Seasonal Reviews: Winter 2015 Pt.3

The Winter season continues, and things are looking up! Sorta! Will this go down as one of the worst Winters in anime history? Probably. But hey, Yurikuma Arashi and Yatterman Night are things, so that helps.

Dropped Shows

• Samurai Warriors (David O'Neil)

Absolute Duo
Walter Holleger

The past two times we're talked about Absolute Duo, I've made it clear that the action was the only thing I've been really enjoying about this show. So naturally, these two new episodes provide as little action as possible and focus on the romantic comedy portion of the show.

We are introduced to a new character, the transfer student Lilith, an Exception, a person with a complex device for a Blaze, in her case a rifle, that has transferred to Koryo Academy after hearing about the irregular Tor, hoping to make him her Duo partner. Despite two episodes focusing on her, we know very little about the character other than she's very proud, considering her status as an exception to be true in all aspect of her life, and that she is an expert marksman who has swore everlasting vengeance on Tor for refusing her invitations. While Lilith herself isn't very interesting a character, her skills as a marksman, along with the cliffhanger of her taking on the entire second year class on her own makes up for it just a bit.

Other than this, the show goes full slice of life, with Tor going out shopping with Julie in one episode, and Lilith tricking Tor into a date in the other. The date between Lilith and Tor was tolerable if just because there wasn't any romantic tension between the two. You go into the scene knowing Lilith's intentions and pretty much able to predict Tor's answer. The shopping trip with Julie, on the other hand, is painful in that it's not very funny, and Tor seems to reject, or at least oppose most of Julie's advances, making the moments more awkward than anything. I look forward to getting back into this show's battle side.

Weak Recommendation

Assassination Classroom
David O'Neil

Other than its zany, one of a kind premise there isn't much that Assassination Classroom does in terms of story and characters that hasn't been done before, but so far it's been playing on all of its strengths remarkably well. The series continues to boast likable characters, effective humor, and just enough substance under the wacky set up to make it more than just mindless fun.

Episode four brought the introduction of a new teacher, the attractive multilingual female assassin Irina Jelavic teaching foreign language. Conflict arises when Irina fails to see the purpose of actually being a teacher to the students of Class E, which is a clever way to build on the show's central themes on how teachers have an effect on their students, and vice versa. Irina is a lot of fun as a character, and watching her overcome her pride and learn to build a constructive relationship with Class E makes for a good episode. The first half of episode 5 focused on Korosensei interacting with a single student and how he helps them to expand their horizons and learn important lessons (all while also being attacked), the kind of story that's been common in the show already, but a solid one nonetheless. The latter half was largely centered around world building, as it showed more of the central campus of Kunugigaoka Junior High School, how they treat Class E, and why they treat Class E the way they do. It does get almost silly just how over the top the cruelty towards Class E is, but the episode did a good job at staying engaging without much actually going on, along with building on the setting in new ways. It was very funny, and also very important in terms of where the story is headed next.

Assassination Classroom is still one of the best shonen anime I've seen in recent times. It's not quite exceptional at anything yet, but it seems to everything it does very well and with a great balance of humor and story. I normally wouldn't dig too deep into a show about a mutant yellow smiley face teacher, but it seems to manage to be a commentary on how many modern schools choose to focus more on assuring that a majority of students move onto the best universities, rather than seeing to it that even the outlier students get the individualized attention they deserve. Maybe I'm reading into it too much, but either way the show continues to be a crazy fun time.

(Editor's Note: That reading is on the mark, the series is partly a satire)

Strong Recommendation

Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!
Thom "Tama" Langley

Cute High Earth Defense Club Love continues to be superb. Just...gonna get that out the way first, before we dive into episodes four and five. We begin...with nostalgia, shooting stars and world-domination(?) , with Kusatsu and Atsushi, who surprisingly used to be childhood friends making wishes during a shooting star shower. It's a small scene, but it instantly makes Kusatsu a far more rounded and likeable character, as well as adding intrigue to why these two friends ended up on opposite sides. From here, to more wombat molesting cleaning from Yumoto, at the Earth Defense Club's usual hangout of his parents' bathhouse, and usual chit-chat about...age and the like, although the rest of the club seem to be preoccupied with Yumoto's childish nature. Oh, and Ryuu is still talking about women, and so on and so forth. Guess what our monster of the week is? Could it possibly have something to do with age? Speaking of age, our inevitable monster of the week, the "man with the face of a fifty-year old" turns out to be a student at their school and the World Domination committee promptly turns him into a monster with the Zundar needle.

The club slack off again, with En worrying that he's old, followed by riffing on anime characters who look older than they are. Meanwhile...darkness covers the school campus? This can't be good. Our adorable losers, though, are too busy tickling En, and each other, and Cute High Earth Defense Club Love gets that little bit closer to being a shonen ai show...and everyone has deaged. Oh my! Yumoto doesn't give a damn, Ryuu worries that he has a date, and our villain for the week is revealed, in the form of an average RPG protagonist. Or so it seems. Our heroes transform into their magical boy forms, only to find...their clothing has remained adult sized. Their powers, however, have scaled down to their child forms, and they find themselves on the back foot, and our heroes are deaged again, down to toddlers. Our heroes deduce, however, that the bishounen form our monster of the week has taken is an illusion, and promptly defeat him. Whilst naked. We get our "don't worry about [problem of the week]" speech, our monster of the week reverts into a happier human,  our heroes return to (naked) normality, our villains reflect upon their failure this week, and it's on to episode five.

Episode five introduces us to the Press Society, who seem to live in every oddball hacker movie ever, and their quest to unmask who the mysterious group around school are. Unfortunately, it's raining, and thus our society are stuck indoors, and Yumoto is still cuddling Wombat, whilst Mr Tawarayama is...mouldy. That...that can't be good. They're watched by the Press Society, who seem to do most of their business through telephoto lenses, who decide to pay a visit, in the form of Kinosaki and Tazawa, who seems to be a fan of teachers, and who has decided to investigate the club. Including interviewing Tawarayama's...somewhat rotting corpse. They decide to cover them...around the clock, starting with an unflattering interveiew of En, and attempts to unmask our heroes, whilst getting under their feet. We're introduced to the World Domination Club's victim of the week, Sousa, whose father is overly controlling, and who's promptly Zundar'd. The Press Club are stressing out Wombat, (who speaks with a Kansai accent when angry?) who backhands Yumoto. Unfortunately, just as the press turns up, their Love Bracelets activate, cuing panic from Wombat and co. Surprisingly, Yumoto has a plan, and distracts them with Mr Tawarayama's body, allowing them to slip away and transform. Oh, and they can't transform without the sequence, due to etiquette.

We're then (re) introduced to Sousa ...whose monster form is a giant remote control ...squid thing, and the danger of machines going out of control. This can be solved, so Yumoto claims, by pulling the plug. His final attack, however, backfires, and he's now under Sousa's control. Well, until Wombat defeats him. Our heroes work out that someone is controlling the monsters, and Wombat returns Mr Tawarayama to normal. Our villains, however seem to be less clued up as to what's going on ...although they allow the club to become official.

Once again, another two great episodes, and a sense that this show has finally hit its stride; a lot of the Seinfield/Lucky Star esque chit-chatting now seems to have found a purpose, with our heroes more established, and often sets up the monster theme for each episode; our heroes and villains themselves are equally becoming better rounded, with Kusatsu in particular getting an interesting link to our heroes in flashback. Equally, the series has stopped relying on the Magical Girl genre to deliver all its jokes, and seems to be riffing off popular culture, everyday situations, and anime in general. If there's one slight issue with the show, it's that it doesn't really seem to be moving beyond the monster-of-the-week format, although, five episodes into a thirteen episode run, it does seem to be beginning to gather itself together, particularly in relation to the friendship between Kusatsu and Atsushi, and how this could have soured. I'm looking forward to the next two episodes already.

Strong Recommendation

Death Parade
Joe Straatmann

There are worse things than dealing with the afterlife's office politics. At least, this title's office politics, anyway. Their boss Castra sits around wearing a lizard skull hat and sucking on a lollipop that resembles the Earth while drinking human blood that drips down from the room's ceiling. Downtime around here is nothing if not stylish and deranged. Death Parade takes a brief respite from passing judgment on those passing the mortal coil to establish what exactly the extra people do here and to show that Decim's decision to keep a human assistant is really weird and not exactly sitting right with some in the arbitration department. It's really irking Decim's rival arbiter Ginti, that's for sure. Fortunately, the arbiters have a manager named Nona who makes sure she keeps all of her staff from literally fighting each other. Nona reports to Castra, whose role isn't all that clear yet, but since she has a gigantic monitor with a map of Earth in the room, she's probably very important.

In the one actual case for this update, it switches arbiters to Ginti, who treats his individual cases like a DMV clerk who completely ignored the customer service video during his orientation. At least he has a cat running the game that is completely awesome. In this instance, we have Harada, former star of a Japanese boy band, and Mayu, one of his biggest fans, engaged in a game of Twister (Or something like it since they can't say the name). It's surprising the direction they choose to go with it. It would be easy to be exceptionally cruel with the setup from all all angles and be right to do so, but it seems the stories that have the most light-hearted feels get the harshest turns and the ones where it feels like they're going to make it brutal get a softer touch. Like most of the stories, it wouldn't be particularly strong if it stood alone, but as a part of a gallery (A Night Gallery, if you will) of stories, it works.

 Even the slow episodes here are full of intrigue and imagination. They complete the task of building up the conflict that will pay off later and other tasty morsels to keep the audience invested in the overall story like the assistant with no name's dreams Decim seems aware of and even seemingly teasing her about. The atmosphere is on point with a relaxed feel mixed with epic trappings, giving a sense that these people are far too casual with the power they wield. For instance, they play pool utilizing the solar system as the balls. It may be the show most tied to the success of individual episodes this season, but it's mostly kept up its end of the bargain every week in providing consistent quirky and dark entertainment.

Strong Recommendation

Fafner - EXODUS-
Joe Straatmann

New kids got game! As a person who's never had a particular leaning towards the mecha genre (Turn A Gundam is my favorite in the franchise if that tells you anything), I can stand to attention when it unleashes something impressive, and the next generations's first foray into the battlefield is definitely noteworthy. Xebec tends to play the genre a lot more realistically than others, creating worlds where their machines can theoretically exist without some science fiction mumbo jumbo hand waving to explain their perpetual motion. At times, they can let loose and give some crowd-pleasing epic destruction while still playing by their own rules, and here is the team at their loosest and most enjoyable. Mimic, Reo, and Sui have the basics down, but thanks to manga that's literally created by the island to train perspective pilots, they have an entirely new array of tactics at their disposal. If the Festum create fields that destroy everything around them when they're destroyed, tie swords around a string and dispatch them from a distance (For fans of 8-Bit Theater, it's almost literally swordchucks). If the enemy flies and you don't, have the person in charge of creating shields give you a platform to leap from. It might be an initial skirmish that only hints at future things to come, but they certainly did it right.

The main plot is moving along a more diplomatic route. Representatives of the World Government want members of the island to accompany them on a coalition trip to the World Tree (In this universe, the World Tree is a gigantic device used to communicate with the alien collectives) and try to communicate with the next group of aliens set to land before they arrive and become friends with them to avoid the next deadly conflict. If you've watched the first series, you know the most predictable thing in this franchise is the governments outside the island will screw over the island's people and almost destroy over humanity in their selfishness. While the pilots in the World Government who've used alien assimilation techniques to become better fighters are more supportive of the coalition group and work together, the main governing body who wants to kill the dirty aliens and keep mankind pure puts the kibosh on peaceful co-existence in less than one day after the mission starts. Wow. They don't even get to unpack their luggage before getting boned! It makes one wonder how the mission got approved in the first place.

We'll see how the dramatic fireworks explode when they're launched. Its predecessor was never shy about killing off people or at least making some of the main cast suffer immensely. While the eventual betrayal was fairly obvious, the rest of the series is moving along just fine. They're starting to get into how the children who've lived in the dual world and have some alien genetics in them can speak to the Festum, and how a collective can miscommunicate. A girl from the island, Miwa, can't process everything the Festum is trying to tell her, so her mind wishes she was larger, which the Festum misunderstand as a command and tries to force the physical change. It's neat little details like that I'm enjoying more than the broader story, but it's good all around and everything still looks fantastic. They even gave a prime location to the World Tree next to an India step well with MC Escher stairs. They're really cool places that actually exist. Look them up sometime.

Solid Recommendation

Gourmet Girl Graffiti
Megan R

This show is so inconsistent that it drives me crazy. Episode three is the closest this show has come to being tolerable by taking its focus away from awkward fanservice and turning it instead on to friends making food together. It would never be mistaken for anything deep or substantial, but it was becoming a pleasant diversion. Then it decided to make a character-centric episode about Ryou, and I was screaming at my screen in frustration. It’s never made quite clear why Ryou and Kirin accept Shiina into their little social group so readily. Sure, Ryou is accepting enough of everything, but you’d think that the last thing Kirin would want would be to have to share either Ryou or her food, especially considering that Shiina came off as weirdly frosty when they first met. Nonetheless, she gets roped into Kirin’s attempt to boost Ryou’s mood after a bad art test with a bit of bamboo rice, which in turn becomes an impromptu sleepover as the girls bond over their mutual love of food and a strange old show that is literally all about omurice. So, why does the bonding over food work here when it didn’t work for me in the previous two episodes?

One part of it is that Shiina does at least bring a fresh new perspective into the mix. She’s soft-spoken and reserved, and this even shows in the way she eats. She’s also the closest the show has to a token otaku, as she’s the one who reminds the girls about the omurice show. Her restraint even seems to have rubbed off onto the showmakers, as their dining isn’t the usual parade of soft-focus soft-core porn-style close-ups. The other part is that the show finally lets Ryou and the others get involved in the actual production of a meal. Ryou explains her process and all the little hints she’s picked up over the years as the other two help peel bamboo shoots or other small tasks, and thus the finished dish is a culmination of their collective work. Now that bamboo rice is not just a dish, but a source of pride for the girls and an experience that they can truly bond over. This is precisely the sort of thing I wanted from this show! At last, the foodie elements and the slice-of-life elements were coming together, each giving the other substance and impact! It was starting to feel like a decent show! Sure, the few attempts at conflict were shallow and laughable, like Kirin trying to hide the fact that their dinner is meant solely to cheer up Ryou or Ryou thinking the girls ditched her mid-movie, but at long last I could start to understand this show’s appeal!  

Then it all came crashing down because it decided to change things up and focus solely on the show’s most boring character. The problem is that the most boring character is Ryou, and that in the end the only things we learn about her is that she is a sad blank space of a person. Her only quirk is her obsession with food, and if these two episodes are any indication her obsession runs deep. She failed her art exam because she turned a still-life into a bowl of bamboo rice. Episode four starts with a random dream where she frolics in a magical convenience store with anthropomorphized food that LITERALLY INVITES HER TO EAT THEIR HEADS, and the first half is there just to demonstrate that she literally has nothing going on in her life but food and friendship. Some might argue that such a sequence vividly captures the feeling of cabin fever, but it had me tearing my hair out in frustration, desperately wishing I could drop this series or that Ryou would start acting like a real person and freaking DO SOMETHING! Watch a movie, read a book, take up knitting, assemble a gunpla, I wouldn’t have cared so long as it was SOMETHING THAT REAL PEOPLE DO. Mercifully, she finally does just that by going to the library, but all she gets out of that is her grandma had to study hard to become a good cook (well, that and her librarian remembers the reading habits of dead patrons far too well). So how does this affect Ryou, who has been shown to be pretty much a perfect cook from the beginning? It doesn’t, so let’s just get some convienence store food and bring back the awkward eating fanservice in full force! The folks at SHAFT got especially shameless here, with all the dripping fluids coming off her food.  I’m surprised they didn’t just have her cream puff explode all over her face, this is how unsubtle they were about it.  

I don’t get you Gourmet Girl Graffiti. It’s clear that you know how to make this whole foodie slice-of-life thing work, and for one episode you actually nailed it. Then you just say “screw this” and make a completely pointless episode. Maybe this show will figure itself out before the halfway point and stop faffing about, but I sincerely doubt it.

No Recommendation
THE IDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls
Jonathan Kaharl

Well, the show is finally trying for drama, and it is not handling it as well as the first series. Miku and the younger idols have started to become frustrated with their lack of progress, and this leads to them trying to push for their debut, causing the other idols to join in. The following episode has the two new groups holding a little mini-debut concert at a mall, training their butts off for it, and going well ...except that Mio is upset that the turnout wasn't like the concert from the second episode, which was promoted on a completely different scale.

Miku's frustration is understandable and works, but it's undercut and forgotten pretty quickly when the producer reveals that debuts are being planned for all the other idols, which couldn't be told until the plans were finalized, or until Miku blockaded the cafeteria. That works, but Mio's frustration is played far too heavily, and while it's understandable, it's not really relatable or makes her particularly sympathetic. It's also caused by a pretty lame reason (the producer's inability to communicate what he means properly). When the first series decided to deal with two incredibly dramatic stories where those affected questioned their life decisions, there was tragic death and guilt complexes involved, not being let down by heightened expectations. This just feels like unnecessary padding, and it's stuff like this that cause the term "forced drama" to come into being. Hopefully, the next episode follows up on this in a satisfying way.

Otherwise, the series is still as enjoyable as always, with that wonderful animation. Miku is really stealing the show at times with her exploits, and she helps give Mio a bit more personality by giving her another ego to clash against. I can already see some of the future squads forming between characters, and it balances a good line between comedy, soaking in the mood, and bits of drama. My only issue is that some of the dramatic stuff could be handled much, much better.

Also, Anya wore cat ears and put on a white dress and she is adorable. 10/10.

Solid Recommendation

ISUCA
Jonathan Kaharl

I have decided to drop no shows this season, at least from my four review shows. This decision was for two reasons. The first was the unexpected improvement of New Sister Devil and Military!, and the other was that ISUCA somehow got worse. This is seriously one of the worst shows I've ever seen, and it mostly comes down to just how badly produced the entire series is. The third episode slightly improves things, as the coloring and animation looks more like something made from 2010 and not something from the birth of the new millennium, but there's still plenty of cheap to be found (just look at how wrong that screencap looks). However, the source material itself was bad to begin with, the anime just seemed to find a way to make it even worse.

See, everything comes down to execution, and ISUCA does not give a shit about that. All the animation shortcuts rob scenes of anything positive, like a bad cheesecake scene in episode three made ridiculously uncomfortable by strange and questionable decisions, like the main character yelling in ecstasy and sounding like he's in incredible pain, a feeling only heightened by his expression. Even a character simply staring blankly looks like a death gaze from off model designs that pop up regularly. This could have worked as a trashy, terrible guilty pleasure of a bad show, but the production problems won't allow it to be enjoyable, and baffling choices (like the super serious horror style soundtrack and several monster designs) just continue to shoot that foot into a stub. I get that it's trying to go for a Blood-C style dissonance in tone, but it just can't do it at all.

Of course, that source material problem is still there. Ever wanted to see a swarm of rats devour three half naked girls alive while they cry sexually and blood fills the screen? No? Too bad! The show loves gore and tits, and it just makes both needlessly disgusting, even in an exploitation sort of way. It doesn't go far enough on a regular basis, so these scenes feel like they came from a completely different series. Post-Fate character cliches mixed with 80s OVA excess do not go together, as history has shown time and time again, but the terrible execution just results in a type of bad I've never seen before. It seems to lightly serve from being cheap, trying, not caring and vile almost every scene, and I have honestly never experienced something like this. ISUCA is so strangely bad that I can't look away. It's not a car wreck, it's more like a poorly made building that's slowly falling apart in places where you'd least expect wear and tear. You just have to know what the hell caused that.

No Recommendation

KanColle
David O'Neil

To be honest, for a while there I was seriously considering pushing my recommendation of Kancolle up to a weak one. The show wasn't anything special, but it was starting to improve little by little, episode by episode. It was actually focusing on less boring characters, centering episodes around actual conflicts, and even had a few things resembling plot developments. But halfway through the two week span, things took a turn for the worse.

Episode five of Kancolle caught me by surprise by changing the formula a bit in order to mix things up. In the episode, the squads of Fleet Girls are reorganized resulting in the main team introduced at the beginning to be broken up and entering new squads. Normally this could be a problem separating the main characters this early on, but here I was fully on board. After all, the main protagonist was with two other girls who had pretty much no actual personalities whatsoever. And one of them says "Poi" at the end of every sentence. Yes, it is as grating as it sounds. But in all seriousness, the show was already starting to feel repetitive so mixing up the teams was a nice way to mix things up. The new team is filled with characters that, while hardly exceptional, at the least have more going for them than the previous ones. There are some neat dynamics between a few of them, some conflict to keep the episode moving along at a nice pace, and even a somewhat sweet conclusion.

And then episode six happens. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not against more wacky, senseless fun episodes in shows like this. After all, I like Idolm@ster. But this episode was not fun. It was boring, and it was very, very bad. The focus shifts to a squad of four younger (or at the least smaller, I mean....do these girls age? They're ships. They still haven't explained any of this-) Fleet Girls who enter a curry making contest. The entire episode then follows these four characters trying to make curry, and then making the curry. It is not entertaining. Despite some incredibly forced attempts at humor it wasn't ever very funny, largely thanks to the way the show's humor seems to be mostly centered around the character's personalities, personalities it often hasn't established very well, if at all. There were some times jokes were made out characters I didn't even get. The episode as a whole just dragged on and on, and honestly killed much of the good will I'd started to build towards the show as of late. For what it's worth, though, it had been getting a bit better up till that point. Shame.

No Recommendation

Maria the Virgin Witch
Joe Straatmann

These recent dives into the world of Maria the Virgin Witch may not be the most stellar of escapades. For one example, there's a shot of witches talking in the sky and there's one who's just standing on thin air while everyone else is properly using their brooms to fly. There's plenty of world building and setting up characters, but it's still more entertaining and enjoyable than most series.  Ezekiel is Archangel Michael's eyes on Maria to make sure she doesn't interrupt any more wars. With Maria's familiars running interference and some basic, "Hey, what's that?!" distractions, Ezekiel is terrible at her job. She does get a few blinks of debate with her new housemates about life in heavenly bodies versus the real world, but just when Artemis is about to give Ezekiel a lecture about how Earth isn't exactly the cleanest place where ideals flourish, it cuts away to something else. Of course, Maria's idealized world without wars for humans isn't much better than heaven's, as an English witch named Viv tells her.

Other character entanglements include priest Bernard who tries to manipulate Maria into fighting for France in the war without even knowing about it, and Galfa, a mercenary friend of Maria's would-be beau Joseph who is suffering due to lack of funds from the battle disruptions. An episode even focuses on Galfa as his alcoholism leads him into a certain bit of trouble with the country's knights. It's all on a pretty minor key, but that doesn't mean it's not good. In fact, the humor comes off a little better now since it's not so brazen, even with a half-an-episode where people try to take the virginities of Maria and Joseph.

Aside from the occasional quality drop like the one I mentioned above, the look is consistently good. The music knows the right moods to emphasize. While the stories are smaller in importance, they still have a decent punch, like a framing device in episode four about a village Maria couldn't save from the plague. What still works about this show is still alive and kicking. It's just not shouting its qualities to the heavens at the moment.

Strong Recommendation

Military!
Jonathan Kaharl

Well, tolerable is better than god awful, I suppose. Military! is finally starting to try, though not especially hard. The show looks far less cheap now, and there's some actual animation at points, and even the creepy lolicon jokes finally stopped! They'll probably be back soon, but hey, a break! Unfortunately, the show is very boring when its playing up the military shenanigans angle, playing things too straight and forgetting the impact of cartoon violence is a large part of why that sort of thing is funny. Big tanks blowing themselves up is not funny alone.

There's also another issue new here. There are inexplicably two new characters hanging around that have been barely explained at all until after the fact, and neither is particularly funny. The show has a very loose structure, which would be fine, except it's obviously trying to have structure quite regularly. The main character's house was destroyed for a few episodes after the third, for example, and had to live in someone else's house for awhile ...though nothing comes from this. The show did finally manage to make me laugh a single time, though. Seeing the main guy's reaction to a new character in episode five was one of the few jokes that actually had a sense of timing to it, but that is still the only time I've laughed this entire time. Military! has a long way to go before it's salvageable. But hey, at least it's not as bad as ISUCA.

No Recommendation

Rolling Girls
Stephanie Getchell

Our group of girls seem to get themselves in the most odd of situations. When we last left off, Nozomi and the others were in the midst of their search for one of the stones in order to get Chiaya's back. After some complications thanks to a near possible explosion, the girls get Chiaya's stone back only for it to be given to the new captain of the area, Noriko. The four them then set off for their next destination to fulfill a request from a young woman named Himeko... Or not, because the girl claims to have never written the request. But this isn't the only thing that's going on because the underlings or two different vigilante groups want to settle the score once and for all, but their captains would rather not. We end the episode with Himeko meeting an old friend of hers, one of the captains previously mentioned, as they are both dragged into a restaurant for a bite to eat (in this town, if food is thrown into your mouth, you have to eat from that restaurant)!

I've noticed that some of the characters we get to meet have varying stories that are actually rather interesting. This gives us other characters to work with while keeping our main group a mystery, making this idea a good and a bad one. It's good because of the mystery aspect behind our main four, with Chiaya being the biggest one slowly coming to the forefront. It's also bad because this can leave our main group rather underdeveloped, the case that I'm noticing with Ai recently. It's not as much of a problem with Nozomi and Yukina since we learn bits and pieces about them, but we know virtually nothing about Ai. It's a bit annoying already with her rather abrupt entrance to the series, but it doesn't make anything that we have little to go on. This is something I'm really hoping fixes itself rather soon since Ai is a rather interesting individual and must have SOMETHING about her that will make her a tiny bit more complex.

There's another thing I'm having a slight problem with, and I believe I have mentioned this before... I'm actually having problems figuring out what I should talk about every time Rolling Girls comes up. This is kinda a double edged sword, here. It's good because it's staying rather consistent, but it's bad because what in the world will I get to talk about each report? I've already covered a decent amount, but there's also not too much more to talk about outside of the basic areas. It's one of the difficulties of doing seasonal work for a show, especially if that show is consistent in it's run. Will there be more to talk about next time? I sure as hell hope so because I really don't want to drop it due to lack of writing topics...

Solid Recommendation

Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend
David O'Neil

At the least, Saekano: How To Raise a Boring Girlfriend has been doing a better job at not getting on my nerves the last two weeks. Other than that, not a whole lot has changed, for better or for worse. When I say getting on my nerves, what I'm really referring to is, well, basically the central crux of the premise. The idea that the protagonists want to make a game based off the main girl Katou, but are challenged by the issue that she is "boring", in that she isn't very emotive and doesn't have any distinct traits that set her apart. When she was first introduced to the group of game makers, the relationship felt very loose and often mean spirited. There wasn't much chemistry between them, not even in a dysfunctional kind of way.

This has gotten better in the last two episodes, as the group has spent more time together they've actually started to feel like, well, a group. The banter between them has come off as a lot more genuine and they seem to better understand that the very concept of trying to change someone's personality for the sake of making a game is kind of a shitty one, and have stopped treating Katou with the almost contemptuous attitude they often did in previous ones. Other than that the show has remained fairly consistent, the humor has stayed strong as of late and the show is still very pretty to look at, though it does seem as if there's been a bit less of the exceptional movement-heavy animation that was seen on a frequent basis in early episodes. But then again, the show's visual style and emotive characters do a well enough job making up for this, and keep the show from ever looking bad. Well, except when they decides to borrow the horribly awkward looking CG hands from A-1's Your Lie In April for close up shots of characters typing. That needs to stop.

While Saekano hasn't changed much, a persistent issue the series shows has become more apparent to me. I mentioned early on that the show has made a habit of "breaking the third wall" (in other words, making reference to the fact it is in fact a TV show or how they are doing TV show-like things) by calling out when the show uses tropes or plot devices, but unfortunately at this point the self awareness really serves no purpose. It's not satire or parody because it doesn't actually do anything to change, subvert, or push the tropes and cliches, it's almost as if they think you get a free pass on being uninspired if you call attention to how uninspired you're being. But still, as a whole the show has remained totally serviceable plot-wise and for the most part a lot of fun to watch. I've even found the characters growing on me more, even if the protagonist is a jerk sometimes, and really Katou is the most likable out of all of them.

Solid Recommendation

The Testament of Sister New Devil
Jonathan Kaharl

Finally, upward momentum! Hopefully. The first arc has wrapped up, with idiot comedic relief character revealed (with no surprise) to be the series starter villain. Interestingly, he's sticking around as a cast regular, as Basara read his behavior during the arc and has pinned down that there may be another goal he's working towards besides capturing Mio. I like that he's sticking around, as he brings a new bit to the cast dynamic that lets the show breathe a little in between the ecchi bits. He's an interesting character that doesn't seem to fit into the mold of any of the other factions, making in a wild card that's adding some actual tension to the plot. This is the first time in the series where I feel I can't predict where it's headed since that first episode twist, and it's already being added to with the hero faction making a move, a hint at an angel faction, the introduction of a high ranking, brown skinned demon named Zest, and another villain that will be shaking up the current arc. This is exactly what the series serious side needed, a fleshed out cast bouncing off each other that keeps the audience guessing as to the direction everything is headed towards.

The shenanigans at Basara's house are also starting to work better as well. In an unexpected turn, Basara and Mio's relationship is actually important to the plot now, as that master-servant pact comes with strengths and weaknesses we weren't made privy to before. The two will grow stronger the longer the pact is in place, but it comes at a heavy risk. If Mio is ever captured by the enemy, the pact sees this as a betrayal to the master and will activate it's curse at full force, which can possibly kill Mio. We know it won't happen, but it adds more stakes to the show, and it's forcing the two to become closer. There's a weird S&M thing going on between the two because of the pact, but it works because neither wants to do serious harm to one another and are simply trying to make the best out of a bad situation. It's obvious the two care about each other, and Basara is revealing more and more that he really is a bit of a pervert himself. There's actual passion here that I almost never see from shows like this, and it's embracing the sexual side of the series that normally gets shoved to the side and portrayed as something more meaningful or innocent. I actually like that the two are simply inexperienced instead of immature, and I like seeing how the two slowly change because of the pact they've been tricked into making.

The action is still pretty weak, and Basara's back story is very been done (does every light novel harem hero need some ridiculously OP power these days?), but there's actual stakes building, and the ecchi bits have some emotional context that lets them function beyond obnoxious fan pandering. If the show keeps building on these positives, the show might actually work by the end. Time will tell. It helps that Maria is constantly wonderful, even getting a scene where she teaches Basara how to deal with Mio via an eroge game. That's the kind of stupid the show needs more of, alongside the improved dramatic elements.

Weak Recommendation (for both regular viewers and bad ecchi fans)

Unlimited Fafnir
Joe Straatmann

The latest episode of Unlimited Fafnir has glitched out at around the 1:40 mark and frozen up four times no matter what device I use to watch it, so I guess I don't have to watch i... (Fifth attempt works) ...  well, shoot. I suppose that making me audibly groan instead of sitting in stone cold silence as 24 minutes of my life vanish into thin air is some kind of progress for this show. When we last left off, the students destroyed the dragon Leviathan, and in response to Yuu's participation, they each give him a positive response utilizing their one harem character trait. Iris acts all moe and cute, Lisa gives him the, "You suck, but I like you" tsundare schtick, and his sister acts like his sister yet is still kind of attracted to him. If the last part wasn't unappealing enough, a girl named Tear Lightning (Yep. Tear Lightning) shows up looking like she's twelve years old and declaring herself Yuu's wife. I wish I could say I was surprised.

To be clear, Tear isn't Yuu's actual bride. He rescued her after she was kidnapped by a cult of dragon worshippers wishing for her to use her D powers to destroy humanity rather than assist them, and she just happens to have a heavy attachment to him. It should be noted that Yuu comes off as the least believable military operative I've seen in some time. He doesn't seem like he's gone through a single day of basic training, and his flashback with Tear is simply walking unscathed into the room where she was held with a warm smile. Gee, if only all tangles with blood-thirsty cults could be so easy. The point of these episodes is without parents and some indoctrination, Tear believes herself to be a dragon even going so far as to use dark matter to create horns, and after being tossed out everywhere else, this academy and Yuu is her last chance at maintaining her humanity. However, when any of this gets close to triggering some kind of emotional reaction or connection, it breaks off that nonsense for SWIMSUIT EPISODE TIME! Even if this wasn't one of the worst times to pull this out of the harem cliche grab bag, it's not even sexy on any level. It's like looking at the swimwear in the Lands' End catalog. Sure, the pictures are of stuff that could be attractive, but they're shot in such a flat, drab, uninteresting manner that the effect is equal to staring at a wall.

On the positive side of things, there is one likable character in the bunch. Usually, the principal of such institutions are either super nice idealists or brutal dominatrixes. President Charlotte B. Lord (This show is a master class in bad names) is instead a perverted lesbian, or at the very least, bi-sexual. She tries to entice Yuu into checking out the girls as they go through their medical exams, and seems to be the only one happy to take in the sights when everyone decides to go the beach. She gets properly restrained by her maid assistant before anything untoward happens most of the time, though. What can I say? She's fun. The rest of the show isn't. Well, except for my own game of "Guess the Next Style of the Music." See, the music is a random cluster of extremely eclectic tidbits, like a demo reel of someone who REALLY wants to be Yoko Kanno. There's jazz flute, turn table scratching, metal guitar chugging, piano meanderings, and much more. None of the tunes feel fully developed, but at least the guessing game's enough to keep my focus on the show and not more fascinating things, like the dust starting to collect around my television I really need to take care of this weekend.

No Recommendation

World Break: Aria of Curse for a Holy Swordsman
Stephanie Getchell

Welp, here we are again talking about a rather poor series that I can't seem to stop watching. I'm really calling it now, I've been way over due for some trashy anime and World Break is that show. Since the first two episodes focused on Moroha's past life with Satsuki, it's only fair that these next episodes involve his other past life with Shizuno. After defeating the giant Metaphysical, the debate as to whether or not Moroha did this on his own is called into question because, if he did, he would be promoted to S Rank, the highest rank there would be. However, it seems there's a downside to this because his personal freedom would be in jeopardy. When another S Rank official named Edward makes a visit to Japan from the British Agency, Shizuno's older brother and president of the academy works his way into getting Moroha a formal nomination. When that doesn't work, he instead plans to send Shizuno off to study abroad in England since there aren't many who are capable of the Dark Arts in Britain. Coming to her aid, Moroha gets Shizuno away from her brother and fights Edward in order to keep Shizuno in Japan. While the fight occurs, Moroha finally remembers his other past life and "defeats" Edward. Shizuno is able to stay in Japan while Edward tells Moroha that he's going to give his formal nomination to promote him to S Rank. As for his second past life, from what we can tell, Moroha was a powerful wizard who was imprisoned when Shizuno was a young slave girl. He freed Shizuno, killed everyone else, and then proceeded to take over much of the world with Shizuno becoming his wife and the Witch of the Netherworld.

I'm starting to realize what bugs me about this series, and her name is Satsuki. She doesn't start off that badly, but I'm noticing this week that she's turning into the stereotypical tsundere little sister character that we all love oh so much... Remember how I mentioned that the series has a loop hole to avoid possible incest? Well, it's almost like they don't care about it much and are using it less and less because Satsuki calls Moroha her brother all the damn time now. This basically removes the slightly clever plot development and turns it into incest anyway... Oh! But it's totally ok because they actually aren't siblings! .....Yeah..... Sure. As for our other female love interest that actually makes much more sense than the former, her story is actually much more interesting to me. They manage to draw parallels between Shizuno's present life as well as her past making the saying "history repeats itself" all too real for her. This is the second time where I've noticed the show doing something rather clever, but I really hope this isn't ruined like the incest bit. Though, considering Shizuno's character, it's unlikely that she would ruin that piece herself (unlike Satsuki, Shizuno opts for Moroha to remember her all on his own instead of broadcasting her connection to him, even after he regains his memories of his life with her). Then there's little Maya who.... I don't even know what's going on there, but Moroha is already asking about legal ramifications so.... Don't think we're in for something all that great.

World Break is still a piece of junk, no ifs, ands, or buts. However, even I'll admit that I'm having a decent time with it as I laugh at how utterly dumb it is and the kind of what the f**k moments we get from it. It has clever pieces, but the fact that it already backtracked on some of it doesn't make things any better. Then there are the characters, which aren't terrible, save for Satsuki, with Moroha a decent protagonist and Shizuno fairly likable thanks to some of her actions. People will probably be freaking out at me that I won't use my drop on this series, but I'm still not going to use it. I just want to have a little bit of fun, even if that may mean me hate watching it.

Weak Recommendation

Yatterman Night
Stephanie Getchell

The world just seems to be more and more like hell, doesn't it? Hence the reason for the image I picked this week. When we last left our band of six, they are trying to make some money in a small village, when they meet a husband and pregnant wife and they take the group in after Galina sews some baby clothes together. Yatterman pays a visit to the village and takes away a group of men in order to work at Yatterman Metropolis for thirty five years including the aforementioned husband (for those who don't recall, this is the same place that Galina and Ally's parents were taken to). The group tries their best to help the couple out, but in the end are betrayed by the couple in the hopes of the husband being excused from working in Metropolis. But General Goro, the newest character introduced, doesn't keep his end of the bargain after defeating Doronbow and sends the husband off anyway and leaving his wife on her own. The second episode brings the group to a snow festival in another village where a martial arts contest is going to be held for minors. In an effort to win some money and a food supply, Galina is forced to enter thanks to a young man named Takeshi, who enters to help his sick mother. Galina didn't fare so well in the tournament, however Takeshi ends up facing off against a Yatterman mecha in the final round as well as two other competitors in the other areas. This upsets Doronbow and they defeat the three mechas, winning the prize from all three categories. Instead of keeping it, they give it to Takeshi for his mother and the group are on the road once again to give Yatterman a good forehead flicking!

I've actually noticed something this time around while watching the show and it has to do with the animation. There were a couple times during the fight sequences where the animation was a little lacking. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's a tiny bit sloppy, but as nice as possible. This became really noticeable to me during episode four and the fight between Elephantus and Goro compared to the rest of the animation of the series. It then got me to pick up a few other small moments where the animation was a bit lacking, making my focus really go where it probably shouldn't have. Just a little something that stuck out to me this week. Otherwise than that, I do enjoy seeing much more of the corrupt side of Yatter Kingdom and seeing someone be taken after hearing about it from Galina in the previous episode. This gives us an actual visual for both the viewer as well as Leopard in order to gain motivation and determination. Though, I am also happy to see that there's a slight break from the darker side of the story in favor of something much more light hearted with the martial arts contest. This brings back a lot of the humor the series has to help balance out those somber and rather depressing moments of control and corruption. It's also like Trigun and the purpose of Kuroneko. According to the original manga author, Kuroneko is supposed to be something pleasant for the viewer after seeing so much violence and somber moments. You can kinda say it's like the early days of the internet and cat videos that make anyone happy. The same can basically be said here, making for a nice change of pace as well as a nice way to get back to the good old humor of this super sentai-esque show.

Seeing these characters views change as they see the world around them makes this really interesting. Sure, it started out from the death of Leopard's mother, but it's becoming more than that now and it's really taking effect on Leopard and the others. The show already has our interest since the ones normally seen as villains are now the heroes, but the more and more we see this corruption the more and more we become interested in how it got to this state. Yatterman Night is very compelling in more ways than one and as the half way point for the show draws near, it'll be interesting to see whether or not a solid plot will come up rather soon or if it will just stick with a more episodic approach.

Strong Recommendation

Yurikuma Arashi
Thomas Zoth

This show honestly just keeps getting better. It's interesting to think back now on my reactions to episode one, where bewilderment slowly turned into disappointment, and immediate resignation to the show being a failure. Ikuhara has decided to grow each of the characters slowly and carefully over the previous episodes we have seen. As he does this, phrases that we've heard countless times over the course of the series, such as "won't back down on love" or "will you be invisible?" come to gain different emotional resonance as the characters pasts are revealed. Once the series is over, I would love to revisit the first episode, and see what kinds of things are carefully foreshadowed about the entire series in those seemingly hollow first moments.

If episode four developed Lulu through its fairy tale dramatics, episode five humanizes Ginko, so to speak. She's been stoic and determined through every previous episode, seemingly in contrast to Lulu's energetic enthusiasm. Beneath that facade though, is a lovestruck teenager consumed by romantic fantasy. In the best Nanami episode tradition, Ginko fantasizes about getting romantic attention from her beloved Tsubaki Kureha, when in reality, Tsubaki is trying to force the bears out of her life and house. Unlike the seemingly selfless love between Sumika and Kureha, though, Ginko's love is passionate and greedy, wanting Kureha all to herself.

Complicating things is new character Kaoru, the tomboyish student with an all-white uniform and boot suspenders. Having loved her design from the concept art, I was pleased to hear she survived her first episode, unlike the poor chipmunk girl. I was less thrilled to discover she's apparently the show's newest, and greatest villain. With the class rep bear missing, and her replacement apparently eaten by Lulu and Ginko, Kaoru takes over running the Invisible Storm Exclusion Ceremony, and pretends to befriend Kureha all while planning a massive betrayal. It's like a subplot out of the annals of the great shoujo series, like Dear Brother. Kaoru will help Tsubaki celebrate her 17th birthday, as it will be far easier to crush her at her most vulnerable.

The existence of Kaoru seems to complicate the relationships between humans and bears even further, as though she does not appear to be a bear herself, she certainly knows of their existence. She lures Ginko into a bear trap, gleefully, and it's only due to Lulu's flash grenade that the bear is able to survive. Kaoru's also seen in bed with an adult-looking woman, undoubtedly Yuriika-sensei, who seems to be controlling Tsubaki's cruel manipulations from above. We also flash back to when Sumika was still alive, and we see her, too, being manipulated by Kaoru. Sumika decides to allow herself to be targeted by the invisible storm in order to spare Tsubaki, and entrusts Tsubaki's future to Kaoru, who again pretends she has Tsubaki's best interests at heart.

It all comes to a head at the ominous nighttime birthday celebration, where the students all show up with candles and burn down Tsubaki's flower garden. But I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the beautiful fairy-tale art that once again shows up in episode six, this time, based on a book that Tsubaki's mother wrote. In it, a moon girl and a forest girl (clearly a human and bear) decide to visit each other, at great personal risk to themselves. As Tsubaki's mother died before the book was complete, the story ends on ambiguous note. And, as I notice that I've already written five paragraphs on these two episodes, and still have not covered everything that has happened, I've come to respect just how full of information Yurikuma has been. It may only be twelve episodes long, but Ikuhara is clearly determined to jam them as full of content as possible. What a pleasure to see him not back down on love, even if he couldn't get the episode count he wanted. I look forward to the series' second half.

Strong Recommendation

Second Opinions

Assassination Classroom

Jonathan: Karma and Irina are now in the cast, and they've surpassed all of my expectations. Nobuhiko Okamoto gives Karma a cruel, playful edge and captures the character's passion perfectly, while Shizuka Ito (who had an absurdly good year in 2014) flips between Irina's facade and her true cruelty with incredible ease. She has great timing with gags too. The imagery used in Karma's episode is brilliant, especially during his flashback, while Irima's episode translates the best jokes from her intro chapters perfectly. If these two got actors this good, I can't wait to see what Sho Hayami's principal is going to sound like. The guy was Aizen, he was born for this role. Strong Recommendation

Stephanie: A new teacher for E-Class and she's certainly an odd one. Then again, this is the E-Class we're talking about here and they do have to kill Koro-sensei. And then we have some retaliation from the same class towards the rest of the school that puts them down all the time. I have got to say that Nagisa is getting a little ballsy compared to his regular quiet/shy guy routine so it's a nice change. Also, there's there's the poison girl who's rather adorable for asking Koro-sensei to drink her brews since she's not that great with words. These kids are just a variety of fun and the teachers are just as much fun! Though... It looks like someone will soon rain on their parade... Strong Recommendation

Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!

Stephanie: So we have our magical boys turned into children in one episode and then stalked by the Press Club, who clearly have ulterior motives, in the other. I found myself asking what the f**k quite a bit this week thanks to some of the moments we see and the scenarios the boys get stuck in. But, once again, I find it to have some rather clever pieces thrown in there. In the case of the fourth episode, there's a point where the boys are aged down to toddlers and end up naked except for a leaf covering their man parts. They reminded me of little cherubs, and, considering they are the Battle Lovers, this made me giggle. This week kept up the fun energy and clever humor, and that makes me rather happy. Solid Recommendation

Death Parade

Stephanie: This week we get something rather interesting and very different. We have a little more mystery as to our leading lady of the show, but we're also introduced to new characters with one of them taking the lead in episode six. It's a huge contrast to see how Ginty works compares to Dekim, and I love that we didn't just have to stay in that one place for the entire series. Though, considering the competitors for the sixth episode, it's certainly a very different contrast to Ginty's personality. These episodes are perfectly timed for this half way mark of Death Parade. Strong Recommendation

Tom: What an unpredictable show Death Parade has been. The first episode echoed Death Billiards, where the game played in Decim's bar was used to explore the secrets two people were keeping from each other, and set the tone for what was apparently going to be a melodramatic exploration of human evil. Then episode two, its careful explanation of the ambiguities of episode one, and re-use of about ten minutes of animation from the first episode seemed to crush almost all momentum the show might have had. But I was wrong, episodes three, four, and five brought romance, pathos, and in-depth world-building to what could have been an unambitious anthology show. I've also seen episode six at this point, but spoiling its surprise would be criminal. After a rocky beginning, I'm very pleased with what Death Parade is becoming. Solid Recommendation

Walter: While I've not seen the original short this show is based on, Death Parade was a show I wanted to check out the most, aside maybe for Rolling Girls. There's something about a simple plot that can go in a million directions that I really enjoy, because when done right, it creates something unpredictable and fascinating to watch. And I dare say Death Parade is the best show I've seen this season. With each game, we see two people play games with their lives on the line, revealing their own inner darkness, or sometimes lack thereof, while their stories are revealed and remembered bit by bit. The main characters, Decim and Onna, are also both interesting characters themselves. Decim, the arbiter for the games, looks a bit monotone and stoic, but he never comes off as uncaring for the people he's making play the game. Onna, his assistant, is different in that she has a harder time hiding her emotions, if she tries at all, making a good balance to Decim outer character. With the latest episodes, we've also met another arbiter and seen how they handle their games, giving variety in how the games are handled. Now that we've reached a sort of half way point for the season, I dare to say that Death Parade might be the best show this season, but we'll have to wait til the end to truly find out. Strong Recommendation

Gourmet Girl Graffiti

Stephanie: You may think it's weird that I really like this series, but I still do. It's simplicity and charm are rather infectious to me and it makes me enjoy the show a lot more. Even though it's kind of the same as the first episodes I got to see, we did at least get a tiny bit more by adding one character much more as well as give our lead a chance to fend for herself while school is cancelled one weekend, leading us into some more story about her grandmother. At the very least, it's not boring. Solid Recommendation

Maria the Virgin Witch

Jonathan: The commentary on the church is way more timely than you'd expect from an historical fantasy series. It's raising some strong arguments and manages to entertain at the same time, with really lively and funny characters, even among the villainous mercenaries. The church is also ridiculously hypocritical, but that definitely works here. Strong Recommendation

Stephanie: Something new I've been enjoying from Maria lately is the different sides we get to see of this war and the characters that are involved. It's not just Maria's story but there's Ann, Joseph, Galfa, and even the monk Bernard that have involvement in one form or another. Seeing these perspectives also gives us questions as to whether or not Maria's actions are the right ones or if they just cause more problems for the people of France. I really do like this side of things, while the humor is still really amusing. Also, when Maria and Joseph become a couple it'll be completely adorable. I'm calling it now. Solid Recommendation

Tama: Maria is...honestly the sort of series I can imagine coming out in the 1980s/early 1990s. For one, the simple, but evocative art style, with our demure protagonist and her familiars in particular, has a particular way of drawing faces (particularly eyes) and hair that's very...late 1980s, early 1990s; sure, it's got a modern sheen to proceedings, with beautifully painted backgrounds, but everything feels very much a homage to that earlier period. Similarly, the sexual politics (and boy, this series loves talking about sex, showing (well, partly showing) sex, and generally being rather sexy), are straight out of that period, with Maria's powers attached to her virginity, and much of the humor comes from her naivety towards sex, sex in general, (one of the early episodes casually throws gay priests into the mix), and sexual politics, as well as the real world politics.
Where it's however, rather modern, is in our protagonist, Maria, who (albeit naively) attempts to play peacekeeper between the French and English during the Hundred Years War. Speaking of war, the battle-scenes are superbly executed, with mercenaries, knights, and the like on both sides commenting on the action as well as taking part; it's grittty, sometimes gory, and has the feel of medieval movies like Braveheart and Kingdom of Heaven. Chuck in the sexual politics, the idea that sex is as powerful a weapon during war, and you get something not unlike HBO's Game of Thrones, albeit much lighter in tone; it's a surprisingly complex web of politics, with a side order of sex, in a well executed show. If it has one flaw, it's that the show is a little too bawdy, a little too obsessed with sex for its own good. Nevertheless, it's a great take on an interesting period in European history, with a fantasy twist. Solid Recommendation

Rolling Girls

Joe: I don't like being the downer here. I'm watching this because I really do want to like it and I feel like the creators are pumping a lot of energy and effort into this. I can just imagine them gathering into a circle and excitedly throwing out ideas like, "Okay okay, so when the goons of the motorcycle gang talk, they're also revving their engines at the same time, so everyone in the show understands them, but they're incomprehensible to everyone else!" But the ideas aren't really connecting with each other and gaining momentum, so all the good stuff is isolated and the rest of the show is okay, but not really reaching the heights it maybe should. Weak Recommendation

Jonathan: Honest to god plot! Finally! I'm still not sure where this show is headed, but I'm enjoying it. It has a great sense of humor and some really amazing art on display. If only the main cast felt like they had some depth. It's been four episodes, character building needs to happen at some point (besides Nozomi not wanting to feel useless, I mean). Solid Recommendation

Yatterman Night

Jonathan: The second best show of the season, no question. In fact, Night is very close to being gatchaman Crowds brilliant. It perfectly blends dark drama and ridiculous slapstick, and the two never feel at odds. Hell, the contrast adds to the series impact, and the new cast members add a whole lot more than you'd expect. Strong Recommendation

Yurikuma Arashi

Jonathan: Best show of the season. I love weird, eccentric stuff like this, and the commentary is brilliant and on point ...assuming I actually understand the show properly. Who knows until the ending? It helps that this series is so utterly manic that it never fails to entertain, even when it constantly repeats itself (as the director is prone to do). They made a giant cartoon bear trap dramatic. This show does the impossible regularly. Strong Recommendation

Stephanie: I have got to admit something. I know this series is supposed to be deep and all, but I'm not getting the point. Probably has something to do with my lack of Ikuhara knowledge. Even so, I could, at the very least, understand what Penguindrum was doing. Yurikuma is a different story if you want me to figure out what's so symbolic about it. Doesn't mean I dislike the story, I do find it enjoyable, but I feel like it's trying a little too hard to be subversive and deep. I don't know, I need to watch more. Solid Recommendation