Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 6

Saturday has come and past again so it is time for another review of my morning of cartoons. This week Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens had no new episode so that one is officially dropped from the saturday line up! I also finished up Bofuri today! So next week I will replace that slot with two seperate Isekai!  Hikaru no go stays at one episode a week because I just want to enjoy as many series as I possibly can! I haven’t seen all that much yet anyway!

This was a rather tame episode of BNA , mostly world building but unfortunately I found it REALLY predictable. That kind of means it was well set up as well .. but it also means I feel like I kinda had this episode before I even had played it before my very eyes. Michiru talks about her human friend and what do you know she finally decides to show up! As part of some religious cult that Shirou is asked to investigate. Like Michiru this girl can change her shape but this one can go full animal as well and she uses it to mimic the deity of the beast men. Whom.. I am pretty sure is just Shirou..this one is slightly pink though so I prefer Nazuna’s version of it.  Michiru of course is rejoiced to have her friend back but things are not what they might seem. A solid enough set up and again it contributes to the grand feeling of the world and it’s mysticism by adding religion to the mix but by now things begin to feel a bit step by step.

There is a positive about this step by step thing because everything feels in exactly the right place. Satisfying that someone thinks like me in terms of writing or I think like them.. I’d compare it to those videos where people cut those foam things or playdough blobs in perfect slices. How stuff perfectly works.. you know one of those videos that is usually titled “the most satisfying video you have ever seen”. Those videos are rather uneventful and meaningless in the end but you just feel content. This episode to me was like that exactly. No surprises but everything worked like it should. The tanuki girl has her cute moments with her best friend, as expected but they also notice how they diverged. Where Michiru embraces her human life, Nazuna has much more embraced her animal side. Two sides of the same coin. Where Michiru follows her heart , Nazuna is much more ruled by faith. In a way the tanuki is street level.. and sees the world through the eyes of the normal folk while the white fox more sees it throughout a political view or from above.

This episode really felt as a halfway point, it is given a lot of gravity, things feel different from what we have seen before and it is the right time to do so. However, I do feel like to much balls are in the air to resolve in the six episodes we have left. We have Michiru’s strange powers and the search for a cure, we have Flip’s crime cartel, we have the legend of the god wolf and also have the brooding human vs beastman unrest. This all can’t be concluded in a single season.. and I recently found out.. this is meant to be just a 12 episode adventure. By introducing yet another faction and element they just  make everything to complex for a single season. That being said they do kind of try to connect some things together maybe even more. The cult leader Boris was like super blond! Kind of like that creepy scientist. I am pretty sure they are going to have some connection. An okay episode, that I think sets us up for trouble in the end.. but one I still enjoyed watching. No favorite or least favorite moment though neutral throughout.. I am kinda weirded out by how easily and readily Michiru wants to sleep in the same bed as her best friend though.

Episode Score:

Naja recommended me this series in my post about the Hikonin Sentai AkibaRanger. A show about a guy who thinks he is a sentai hero?! That seems like fun to me! Foovay also gave me some recommendations and one of those I will be starting next week but this seemed like a great replacement for the Yu-gi-oh slot. That way I can fill the slot Bofuri slots with new Isekai shows. See.. aren’t I a smart cookie?! Well I bet some of you would disagree by now but oh well.  Let’s talk about the show! I have given the premises already and this first episode mostly just establishes this as it’s main story.  Goto a cop encounters a naked man who claims to be a hero in the first opening minutes as we cut to a title of lots of sentai fighting. There comedic timing was quite good on that I must say! A good sign since this is supposed to be a comedy. My favorite moment of the episode straight out of the gates

We cut to more Goto action as he wonders how Kamen Rider mechanics and what he could do within the confines of this world and the law. When would he be a guy with a motor cycle and when would he be a vigilante. After a long day at work and texting his girlfriend he goes out to the store to buy some stuff when a drunk guy cuts in line and buys some Cigarettes which Goto finds on the floor a bit later. This leads to him discovering the naked man and soon we learn he is our protagonist name is Hazama Masayoshi.A wanna be vigilante who tried to beat up the drunk man for being disorderly and jay walking as a fight for justice. 
By accident  Goto burns down his sentai suit, which he took off because it got ripped when he lost the fight.. which is funny on it’s own! A superhero losing to a drunk businessman type that was really small and insignificant, this could become a very fun show for me . Throughout the entire episode there is this level of low key and yet clever dialogue which reminded me a bit of Tarantino like writing.  Which I could very much appreciate.

We see Goto take Masayoshi to his place where it is revealed he is a rather successful model, that just Sentai’s as a passion and they begin to befriend each other a bit. Masayoshi even just gets a slap on the wrist for his vigilante antics and public Nudity. Yet by accident Goto the good type cop inspires Masayoshi to try his hardest.. while they bond over some classic movies and the next night he is in even bigger trouble. The model/hero stands not chance against a group of school kids and the cop has to bail him out of trouble. Proudly Masayoshi announces he will not stop trying! Ending the episode.  All in all a weird first impression but a good one! It was way more dialogue heavy then I would have imagined with a lot of depth and clever timing and analogies.  There was something about the shows colour pallet that seemed a bit unappealing to me for now.. it all felt a bit brownish greyish. Other than that I had very little complaints. I am looking forward to see more.

Episode Score:

I am going to miss Bofuri, but I do feel that I have seen enough of it for now at the same time.  This is a nice place to take a break and with season 2 being announced at the end of the final episode I could barely be any happier.  I am happy that I combined these two because had I’ve seen episode 11 only I would have barely been able to contain myself to wait a week. A very weird place to cap it off, given the trend of the series so far nearly made episode 11 a bit less amazing than it actually was.  We first we Maple take on Mii and the elites of the Flame Emperors guild. I thought this would be a harder fight for Maple and while it wasn’t easy Maple did manage to overwhelm the Fire Sorcerers.

I am not sure why I like seeing Mii cry this much but I really really do. She is so cute when her pride is broken!My favorite moment is her crying.  After the number two guild had been defeated I suspected the group would get some breathing time before facing of against Holy Sword in the next episode. Yet I was wrong! The encounter is almost entirely fought in the 11th episode as well. We see Kanade and Iz die and mostly Iz’s death really upset me for some reason! I am feeling very cryish today anyway..  At the moment of writing when you read this hopefully I will be fine! Update: A chocolate treatment and a long sleep made me less extreme!

The fight kept me rather engaged and I really wished for Maple to win against this superior force.. which is kinda weird..for once I did not want to change the Status Quo.. Maple thinking about her friends even in such a serious fight, over gameplay made me cry a bit more! She is such a pure hearted goofball! I will miss watching her adventures. Payne fights Maple and he seems to be winning. As her health falls fast we end the episode and I have never been happier for a double feature. Quickly after we see the fight resolve in the twelfth and final episode. Using her Demon Form  Maple manages to kill Payne.. after a clever use of Counter earlier. She also kills all the other elites of the guild, which is a shame. I would have loved if Sally would have at least gotten the kill on Frederica.. whose voice I find really cute as well by the way. However Maple Tree realises they can not rank in the top 10 like this. So they decided to murder all the guilds that threaten the top ten. Being severely weakened the Flame Emperors and the Holy Sword decide to follow their strategy.

My favorite moment is of the episode is Maple rescuing Mii from some attackers who just want to push them out of the top ten while the guild is at their weakest. Demon maple’s voice still makes me roll on the floor laughing, perhaps I got a hormone imbalance or something because this was a bit of a roller coaster for me, perhaps it was just really really good!
Maple would be such an amazing MMO buddy! I want a Maple! .. The event goes on pro forma but Maple Tree murdered so many guilds along with Holy Sword that it was practically over by the end of the third day of the event.

 Funny, but man do these developers suck at balancing their game at every single step. Not that weird considering they are space bunnies though! Still not sure what’s up with that. They do deliver us some plot exposition though.. Maple now has become the face of the game and the MMO is gaining new subs for people wanting to fight the invisible Maple. That is a clever idea for a second season and her becoming a mascotte seems perfect for her. She throws a party and in true Maple spirit invites Holy Sword and Flame Emperors to join her. After becoming friends of course!We end with a clip show of the last two episodes..which is a bit of a weird thing to summerise instead of looking back at the series..but I guess in universe it made sense. I loved this show! I could fault these episodes but why would I? I cried.. I laughed and nearly choked on my breakfast! Saturday Morning Glory.

Episode Score:

Despite how much I loved Bofuri , I loved this episode of Hikaru more. There was so much resolution and character in this episode. It was titled the beautiful game and that title was SUPER fitting. Not only do we get the most Go we have seen so far, we also get amazing character moments for Hikaru, Akira and that book boy whose name I forgot! The Go club guy! Tetsuo suprises me once again with how badass the Shogi club is , saying that if they will not win.. the Shogi club will get revenge on the club president for stealing mister Kaga away for this event. Translated… in our world.. The Chess club will beat up the guys who play checkers in school.. for asking a chess guy to join a tournament and then losing.. They really should carry some leather jackets or something.

We see Hikaru be forced to use Sai to win a game.. after in the semi finals it becomes 1-1 and the group depends on his result to advance. He cries knowing that he is not good enough but Sai, finally steps up and in this episode became so much greater than I ever thought he could be. The way he talked Hikaru out of his sadness was amazing to me. He understood his pain so well and when it comes down to the finals, he finds a way how Hikaru can grow from seeing him play. This is such a beautiful moment and this match was truly amazing. We see Akira possibly joining the school and observing the tournament and of course he cries again, as well as almost everyone who loses at this game. I am not sure on how to play Go yet but I apparently need to have extreme emotions to my losses. Perhaps I should try it today! I probably could cry over a taken stone feeling very bad for it.. or trip out and laugh because a stone made a funny clack!

Akira comes to observe Hikaru’s match and due to it’s sheer beauty he realises he’s been handeling things the wrong way. He should not fear playing he should hone his skill playing. Now  I am not sure how stones on a board are truly beautiful but I am sure that had I known how to play this game, I would be weeping like a willow. Hikaru finally finds unbridled determination to be good at Go as well  which makes him that much more of a pleasant character, he lost some cool points though because I still feel this is a bit of a dorky hobby! Not that I mind that.. but I am kind of baffled still about how much weight this sport is given.

Is it a sport? It seems like it?! Maybe this is just a game?! No matter! There is this passion for the game both on in the anime itself as well as on the direction table AND on the writing table. The way shots a framed, sounds are used. The silence during some matches with just the ticking of the clock and the clicking of the stones. This all seems framed as if you watch actual matches at times.. with anime flair! If Eurosport 6 or Espn 12.3 would air an animated show this would be it! Amazing episode! Amazing Direction! Amazing character building!
Praise Praise Praise! 

Episode Score:

Now that is it for this week! Next week two more new series will be added to the line up!
That Time I Reincarnated as A Slime and Tower of Gods! So stay tuned for that! I might actually get to see a decent amount of anime if I keep this up! I love Saturday Mornings!