes don’t matter if Suletta wins, and she’s never lost. But now that we know Mio wants Suletta out of that cockpit at any cost, this felt different. Suletta doesn’t feel invincible here; she feels like a sitting duck.

Miorine wants Suletta to be happy, but doesn’t believe she can truly be that when fighting and killing. So in addition to striking a deal with Prospera that will prove decisive in the coming duel, Mio tells Guel to reclaim her as his bride, so that his company can support her in the coming election.

Just as Miorine is preparing to push Suletta from the center of everything to the margins where she can be kept safe, Elan joins Norea and Nika in a storage room of misfit toys, no longer loyal to or wanted by anyone. It’s a compelling room of wild cards, and more importantly, Suletta can’t rely on Nika’s technical skill to fix up Aerial, who is not 100%.

When the duel begins, it looks like it will be another easy victory for Suletta. She’s committed, and her Gund-Bits are overwhelming, as always. Add to that Guel, who has cut his hair as a symbol of his rebirth and also been embraced and supported by Lauda, Petra (who is now dating Lauda?) and Felsi, is experiencing some pretty brutal effects of PTSD.

When he freezes up, that family calls out to him, waking him up and allowing him to dodge Suletta’s decisive antenna-severing blow. Then Mio receives a notification from Prospera on her phone: an Aerial kill switch. Suletta hears Eri say “I’m sorry” as “Happy Birthday” plays, and after briefly hesitating, she hits the button, and Aerial shuts down and goes dark.

Guel takes the deactivated Aerial’s antenna and wins the duel. Shortly after, Miorine opens Suletta’s cockpit to let her know it was she who shut Aerial down, because she wanted her to lose. This duel was a trade, and Suletta made a “good shield”, but her usefulness to Miorine is now at an end.

In one final twist of the knife before saying goodbye to her “Mercurian country bumpkin”, Miorine brings up Suletta’s uniform settings and removes the Holder regalia, as with her defeat she is no longer the holder.

She may no longer be anything, anymore. Miorine knows Prospera sent Suletta here to fight and win duels. Now there will be no more duels (though I’m not holding by breath about that), and she has lost. It’s an absolutely brutal, heart-wrenching turn of events … but I can’t fault Miorine.

Ultimately, Mio knew Suletta would never quit fighting in a Gundam of her own volition. Aerial had to be taken from her for her own good. Mio did this because she loves Suletta and wants her to be free from her terrible mother all this political bullshit, and from a life of further bloodshed that will eventually tear at her soul.

The question is, now that Suletta is at or fast approaching rock bottom, what the heck—if anything—is next for her? She’s been well and truly taken off the board. From her perspective, Miorine betrayed her, dumped her, broke her heart because she was falling short as a groom, even if that’s not at all the case. Now comes the picking up of the pieces.

GODDAMN TEARJERKER™ CERTIFIED

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury – 16 – Returns and Investments

The cat’s out of the bag: Prospera turned her daughter Ericht into a Gundam and is using her second daughter Suletta to pilot her. The thought of this makes Belmeria ill, but she’s already in too deep, and Prospera, now in full mugging Villain Mode, isn’t about to let her off the hook.

Shaddiq has adopted a more buttoned-down look as Grassley’s new acting president. News has spread of the attacks on Quetta and Asticassia and Benerit’s hardline policies on Earth. Benerit is off balance, just like Shaddiq wants. They need a new president, and all the companies are jockeying for the upper hand.

As for GUND-ARM’s president, Miorine, she is cleared of any charges and free to return to a locked-down, hollowed out Asticassia. Her employees are already falling victim to anti-Earthian sentiment caused by all the news. There is so much she can’t control, but at least she can disperse a Spacian student with footage of him assaulting poor Martin.

Their well-meaning comrade Nika is a “guest” of Grassley House, where Sabina reveals that she’s Earthian too (or at least was before joining the house), and asks Nika to join their cause, since their fundamental goals to bridge Earth and Space align. For her part, Nika is done with being a victim, and ends justifying means.

We get only that one scene with Nika, who started out as a stock crack engineer character but has grown into a full deuterogamist, but it does what so many of these scenes that juggle so many characters and motivations excel at: engages me and make me want more.

Speaking of deuterogamists, Guel Jeturk, the prodigal son, has returned to the Benerit Front. Lauda Neill, who has been just barely keeping the company and himself above water, is so happy and relieved his brother is alive he faints. Petra, who like Shaddiq and Jazz are now wearing the business uniforms of the corporatocracy, gives Guel a warm welcome home.

Guel promises to take care of everything while his brother rests. After hitting one rock bottom after another, I’m now fully on board with Guel finally rising again, regardless of whose side he ends up on.

It’s this reunion, and Miorine being thanked and welcomed so warmly by Earth House, that prevent this episode from being a complete downer. Also, I loved the dark comedy of Noto Mamiko really momming it up when Prospera casually pops in to say hi and introduce herself to Suletta’s new friends. It would be a sweet interaction if we didn’t know this is just a façade, and that all these kids are just expendable assets for her cause.

In an effort to grab power during the vacuum caused by Delling’s coma, the Peil co-CEOs order Elan to steal Aerial, currently impounded (GUND-Arm’s business activities are also suspended). However, when he tries to start her up, he is attacked by a data storm. Eri, whom Elan mistakes for a young Suletta,  appears in that storm, one of many, and basically tells him to fuck off. Elan takes his frustration out on Bel.

He’s not entirely wrong to do so, as her desire to survive has led her to perform experimentations that have killed others, including former versions of himself. Bel is being so emotionally wrecked this episode I don’t know how much longer it will be before she does something desperate that no one expects; just one more wild card in a whole deck of them (I haven’t even mentioned the machinations of the pair of smugglers Miorine is still working with).

This brings us to the long-awaited reunion of Suletta and Miorine, who have not spoken or seen each other since The Slap (content warning). When Miorine first arrives she’s quickly enveloped in GUND-Arm clerical work, but Till raises Suletta’s hand for her, and she invites Miorine to the greenhouse she’s been tending in her stead.

The two are surrounded by the vivid life of the thriving tomatoes and enveloped in a warm light rarely seen in other parts of the school. Suletta starts by asking if Miorine is mad, but it’s not that. In fact, Miorine has been wanting to apologize, and thank her for saving her and her father. Things seem to be going well in terms of getting these two back on board…and then Suletta smiles.

She cheerfully says her mom told her Miorine would “understand eventually” that she and Aerial “did the right thing”—moved forward and gained two. Miorine tells her flat-out she absolutely cannot smile about how someone was subtracted to save her. She gets Suletta to admit that she would use Gundams to kill if her mom told her to, because her mom is always right.

It’s painful and heartbreaking to see the horror from last season return to Miorine’s face in her very next interaction with her groom. If there’s a silver lining to this scene, it’s that she finally realizes, once and for all, that she can only go so far as long as Suletta remains Prospera’s brainwashed puppet.

Miorine angrily confronts Prospera in a visceral scene that again makes great use of the zero-g environment to enhance the overall sense that everything is becoming unmoored and floating free. Prospera drops the nice mom act on a dime. She admits to using Suletta as her puppet, but asks Miorine whether she simply wants to be the new puppet master. Does Suletta even have enough of a sense of self and will to be her own person? I sure hope so! So does Miorine.

But then Prospera slides the knife in and twists it, saying that everything she’s doing with Suletta and Quiet Zero is to exact vengeance against Delling Rembran for what happened at Vanadis 21 years ago. She wants Miorine to hear the screams and cries of her family and colleagues she hears every waking moment. This game me chills.

Appeasing or quieting those voices is a primary driving factor in everything Prospera does, whether it’s pulling Suletta’s strings, or backing Miorine as the next president of Benerit Group. In the battle for the kids to escape the vicious cycle started by their parents and their parents, it is not going well so far for the kids. But that just makes me that much more invested in their struggle to do so.

Akiba Maid War – 07 – RocknPorkRolla

A week has passed since Nerula was gunned down in an alley, and Nagomi has run away from the Oinky Doink. The others, particularly Ranko, are worried about her, especially since Manami and the Maidalien war hawks aren’t finished. While Ranko is out distributing flyers, she spots a pink ninja who claims not to be Nagomi, but clearly is.

Since Nagomi insist’s she’s not Nagomi, Ranko tells this “mystery ninja” the situation: she and the Oinky Doink maids are worried about her. But if Nagomi fled out of fear to the oddly safer ninja café business, it wasn’t fear of being hurt or killed. It was fear of standing by and doing nothing while another friends of her dies.

This is a typical action movie protagonist pattern: after a great defeat, the hero withdraws, suffering a crisis of purpose. But outside forces, like Nerula’s grieving fans, conspire to bring her back to where she needs to be: at Oinky Doink, as the new kind of Akiba maid Nerula knew she could be.

But how? The ramen guy gives Nagomi the other piece of the picture to bring her around. It’s something he’s learned being in the ramen business with the reputation as someone whose ramen never changes: staying the same actually requires change. So Nagomi returns to the dojo and considers what that means.

That night, Manami and over two dozen of her henchmaids advance on Oinky Doink, outnumbering them over two-to-one. I knew Ranko and Zoya were worth ten of the average maid in fighting ability, but that’s still a lot of maids and a lot of bullets. The pig maids make use of homefield advantage and the element of surprise as much as they can, diverting and splitting up Manami’s maids.

This is the first time we see Shiipon and Yumechi in sustained action (their attack on the Sheep happening off-camera) but they handle themselves well. Even so, eventually the Maidaliens surround the Pigs, and Manami’s machine gun looks like a decisive advantage.

Ranko prepares to make a desperate charge to take Manami out or die trying (as far as she’s concerned protecting the café is worth it) but suddenly the elevator opens and a cloud of smoke gets off. Dozens of smoke bombs explode and disorient both sides. And through the smoke, Nagomin appears, prepared for battle.

With her almost preposterously hastily-acquired ninja skills, within seconds she’s disarmed Manami and claimed the machine gun for their side. Manami switches to her trademark bat, but once she’s in the pigsty, the maids of Oinky Doink and their ninja maid savoir are ready for her.

True to who she is, through the ensuing chaos, many bullets fly, but none of them from a gun held by Nagomi. Instead she uses the tools of the ninja trade, like kunai and nets, which buy her co-workers time to go on the offensive.

When the dust clears it’s just a wounded Manami and her lieutenant Miyabi, surrounded by the bodies of their fallen comrades. Miyabi gets Manami to retreat before they too are killed, but after Miyabi dresses Manami’s leg, Manami dismisses her and she departs in shame.

Nagomi shows up with Ranko as backup, and despite her sorry state Manami is still ready to throw down. But Nagomi isn’t there to fight. Nor is she there as a ninja. She’s a maid, and she reminds Manami what maids are truly all about: not dying in glorious battle, but serving their masters with moe moe kyun.

When Manami rises to shut the young whippersnapper up, Nagomi again uses her new ninja skills to lay the smackdown on Manami. Again, Nagomi demands that Manami feel the moe moe kyun, and she finally relents, deciding that pig hunting time is over.

Ranko lets Manami withdraw, and welcomes Nagomi back into the pigsty. But Manami gets a rude awakening back at Maidalien HQ. Not only did the boss Ugaki refuse to commit any more forces to this silly war, but she got all the Maidalien brass to agree to a merger with Creatureland.

Manami could not change like Nagomi did, and ends up gunned down by her former allies who are sick of her bloodlust. They want to make money, and they’ll make more if she’s dead than running around shooting people. So she meets her end in a swirling puddle of her own blood. Unfortunately for Oinky Doink, their next foe looks to be their own Creatureland masters.

This was a great step forward for Nagomi, but it wasn’t perfect. I kinda wish Manami had stuck around a bit, as small a chance as redemption for someone her would have been. Also, the animation of the raid, aside from some fun moments, was also surprisingly underwhelming, considering what I know the show is capable of from the premiere and the MMA episode.

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – 01 (First Impressions) – New Show, New Foe

After a brief scene with 12th Squad Captain Kurotsuchi observing hollow movements from his giant lab, two Shinigami from the 13th Squad, Shino and Yuki, arrive in Karakura City to relieve the substitute operating there. They are quickly in over their heads when the area becomes overrun with giant Hollows.

They’re saved by Kurosaki Ichigo, Inoue Orihime Ishida Uryuu, and Sado Yasutora, for whom the Hollows are only a minor annoyance. Everyone uses their signature move, culminating in Ichigo loosing a Getsuga Tenshou in Bankai mode. So begins the first episode of Bleach in over a decade, and I have to admit I was overcome by a combo of nostalgia and elation.

It’s back! Bleach is back! The first television anime I watched regularly. It was going to be very hard to mess this up (unless they brought the freaking Bount back out) so I’m pleased to report that they haven’t. So far so good. And this episode doesn’t just look good, it looks great, more like the Bleach movies. The original has its charms and looked pretty good in its day, but this is a more visually modern and mature aesthetic, and I dig it.

The episode is also wise to show us not only the badass parts of our Bleach gang, but their down time as well, as Ichigo plays host to the recovering Shino and Yuki while Orihime, Uryuu and Chad drop in with a bounty of baked goods for breakfast. I only wish we’d gotten to see Karin and Yuzu too, but the bedroom was already pretty crowded before a pompous half-Quincy, half-Arrancar-lookin’ jamoke barges in and ignores Ichigo’s demands he get off his bed.

Something is rotten in Soul Society, specifically the Rukon District, where Madarame Ikkaku and Ayasegawa Yumichika are investigating an entire village apparently spirited away … by itself?  Then the office of the head honcho, 1st Squad Captain Yamamoto-Genryuusai, is infiltrated by a group of masked baddies.

Yama’s lieutenant Sasakibe is impaled by a giant blue beam that Yamamoto shatters, but before he can engulf the intruders in his righteous flames, they transport away, seemingly by being engulfed by their own shadows. They call themselves the Wandenreich, and they were there to declare war. The plan is to destroy Soul Society in five days’ time.

Back in Karakura, Ichigo kicks his uninvited guest Asguiaro Ebern out of his window and then leads him to the river where they can fight without too much collateral damage. Ichigo is confused by the fact Ebern uses Quincy weaponry but wears a partial Hollow mask. He also notes that Ebern is going out of his way to taunt and provoke Ichigo, even telling him he won’t be able to beat him without Bankai.

Sasakibe warned Yamamoto that whoever these guys are, they’re somehow able to seal Bankais. That’s not good considering it’s pretty much the ultimate weapon of a Shinigami. It looks like Ichigo takes the bait and is about to lose his, but he powers through Ebern’s ritual and slashes him with another Getsuga Tenshou.

A pissed-off Ebern withdraws through his shadow, and we get a glimpse of the Wandenreich’s headquarters, which looks a lot like Hueco Mundo. As expected, Ebern is a fairly low-level member of the Wandenreich, which means their leader is probably someone it would probably take Ichigo 5-10 episodes to defeat on the old show.

A big reason I stopped watching Bleach around the 160-ish-episode mark was that there was so much low-quality anime-only filler, and I’d kind of outgrown the deliberate, analytical, and often repetitive pace of the multi-episode shounen battles. At least in this episode, the new show’s structure has caught up with the times just as the visuals have.

More importantly, this arc is based on the final manga chapter, so I doubt it will be shuffling its feet. And to this day the first couple seasons of Bleach remain some of my favorite anime, though it’s been over fifteen years since I’ve seen it (aside from re-watching the first episode on the show’s tenth anniversary). Bleach is best when working at the top of its game, and this is a very encouraging start … but I am going to need to see Kuchiki Rukia at some point.

Summertime Render – 25 (Fin) – Good Karma

After all the trials, blood, death, loss and increasingly complicated “rules” of the Shadows that Shinpei has endured, it all culminates in a hard reset to the beginning, with him on that boat with Hizuru. From her perspective, they’ve never met, but she’s clearly intrigued (and a little disturbed) that he somehow knows her pen name.

When Shinpei arrives on the pier, he feels a sense of deja vu. When Mio comes streaming towards him on her bike, he instinctively prepares to catch her…but her brakes work fine. Mio’s fine, as are Tokiko and Sou. Shinpei knows he felt worried about them, but doesn’t quite know why; they’re understandably confused and a little hurt by him saying this!

And then there’s Ushio, who remains very much alive, because a Shadow never copied and replaced her. In this timeline there are no Shadows, and never were. He was brought back to the island by a voicemail from Ushio, which he somehow could sense had the same sense of uncanny worry he himself was experiencing.

He stops by the Kobayakawa konbini, which Shiori is minding (and yelling at the other kids to shut the dang ice cream chest). It’s just good to see her not as an instrument of dismemberment and death, ya know? She also says Ushio has been talking about him for a while now, insisting he was coming this year. The kids also note that the upcoming festival is lining up with “Haine’s” birthday.

After visiting the shrine, where an elderly (and not unnaturally youthful or evil) Karakiri is passing the role of fire-lighter to his son Yamato, Shinpei heads to the beach, where Ushio happens to be standing in a long white dress, looking lonely. When she spots him, Shinpei promptly apologizes for how he suddenly left the island.

Ushio admits that she too didn’t handle things right, and that the voicemail she sent was sent because she was suddenly desperately worried about him. Their making-up session is capped off by Shinpei fortuitously spotting her lost shell pendant in the sand. Ushio lets him tenderly tie it around her neck. All is well with the two now; water under the bridge.

At the Kofunes’ café, which is not Shinpei’s home and never was, since his parents are still alive, he discusses his “dream” with Hizuru, who is the only one on the island weird enough to think there might be something to it, like a shared memory of the island or memories from parallel worlds (in truth, it’s a little of both).

It’s here where we meet Haine, who is a grown Ryuunosuke’s daughter and friends with Shiori. Mio comes down in her yukata and Ushio in her portable shrine garb, and the whole gang poses for a photo. Many among the group throw up peace signs, but they could also be victory signs.

That night at the festival, Hizuru is typing up a storm while laughing creepily and stuffing rice into her maw; Shinpei’s regaling of his “dreams” have cleared her writer’s block; we see her writing a novel called Summertime Render. Sou works up the nerve to confess to Mio—again—while Toki watches from the shadows. This time, Mio doesn’t automatically say no?

Shinpei meets Ushio on the beach with the takoyaki she ordered him to bring. When she sees he only brought two trays for the two of them, she recalls a promise he made when they were trying to “get through the little gap in the hospital”—something that might not have even happened in this world. They recite the promise in unison, that he’d “buy her 10 or even 100 pieces”, and a galaxy of fireworks erupt around them.

Whether in that moment they suddenly remember everything they went through to get to this time and place, or they’re simply glad they’re together again after two years in this timeline, they lean into one another in elation and relief. After lifting a three hundred year curse, they goshdarn earned a happy ending as a reward. They deserve it, and I couldn’t be happier that they got it.

Summertime Render – 24 – Everything Mattered

Ryuu and Shinpei are able to catch Ushio before she falls to her death, and she’s reverted to a child since her hair wasn’t quite enough to fully restore her. She’s well and truly out of gas and can no longer fight, but has one more ace up her sleeve.

If Ryuu and Shinpei can buy her two minutes, she’ll turn herself into a hacking shotgun shell that, once fired at Shide, will sever his connection to Hiruko and delete him. While stalling that long won’t be easy, it’s far from impossible, especially as Shide is the loquacious type and enjoys toying with his prey.

Ryuu and Shinpei do battle with Shide, who in addition to being very annoying with his monologues is also a tough customer due to three centuries of honing his shadow skills. Neither of the boys can match him for pure creativity, and Shin can tell they’re not going to make it if they don’t do something drastic.

That something is having Ryuu possess Shide’s armor, depicted as Ryuu literally wrestling with a mass of mud with eyeballs, resulting in Shide being frozen in place. The downside is that now that Ryuu is out of Shin’s body, Shin can feel all the pain Ryuu was suppressing. He nearly passes out, and then his body starts to disintegrate.

However, all this rash, all-or-nothing action pays off, as Ushio is able to finish the hacking shell. This leaves Shin having to get to the shotgun two meters away before Shide (who isolates Ryuu and tosses him away in a glob of mud) can charge and kill him.

He won’t make it, and Ushio can’t move the shotgun as she’s the shell inside, but Haine can, and moves the gun right into Shinpei’s hands. Ushio helps him hold it steady, they get the shot off, and Shide finally, finally bites the dust. His plans to both cause and witness the end of the world come to nothing.

This leaves Shinpei, Ushio, Ryuu, Haine, and lil’ baby Hiruko, whom Ushio attempts to delete. Instead her and everyone else’s data is transported to the real world of over 300 years ago, the very day that the original Haine finds the dead whale that is Hiruko on the beach.

Realizing that Hiruko sent them back to break the cycle, Shinpei scares Haine off before she reaches the whale, and then Ushio deletes it. Baby Hiruko vanishes, finally able to rest. Haine vanishes shortly thereafter, hoping that she and Ryuu can be friends again somewhere, someplace.

That just leaves Shinpei and Ushio on the beach, and what we know must be one more tearful goodbye. Ushio is a shadow, after all, and with Hiruko gone she’s not far behind.

Shinpei wants to disappear with her, but she throws a characteristic “dummy” his way; the time they got to spend together in the past few days made her—made them both—so happy, but she wants him to live on. Not to mention everyone is waiting for Shinpei back home in 2018. Ushio vows to use her remaining power to transport him back to his proper time, but that’s not all she aims to do.

It would seem she’s inherited at least some of Hiruko’s power, with which she plans to overcome the loops and re-draw the summer. So as Shinpei ends up on the boat to the island, his face landing in Hizuru’s chest, maybe it’s not goodbye, but more of a see you later situation. We’ll find out in the finale.

Summertime Render – 23 – Realm of the Dead

Haine has devolved into an eyeless, helpless child that Shide apparently has no further use for. But he does want her Observer’s Right Eye, which is now in Ushio’s head. He provokes Ushio and Shinpei into following him to through a tear in the cave wall into another dimension.

Ushio tells Shinpei if he goes in he’s not coming out, but with both Ryuunosuke possessing him and her by his side, he’ll be fine. But even if things go pear-shaped, he hastens to tell Ushio he loves her, he wants to be with her, and he will never leave her side again.

The remainder of the episode takes place in a thoroughly weird—and hauntingly beautiful—dream world: Haine/Hiruko’s true home. As a result of Ryuunosuke pushing his body too hard, Shinpei’s right leg is ruined, but Ryuu offers to control his body and taking on the pain.

This enables Shinpei to walk, which he needs to do to find Ushio, whom they know is both still alive and no more than 50 meters away due to the shotgun she printed still being whole. Shinpei and Ryuu come upon a ball—Haine’s handball. They follow it into a Hitogashima frozen in time from when Haine lived.

There they find Ushio, apparently in great pain and in contact with Haine. But this Haine is different: she’s just a kind little girl like the one Ryuunosuke’s sister befriended years ago. Assured there’s no threat, Ushio introduces Haine to Shinpei and Ryuunosuke.

Haine tells them they’re in the realm of the dead, Toyoko. While the power of the awakened Observer’s Eye can only be fully utilized in the real world, Shide has brought Ushio here to steal the eye from her. Once he has the eye, he will transcend to a still higher dimension…and destroy the world.

Right on cue, Shide uses Baby Hiruko to summon one of Haine’s memories of her island being firebombed by a squadron of B-29s in World War II. Ushio’s hair shield protects them while Haine prepares to use her innate power to suspend the memory, giving Ushio a shot at attacking Shide. Without Hiruko in his possession, his armor will disappear, and she can kill Shide’s inner body within.

As you can tell from the screenshots, this episode is a trip, packed with gloriously detailed, imaginative, gorgeous, and frightening imagery, and an even more heightened reality when it comes to action, with Ushio using falling bombs as steps up to the plane where Shide is.

But as cool as this sequence is, it still isn’t enough to stop Shide, because the body she attacks is a hollow one – nothing but an empty suit of mud armor being controlled remotely through Hiruko. Gaining this new piece of information may prove costly, as Ushio passes out and starts to fall.

If any of this is wrong, I apologize, but the plot mechanics and rules of Summertime Render become more and more baroque with each passing episode. But this is such an engrossing spectacle and I’ve come to love these kids so much, I don’t really mind the growing complexity.

Summertime Render – 22 – Red-Eye

Ushio returns better than ever, and demonstrates how her hair-blades can erase Shide’s armor, leaving his inner body vulnerable. But while Shinpei appreciates her enthusiasm, Shadow Mio stops her from charging in, then transmits the careful plan Shinpei has set up. We get a little flashback to the morgue where Toki explains how they can use Guil to hide Haine’s handprint, making it impossible to track him.

Shinpei shoots himself while holding Ushio’s hands, creating a tenth loop inside Guil, who is in Hiruko’s Cave. They know Haine and Shide—both Shides—will find out soon enough where they are and what they’re up to, so they use the festival fireworks to blast through the mud barrier Haine created to get to where her main body is located. Shin’s team is truly humming like a well-oiled machine.

The closer they get to the main body, the louder and harsher Haine’s transmitting signal is to the ears of Shadows. Since he’s now hosting Ryuunosuke, that signal is particularly excruciating for Shinpei, but Ushio manages to help him by transmitting her signal at the same wavelength, neutralizing Haine’s. While Shide attacks Ushio (who uses her hair as a shield), Sou manages to ambush Haine (in her Shinpei form) and pins her, not with a shadow nailgun, but with the original she was unable to sense.

But while both of Haine’s inner bodies are killed and Haine’s body is sliced in half, it’s apparently not over. Ushio turns around to reveal she now has a red right eye like Haine’s, and Shin has one too. Shide reappears, ready to start some shit, and Shinpei has to ask himself: is he freakin’ immortal?

Even the best laid plans in this intricate chess game of feints and diversions are bound to face some setbacks, and the fact that killing Shide and Haine didn’t kill them is…problematic, to say the least. Not sure what they can do about that, especially with all their moves in this plan exhausted and no more loops to make a new plan.