Rottcodd

Yow.

Well... we didn't see Azuma at the end, which is a good sign at least. Maybe. She's a good character - at least close to Yuki's skill level, and apparently a sincere ally.

Even more now I want to know what the deal is with the agents. Again, the agent for the girl who was voted out at the end of game 10 appeared to be emotionally devastated by that, but it's certain now that Yuki's set her up. She gave her a different sedative at the beginning of this game, with a weak cover story, and obviously it was actually so that she'd wake up late and end up trapped in the bath rather than with the entryway team (and I don't doubt that Mishiro was given the regular sedative so she'd wake up earlier and they'd end up opponents).

Next episode's going to be a nail-biter.

Ah... that's right - they hinted at a beach episode.

Yeah - I expect the next episode will include that, but not focus on it. If nothing else, we also need to be introduced to Sawatari's new car, and catch up with what they're doing with Kanata's car. And hopefully at least get the details on the next race.

I should've been more clear - likely won't immediately renew their romance.

I assume rhat over the course of the series, their reconciliation is a sure thing. But I also assume it'll be a sort of tough road from here to there, and they've only taken one, albeit significant, step on that road.

Just End it Already
Yankee JK Kuzuhana-chan

No kidding. It was bad enough when they were just constantly adding new members to the harem and not resolving anything, but now they're not even doing that. It's just chapter after chapter of not resolving anything.

Even the credits page jokes are getting weak - it's as if there isn't even enough going on to serve as a springboard to a joke.

I think the series that impressed me the most last year was a late arrival - Unexciting Date. It's easily the best dialogue I've seen all year (since Food Court de Mata Ashita is still stalled) and it's an oddly satisfying slow-burn romance (with their awful communication skills, any romance at all is an impressive accomplishment).

As far as ongoing stuff goes, I'm still very impressed by Boku dake ga Shitterun daze aka Only I Know. It's a somewhat typical young romcom that's most notable for the MMC - Waku - who has a lot of the cliched reflexive reactions to all this nascent romance stuff, but instead of just allowing himself to be subject to them, he stops and considers why he's reacting that way and what he should be doing instead and, most notably, what would be best for the FMC - Oura - then he steels his resolve and does what needs to be done, and it's such a pleasure to watch.

And Renge to Naruto just gets better all the time. It started off as just a sort of goofy ecchi comedy with an enthusiastic gyaru running a Chinese restaurant and a sort of quiet and awkward working stiff who becomes a regular, but over time it's morphed into an impressively subtle and complex character study/slice of life/rom-com.

Picked up and caught up on two more current series last week - Roll Over and Die and Shiboyugi: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table

Roll Over and Die ("Omae Gotoki ga Maou ni Kateru to Omou na" to Yuusha Party wo Tsuihou Sareta node, Outo de Kimama ni Kurashitai) looks at first glance as if it'll be a revenge-focused action series, but it's really nothing of the sort. The protagonist - Flum - has virtually no combat skill - she just has enormous and ever-growing stats and a whomping big sword, so most of her battles consist either of her curbstomping the enemy or her failing to curbstomp the enemy and having to run away. And though she's been horribly wronged by her former party, she's not out for revenge - she's focused elsewhere.

It's actually mostly political intrigue and a growing yuri romance, and both are done if not brilliantly then at least well enough to be entertaining. I'm enjoying the characters and watching both the mystery and the romance unfold.

Shiboyugi (Shibou Yuugi de Meshi wo Kuu) is an oddly unsettling... something. It should be a sort of horror suspense thriller, very much in the vein of Squid Game, but it has an oddly serene atmosphere to it that takes a lot of the edge off of the horror and suspense. It's no less horrifying for that - in fact, one of the main plot points is the protagonist's memories of horrible things she's seen and done (and one in particular that caps off the first episode) and violence and death are constants. But still, between the art style and the presentation and some of the details of the games, the violence seems a bit muted, which is sort of creepy in and of itself. I don't know where it's headed, but it's intriguing.

The only old thing I watched last week was the second Love, Chuunibyou and Other Delusions movie - Take On Me - which was okay all in all I guess. Tohka was even more of a heartless, self-centered bitch than in the past, only to do a completely unbelievable heel/face turn at the end, but at least Yuuta and Rikka mostly got themselves sorted out, and the supporting cast had some good moments. After the terrific first season, I actually considered just stopping there and not watching any of the rest of it, and in retrospect, that's what I should've done.

As far as other current series go:

MF Ghost - I just want them to get back in the cars. Kanata out of the car is such a child-like suck-up that it sort of creeps me out.

Trigun Stargaze was decent. Vash's attitudes are starting to infect Wolfwood, much to his chagrin. The battle with Midvalley played out interestingly if not terribly excitingly. And Legato really drove home the point that he's not even vaguely sane.

Scum of the Brave was pretty good. We've gotten focus episodes with each of the three girls now, and have gotten enough hints of the deeper plot that I expect we're going to dive into it with the entire ensemble, and that should be the bulk of the series. I'm looking forward to it.

You and I Are Polar Opposites was terrific again, and we finally got to meet Nisshi, who was easily my favorite character in the manga. It's following the manga closely enough that there haven't been any surprises for me, but the whole thing is so well done that I'm thoroughly enjoying it anyway.

And Journal With Witch was terrific. This episode was actually a bit light on profound moments - it seemed to be mostly laying the groundwork for future stuff - but then it made up for all of that by throwing in a surprising development with Makio and Shingo that likely won't renew their romance but at least should take down some of their walls.

Good for Makio and Shingo - they seem to be quite good for each other.

It was sort of scary when Asa unconsciously channeled her mom - I wasn't sure how Makio was going to react. She kept it simple though, and more to the point, Asa understood. Or I guess she understood that she didn't understand but that that was okay, which has become something of a recurring theme in this.

And Waku continues to be my hero.

Ahhh... this is what I've been waiting for.

I adore Nisshi. She's just so earnest and so relatable and so cute. And as Honda recognizes, Yamada has no pretense at all, so he's a perfect opportunity for Nisshi to learn to ease up and just talk rather than overthinking herself into silence.

And we got another look at Taira. He reminded me of a line from Journal With Witch a couple episodes back - when Kasamachi notes that Makio "sees every human interaction as scary by default."

And on another note, I'm really enjoying the animation in this. It has a way of capturing and exaggerating the character's movements and gestures that's both funny and satisfying, and the whole thing is so perfectly bright and lively.

Original AND Stampede.

They're different in a lot of ways and they're both good in their own ways. I don't really like either one more or less than the other.

So many questions....

Is the thirty game wall a natural thing at all, or has it been entirely contrived? I mean - we have contestants killing each other within seconds of the start, and seemingly already organized and in agreement, and with the ojousama apparently in charge. That can't be coincidence.

What role do the agents play? They seem entirely mercenary but the one for the girl who was voted out in the 10th game seemed devastated. But now Yuki's has just blithely given her a different sedative with a pretty obvious lying cover story.

Was that Kinko's father? What's the deal? Yuki is still haunted by Kinko (and rightly so), but he didn't seem to act as I (and Yuki) would've expected.

Broadly I'm impressed by this. I like the imagery - stuff like the contrast between the clarity and focus of the games and the vague, mundane trashiness of Yuki's apartment. The art style in general is intriguing, though the tinted live action backgrounds are a definite sour note. I wish studios would stop doing that - it never works.

The tone is unsettling and appealing too. As I noted earlier, it's oddly serene - the brutality and death all seems a bit muffled and distant. I assume that's not an accident - that the games have been engineered for mass appeal.

I'm eager for more. Wherever this goes, it's likely going to be interesting.

Well hell... I didn't get to see Fern blush.

But I did get to see Frieren in braids, so that's something...

I hadn't thought before - a compliment from someone who's completely oblivious to social niceties is actually sort of extra special.

Actually just watched episode 1, and it's oddly appealing. It's brutal, but it has an odd sort of serenity to it - it just sort of gently wafts along, with intermittent terror, violence and/or death.

Might be back when I catch up to this episode...

That was a sort of unsettling episode.

All the way through this, there's been something that's bothered me. Kanata is such an earnest, polite, child-like suck-up that it's really sort of creepy. And that was on full display in this episode - you could almost see the halo glowing over his cherubic head.

Just get back in the cars already - this sappy drama is starting to nauseate me.

And just in time, it looks like Sawatari is getting a new Alpine, and a new number.

I dunno - I never even considered the possibility that it was Asa. Granted that kids do stuff like that, it seems entirely out of character for her.

For the relatives, "selfish" probably wasn't quite the right term - "self-centered" would be better.

one can argue that the relatives aren’t the selfish one; Makio is

I disagree entirely.

The relatives know that it is irresponsible to take Asa in when they don’t have the capacity to truly care for her.

But I don't think that's what happened at all. They weren't thinking about Asa - they were thinking about themselves. It wasn't a matter of whether or not they could care for her - it was that caring for her would require making sacrifices, and none of them were willing to do that.

Makio, on the other hand, was thinking about Asa, and in fact was so focused on Asa that she didn't stop to think about the sacrifices she was going to have to make at all. That all hit her later.

Ah - thanks for that. It's been too long since I watched the original, and I'm a bot fuzzy on the details.

E.G. Mine already appeared and was dealt with relatively early in Stampede, and Leonof appeared a couple of episodes back in Stargaze.

Zazie was actually a recurring character in Stampede and has already appeared in the first episode of Stargaze, and is portrayed as essentially the consciousness of the planet - a sort of collective consciousness of the worms. They're fairly sympathetic (and even sort of grudgingly friendly with Meryl).

Hoppered appeared early in Stargaze. He nursed Vash back to health after Lost July, not knowing who he was, then challenged him to a fight when he found out who he was, which is what drug Vash back to reality.

Legato appeared briefly in Stampede, and again in the most recent episode of Stargaze and appears to be set to play much the same role in this as he did in the original.

And Midvalley was introduced in the most recent episode snd looks to be the focus of at least the next episode.

Fern is my favorite, no contest, but I wasn't worried about her during the first class mage tests. The ones I was most worried about then were Kanne and Lawine, and sort of surprising myself, Übel.

Though I didn't notice them as much the first time through, I grew to really like Laufen and Denken this time through - she's the granddaughter he never had, and it's really pretty sweet.

Started off the week with a rewatch of the current four episodes of Yuusha no Kuzu (Scum of the Brave). I Wanted to check my reaction to it, because I've been enjoying it, but that's very much not the common opinion. And I'm still enjoying it. It's not great by any means, but it's good, solid entertainment, mostly on the strength of the characters. I have no real complaints about it.

Next up was the most recent episode of MF Ghost. It was a decent filler episode. I have to admit I did laugh out loud when grandma did the patented Initial D / MF Ghost heel pivot to accelerate and brake at the same time and drift a corner in her kei truck. And they're really leaning on the romance angle, and I have mixed feelings about that. If they stick with the Initial D formula, then the romance is doomed, one way or another, and I don't want to see that happen to either Ren or Kanata. But if they break with tradition and give them a happy ending, that'd be great.

Spent a while then gently bouncing off of stuff, trying and failing to find something that hooked me. There was something that kept nagging at me though, and I finally gave in to it. Since the OP/ED thread last week, I've been thinking maybe I should go ahead and watch season 2 of Sousou no Frieren now rather than waiting to binge it later, as I'd originally planned. But that meant that first I'd want to rewatch the first season. And that's an odd thing - I rewatch lots of anime, but for some reason, I almost exclusively rewatch sentimental favorites and guilty pleasures. If something is undeniably outstanding, like Frieren, I have some sort of aversion to rewatching it. I'm not sure why. But I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I dove in and did it. And it was just as good as I'd remembered, and arguably even better, since I appreciated the whole First Class Mage test arc more the second time around, I think because I spent so much time the first time on edge, afraid that they were going to kill off characters I liked, and this time I knew that everyone who mattered to me was going to survive.

And conveniently enough, I finished up the day the latest episode came out, so just watched the new ones straight through after the rest. And... I'm actually sort of worried about this season. I'm afraid the corporate powers-that-be aren't going to be able to resist flogging that cash cow for as long as possible, so Frieren is going to actually get to Ende about the same time that Luffy becomes the Pirate King.

That said, I am looking forward to Fern and Stark's date.

And the rest of the week was spent bouncing off of stuff (most notably Gnosia, to which I'm trying to give another chance, since it's still ongoing), rewatching random favorites (a couple of episodes of Kemurikusa, the last episode of 86, the first episode of Makeine...) and catching up with current season watches.

Trigun Stargaze - still more or less following the original story, so now we're moving into Legato and the Gung-ho Guns (though I don't think that name has been used for them, and I assume at least the cheesier ones from the original aren't going to appear in this more serious reboot). And Milly's already warming up to Wolfwood.

Scum of the Brave - I'm still enjoying this - the characters are still amusing and still have good chemistry, and we're getting some hints of a deeper plot.

You and I Are Polar Opposites - adorable even by this series' already high standards, and I loved that Tani handled the sight of Suzuki in a yukata exactly right, unlike pretty much every other romcom MMC in existence.

Journal with Witch - still phenomenal. Asa's starting to come to understand her relationship with her mom better - most of her memories of their interactions so far have been more or less positive, but it's also undoubtedly notable that her visual image of her mom has been relatively cartoonish, while Makio's memories are all negative and her visualization is hard-edged and excruciatingly detailed. In this episode, we could see the difference, as Asa first remembered her mom, looking sort of soft and vague, telling her she could be whoever she wanted, then later, looking much more sharp and defined, butting in and taking over and making her decisions for her and belittling the decisions she made for herself. The scene later when Asa again remembers her telling her she can be whoever she wants, then she thinks to herself, "I will be who I want, so take that" was brilliantly subtly revealing. And the whole scene with the lawyer was terrific - both the way he came around to understanding them, and the moment when Asa revealed that when Makio said she could join the band club if she wanted, she just sort of automatically didn't believe her, because "she's an adult." Another insight into her mom and their real relationship.

Last episode, Makio refused again, and notably forcefully, to tell Asa why she hated Minori. I expect that if it keeps going like this, she's not going to have to - Asa's going to figure it out on her own.

And something's brewing with Emiri - she ended up hanging with the cool kids while Asa didn't, and they're potentially growing apart. I really didn't expect that - after the focus on Emiri earlier in the series, I expected them to end up like Makio and Daigo. But that's sort of par for the course for this series - things just work out however they work out, and maybe they're just going to grow apart, which'll be another thing that Asa (and Makio by extension) will have to deal with. And will.

So far, if there's an overarching message to this series, that's what it is - life just is whatever it is and all you can do is try to make the best of it, and if you're honest and essentially kind, things will work out, one way or another.