Hi island guests. Saturday has come and past again which means I ate some more ceareal and watched some anime. Thightly set on time I might add. No pausing allowed, commercial breaks in between.. recreating those good old Saturday morning cartoons and this week I had a blast with it yet again.
Pinkie’s TV Guide
My Schedule hasn’t changed yet since not of the series have finished yet. Until than the series remains as follows.
9:00 AM : BNA
9:30 AM: Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens
10:00 AM :Bofuri
10:30 AM: Bofuri
11:00 AM: Hikaru no Go
Like last time, I am not allowed to pause at the 11 minute mark anime will be interrupted for some Japanese Commercials on YouTube (and to take bathroom and other kinds of breaks). If I run late I have to skip to the point matching the air-date as if it was shown on tv. Unlike last week though this week I was fully prepared.
BNA Episode 2
The second episode of the studio trigger anime Brand New Animal, or BNA might have been my highlight of the morning. I really liked this second episode. We learn our Tanuki girl is actual a human woman named Michiru.. or at least she claims to be. Refusing to be registered as a beastman because she got “sick” and turned into one. With no one believing her the evidence is in her wallet and this episode focuses on her getting it back. The show this time around is less in your face about racism and much more focussed on the characters while still putting in plenty of world building. Tonally a huge improvement from the first episode.
Instead of opting for a complex hierarchy system like in Kill la Kill, the rules in Animacity are easy. He who is the strongest wins. It makes sense in the context and it helps give our Michiru some rough edges. Her being a former human makes it hard to understand some aspects of beast society,opening us to a softer form of exposition. There is no need for “As you all know” type of dialogue because Michiru learns alongside us. Mistakes she makes are because of her human nature and as she learns how different this world is so does the viewer. Which really works out in this episode.
Following the monkey that stole her wallet in the last episode a hint given by Marie the Mink puts her in the visors of a criminal woman named Gran Granma who commands an all woman gang in an area called Rabbit Town. The build up towards this felt nicely paced telling us what we need to know such as character names for one.The crying wolf from last episode is named Shirou and he has a pet bird named Kuro. I bet a lot of grey matter was put to work to come up with that one. Shirou gets an order from the mayor to investigate some criminal trafficing. Of course Michiru ends up in the middle of this.
Gran Granma asks Michiru to teach some young beastfolk to learn how to read and write. Leading to my favorite moment of the episode. Michiru’s class. It was cute and innocent. A facade for what Animacity is not but also a great desire to reflect what Michiru desires. The kids learning to read is so cute and you can see the tanuki liking helping others out way more than fighting. A man who likes like he is based on Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin from Marvel pressures Gran Granma into selling the kids to pay of her debts to him. Since she is there she also decides to sell Michiru. The way this all is emoted gives you some amazing character to the criminal lady.. there is more to this story.
The episode concludes in a dock. where Michiru displays some of her powers, some being different than that of a regular beast man. She manages to break free of her cage but is no match for the combat trained henchwomen. Shirou saves the day and while confroting Gran Granma about her horrible deeds the woman smiles faintly, probably actually caring about these kids handing Michiru her wallet back and it is confirmed that she was once human.
I’d rate this show a with a Taffy Pink! It’s super sweet. The weird power thing felt like Trigger to me again, the fast moving plot, the subtle character and the mystery build on several levels it all stuck with me, and I did not mind that it did at all. That Taffy stuck in my teeth can stay there so I can linger on the sweet tastes.
Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens Episode 2
Where BNA was the high of the show for me, this second episode of Sevens showed the most improvement to me.While first episode was poorly paced, kind of lazily written and flat out unfunny this episode actually had some proper pacing,an enjoyable narrative and even some good jokes. This episode basically begins with my favorite moment. We get some dramatic build up to the road to be Duel King now opening. Yuga says he is not that interested and says Tatsuhisa can take his place. He overly dramatically accepts and begins walking towards the gate of light that opened. Yuga recognised it as a hologram which is why he trolled the blue hair boy. I have to hand it to the makers that was a funny way to make this exposition tolerable.
Now to become the Duel King people have to come and accept your way of dueling as the truth. Tatsuhisa beliefs this means they have to keep what they did a secret and Yuga agrees. The next day he however is telling everyone on what they did. This triggers a duel between the protagonist and the blue haired boy… but there is trouble.. recess doesn’t last that much longer, luckily a rush duel can be held quickly. Romin the girl now works as the reason why rules are explained while Gakuto works as the one who explains, a synergy that works and doesn’t feel forced.What does feel forced though is the deuteragonist/rival using a dragon themed deck. Yeesz Yu-Gi-Oh we haven’t seen THAT before.
The Duel itself is mostly okay. Nice joke with Yuga using that yugioh protagonist power of awareness to explain some secrets of Tatsuhisa’s powers casually. It results helps keeping this series a bit grounded. Props to the makers for having Yuga lose this fight. It gives him room for a journey as well. He is not as overpowered as Playmaker was in the last part. The loss felt fairly natural as well, though at the same time this rush duel felt kind of un-yu-gi-oh. With at least 5 cards in his graveyard you would think he has an effect there to help him but no.. even the luck of the draw abandoned him. Great choice.. but with a simple combo like this it really felt off brand. The fact that Yuga used a drone to stream and promote his new game was nice and make him more unique as a protagonist. So even if it invalidated the duel..this series now begins to feel a bit “differently”
Still the lowest ranking of the shows I watched this episode was leagues better than his episode 1 counter part. I actually quite enjoyed this. Rating it Mexican Pink. The fishiness of the first episode is gone and the colour has deepend quite a bit. However it might be just a little bit foreign. I started to watch this show because I really like Yu-gi-Oh.. and I am not sure if this is that. They definatly spiced this up with some Jalepeno of cool but I have no real clue what I am going to get.. also that CEO.. looks way too weird.
Bofuri Episode 3
I really adore this little show, there is just so much cuteness in there. This third episode however was my least liked so far.It’s adorable but has way to many little stories. We get a brief glimpse of some characters that are in the intro arguing about if they should buy weapons with one of these twin girls going particularly murder hobo wanting to buy weapons above all. Obviously she will be Maple’s Hyper offensive counter part. We see Maple and Sally shopping for new skills, learning about an event, taking up two dungeons/quests and going to two secret areas. It all feels a bit dense.
It does help create that cute sense of whimsy but in a way it feels like some of those five to ten minute anime where stringing two together is called an episode. I really wanted to see more of the scary area. Which was my favorite moment in the show, maybe one of my favorite moments in the series so far even. Sally quivering in fear with Maple being impressed by the colour of the ghosts. Because of Sally’s fear they have to hide in a house and a trap door is found, which leads to Sally learning a new skills and the quest resolving. This happens within a minute or four. After which a fireball teleports the pair to a beach where they find a ruby and splash water at each other.
World building falters for me a bit trough the fact that the girls can taste cake in virtualy reality.Given the concept of the show I can forgive it assuming the helmet can stimulate your brain so you can taste or feel pain…but also firing a fireball in a tree stump to get transported to a secret beach Sally nows off to get a useless item feels kinda odd. Sure that kind of stuff might be in some MMO’s but why not spend the extra time in that spooky wood! It could have been so much fun.
Maple is nerfed trough an update which makes the boss fight to reach level 2 where they can participate in the next event a bit more interesting. The boss having special strats fits into the mmo concept and the battle does feel somewhat satisfying but the dungeon is glossed over again. In favor Sally transporting them to a restaurant in a starry sky where they can eat items that make their hair and eyes glow. It’s cute again.. but why insert 2 of these scenes in one episode it feels superfluous and give that we already had a scene with them eating cakes, and four self contained stories up to this point it kinda feels fragmented.
Time still flew by but I found this a bit lazy content wise. Instead of telling a full fledged story you tell a bunch of summaries of those seemingly not interesting enough for an entire episode. That is why I rate this episode China Pink. It works for me like many toys from china I once had. Yet there is something so streamlined to it that you can see the mass production of it all. It lacks the detail some of the finer products have.
Bofuri Episode 4
The fourth episode is MUCH MUCH better. We even get our first genuinely thrilling action scene and an amazing team fight. We also only get two main stories with a minor third one in the end which still is a logical follow up to what happened before. With some nice humor and the most adorable conclusion a girl like me could have wished for.. this is so far my second favorite episode after the first.
This episode resolvers around the first few days of the treasure hunt event , an ingame week long series where people can find medals but can also steal medals from other players. Making Maple a target for ranking third in the first event. What begins a seeming pointles wander figureing out what to do.. I am pretty sure the writers at least have quite some MMo experience, all the things are in there and all the beats are hit. Stumbeling upon a secret dungeon by accident the pair easily dispatches a jesterbos that was hyped up in the opening. Proving to me that the opening most likely is somewhat spoiler free and exaggerated retroactively making that same intro better.
We encounter some old familiars who interact with Maple in different ways, her broken build and her results have led her to gather some kind of fame.. which again.. makes sense since the game had to be balanced specifically for her. Most are friendly for not wanting to get into trouble but some might prey on her medal. A mysterious new dungeon pops up and Maple allows another group to go in first as a thank you for the help their leader gave at the beginning of the game. Within seconds the dungeons opens up again, saying it might be a reward collecting instance.. or a boss wiped them in mere seconds.
It turns out to be the later and we get a spectacular fight against an ice bird fight which really pushes Maple to play the best that she could. It is nice to see that there are bosses n this game that can give her a hard time. The teamwork between Sally and Maple really works well and feels very MMO like. Albeit much less balanced than the actual thing. The fight is thought and they barely make it out but they do getting rewarded with a hand full of models and two pet eggs that they subsequently try to hatch.
My favorite moment and my least favorite moment of this episode are interwoven with another in the conclusion of the episode. Maple and Sally are training their new pets. Maple gets a turtle which hilariously has a higher speed stat than hers and Sally gets a fox. When Maple names turtle Syrup so they can be Maple Syrup together I like squeee by adorableness. The pair uses their pets like pokémon and they get an ability to be dispelled and resummoned, but there is something about the phrasing.. about them being “reborn” if it were that makes me think next time we see them they might be bigger. I very much look forward to that. However about at the same time we see some evil bunnies talking about how they made that boss to be unbeatable.I am not sure why they talk so evilly but if they are the villians things might get a bit weird.
I’d rate this epiosde a solid pink. This episode pleased me on just about every level. I got my dose of world building, I got my dose of epicness and I sure as hell got some great action and some amazing cuteness and is just about everything one can look for in an episode of Bofuri.I
Hikaru no Go Episode 2
Hikaru doesn’t actually play go in this episode which makes this the most uneventful episode I saw this saturday. Yet it taught me a bit more about Go. Not a lot but something. Like how bigger “boxes” of one colour can make points of everything inside. There really is not that much to tell about this episode as basically nothing really happened. We see him go to school and Akari is trying to get his attention. I am pretty sure Hikaru in real life would not really be chased by any girl though but I do like their thing they have going on. Akari seems like a nice character. Sai is introduced to the modern world which leads to some funny enough dialogue .. but nothing we haven’t seen before with a time displaced person.
Despite nothing actually happening I did find this episode a pleasant viewing experience. The slow pace of the episode came at a good time after that big fight in Bofuri and this felt wonderfully casual and mundane. It doesn’t suddenly turn Go into something hype like Summer Wars did with Koi-Koi. It makes this series feel genuine and heartfelt so far. That being said the series does show a few plot coincidences that feel rather forced. Like Akira being the son of the man who is closed to the Kami no Itte. The divine move Sai is after. Or the fact that a piece about him is on tv just at the moment Hikaru puts it on. I dislike when series do that.
I’d think there is no reason to connect them that way. Both Akira and Hikaru would want to play this champion for their own reasons so making it a family tie makes it feel.. easy. Yet when Hikaru visits a youth tournament they actually do something a bit more creative with it. Rather than making Hikaru the instigator in their encounter they make the father Koyo someone interested in Hikaru instead. Yet there is something eating at me.. something the way the character is designed and framed that makes me thing he might not be as important as this episode leads me to believe he will. His introduction lacks gravitas, their first encounter was glanced over quickly so I feel he might just take a more mentorly role to Akira who may become a rival .. not persé in matches but in a race to master the Divine Move?
I am not sure. What I do know is that I am already analyzing this show which tells you I am at least invested. Since there basically really weren’t any moments no favorite or least favorite scene. I’d rate this episode Fandango Pink. While it seems nothing is going on I think the gears ot this series are just getting in motion. A complicated progress is starting up. Pieces are moved on a game board. It might seem boring and overly complex at first glance but if you look deeper you can see there is thought in these movements. Surely this will go somewhere and on it’s own the setup is kinda fascinating to see unfold in it’s nothingness.
Summary
Favorite Watch: BNA (Episode 2)
Favorite Moment: Syrup used bite! (Bofuri)
Least Favorite: Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens (Episode 2)
Least Favorite Moment: Evil Programmer Bunnies (Bofuri)
Cereal: Crownfield Choco Rice
Bowls Consumed : One small one
Favorite Japanese Commercial: Totally Fabulous Sega Guy!
Pinkie's Paradise 