Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 12

Today I completed my second show in this format and had another crazy strong line up on episodes! I did SO not expect things to go the way they did this week. Amazing! I even finished BNA on a fairly positive note! So I was pleasantly surprised! Yet both Flip Flappers and Samurai ended with a big cliffhanger! And Next week is my SKIP week! Due to my special week! What Bad Luck!

Our farewell to a show with troubled pacing and slightly pedantic world-building is one that is a perfect summary of this show..it was a good watch but it’s more akin to your kid going to the potty by himself for the 26th time good..than it is finding a way to colonise mars kinda good. 

We pick the show up right after Michiru’s apparent demise.. which as it turns out was barely a flesh wound. Her blood holds some antibodies for the Nylvarsyl Syndrome because she is like special and adaptable and what not. This results into Shirou’s beast factor becoming stable again and everyone being fine! Meanwhile Allan puts his plan into motion to use his  Eggman like drones to end these Beastman and turn them all into humans!  Shirou and Michiru tell him about the other cure and he doesn’t care..because he isn’t on humanities side as it turns out. Allan is a godly beastman.. like a pure one with an immortal body! As he shoots big energy beams trough Shirou.. Michiru has to leave him there to defeat the thrones. Aided by the Major, Flip, the Police and some others the fight against Allan’s purification army is on. Nazuna is there too and runs away from her former Retainer Boris saying she doesn’t want to date him. Eventually Nazuna and Michiru find out that Ginrou’s howl passifies the beastmen makes them howl with him and they move back to the Live event to play his cry to the city where Ginrou and Allan’s Cerberus form have their final face off! Ginrou/Shirou learns from Michiru and shows compassion to Allan and in the end everything is right as rain. Michiru and Nazuna decide to stay the way they are to form a bridge between humans and beastman.. the End

The show does a fairly decent job on wrapping up the story at least if we do not take it’s earlier flaws into account ..as this is an episode review! The series review I will do after next week. We get an ending that is both definitive and open at the same time and it actually has some nice imagery. Like when Shirou Spared Allan.. he trusted on his heart rather than his instinct..show humans and beastman might be a bit closer than we think, but done from the beastman perspective. They allow themselves to be shunned by simply giving into all their impulses or primary acting..perhaps that is not the way. I am glad they addressed this because I do understand that some people are different and we should try to make the world a welcoming place for everyone.. but that doesn’t mean we should excuse every whim. In the world of Beastman this issue was waaaaay larger because some of their behaviour was just never acceptable, like killing each other in recreational sports, rule of the strongest. It was a big weak point in the story to me and this somewhat countered it! My favourite scene was the water purifier kid whose name I still do not know.. saving Death Rube/Nazuna still worshiping her has a god. When  she tells him she’s not a god he says “You fed me fresh bread with a super delicious crust.. if you provide food to the poor you are like god to them’ (More or less) She helped them.. and they worship her for it! I really liked that sign of gratitude. Having Michiru also feels great and making her a bridge between races is a great way to end the show… were it not for a few hiccups.

The biggest issue I have is how inconsistent the plot can be! Allan’s drones only attack rampaging beastman.. but how is he going to succeed then?! There will be a few beastman left.  The Machine only attacks rampaging beastman.. yet still attacks the non feral police. Flip who is firing rocket launchers I can understand might be deemed rampaging.. but still the way it is set up it feels a bit plothole like. Allan being a beastman with no beastman scent also felt rather forced. It’s because he is a pure beastman and he wants to end hybrid beastmen.. so he rather changes them to human?!  That feels a bit iffy to me. It wasn’t needed. You could have just written that the morphing thing what he gave to Michiru was perfected and he found a way to amplify humans without having them turn into beasts.  I guess Shirou learned to forgive saying he already is a hybrid but that feels a bit pedantic again. “We are closer to humans than I thought .. let’s begin to accept them’   The final battle could also have been against technology or whatever.. but a beam firing cerberus fox/wolf with Ginrou turning into a jet wolf firing a Kamehameha.. felt poorly set up.. though it looked amazing! I just feel that power-hike was unearned and not needed.  I was engaged throughout the episode but if you think about things they do fall apart a bit. Clearly style was favoured over substance for this episode and to an extend the show needed that to let go of some broken promises it also is a reminder of what the show could have been.

I enjoyed myself, with this episode but also this series as a whole. This episode had a few pacing issues, logic problems and kinda took that finger pointy no no racism analogy stance ..but then doesn’t flavour it very well. It had the exact same issues as I had with the entire show so far..but it also left me with the same overall experience as the show did. Positive and quite amused. This isn’t a high-flyer of an episode but it was 20 minutes spend quite well still.

What ..just happened?! Was that Real? Surely it must be some sort of fever dream right? If not.. omg that is amazing.. if it is OMG this amazing!  What the actual heck!

This episode shows Samurai Flamenco and the Flamenco Girls having an effect on the city. Crime is at an all time low and their patrols are becoming boring.  This causes  both Masayoshi and Mari to have their own mental breakdown. In a search for answers Masayoshi visits his grandfather’s grave and later discovers his parents were murdered.. the greatest hero background he could wish for.. but he doesn’t seem to care.. the case went cold.. he never knew any better so now he begins to wonder if he is actually a hero and Goto convinces him .. he is a freak fighting for justice.. he likes freaks more than heroes. In a PR stunt Samurai Flamenco gets  asked to help raid a drug lab, which Goto only accepts after seeing Masayoshi at earlier low. While there he serves a ceremonial position.. when suddenly one guy transforms into a creature called Guillotine Gorilla, which decapitates three policeman and tosses them out of the window!  Samurai Flamenco and Goto team up using the drugs to blind the Gorilla and then toss him out f the window! Is this real?! That came out of nowhere?! Oh and right an evil overlord speaks through them from the sky.

I assume this is Masayoshi getting really drunk from tequila at the beginning of the episode or maybe he breathed in some drugs, but wow.. having actual sentai monsters that explode could be awesome.. having Masayoshi go completely delusional so that he imagines these to to some mental breakdown could be just as amazing. After all I really loved Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger. Since this show was recommended to me based on my review of season 1 I suspect that is the case here. Also since Goto in their fight with Guillotine Gorilla called him Flamenco! I am not sure a real Goto would say that.. but then again who knows. My favourite scene was the monster exploding after it was defeated.. It just fell out of a cop car.. got up and exploded! Just like in the real deal!  I am really  confused right now but I really do love that I am so confused. This came so out of the blue and is such a tonal shift. Since the opening is also vague and shows him as an actual Sentai I have really zero clue! Other than those hunches I just mentioned.  Then again I also have clues for this not being true such as his Samurai’s secret weapons not working at all.  I also really start to enjoy the Morita Moe as a character being in love with Mari, she just reminds me of me somehow.. just more into kisses and such. The build up with this coming out of left field was something truly amazing as well. I can’t even begin to describe how much I loved this episode.

My least favourite moment is Mari eating flowers because she is so bored and disillusioned by her real life wanting to go on tour. It feels weird that  that someone who owns a Hummer and can drive anywhere she wants can not find a single way to fight crime.  Her petty behaviour is becoming increasingly annoying to me. In order ot do what she did I feel you must have a strong character that truly believes in their ideals like Masayoshi even if that value she chases is more superficial.. but with every minor setback she just gets so dejected.  I don’t think it fits. Another weird moment is Goto coming over to Masayoshi where he shares drinks with that Stationary Guy that give Masayoshi his gadgets.. apparently he had been sitting there for a while and Goto only now asks who he is. I get why you not introduce yourself to anyone but at a party of 4 with a single new guy..while discussing your friends super hero activities I’d think you would introduce yourself.  It’s not that bad but it is a a writing flaw I think. For the rest I am to scared to say if there are flaws I can only tell after the next episode.

I loved this experience, while it might not consistently be the best episode as it starts out really slow that acceleration in the end truly made this into something so amazing. Regardless if this turns out to be real or not, this episode will probably go into the books as one of my favourite episodes… unless they really mess up this landing.. but for that I have to wait two weeks.

I love how this show handles time! They really take advantage of the fact that Rimuru is a slime and use it to propel the world making this series feel so alive. They did a lot of clever things again with this episodes and a lot of things I did not see coming.

We see Rimuru a few days after his quest to find artisans ended. The Goblins have adopted other Goblin clans and after exerting all it’s magic Rimuru goes to sleep for days on end once more. Once he comes too he finds Rigurd to have advanced even higher as he is now a Goblin King and the town now starting to look like an actual village.  Four human adventurers stumble onto his demain , including the three adventures he saw once Rimuru’s journey started and Shizu.. another Isekaid girl.. but where Rimuru was reborn she was summoned, lacking the ability to defy those who summoned her. We see a lot of background on the three adventurers and their somewhat cruel guild master. Rimuru is a good egg and he feeds them and he bonds with Shizu a bit who turns out has been here since World War II or something. We also find out she is possessed by an Efreet!  Plus there is some amazing subtext here I think… or a mistake. 

The best part of this episode was that subtext line. Shizu laughed when Rimuru referenced a line,  from Dragon’s Quest… but Shizu said she is from World War II, in fact we have seen that this is true. So Shizu CAN NOT know about Dragon Quest.. but a friend told her! That means there is another Isekaid character there! Which also explains why she was so aware of Rimuru’s situation.  The organisation that summoned her seems quite evil, so perhaps they have summoned another character.. but she also seems familiar with being reborn so perhaps not! There is is so much there to discover! I am so curious to find out. Like I said in the intro I also really like how the time flows in this show.. there are bigger time gaps so there is bigger advancements made. Since Rimuru’s followers build their own little village I really like  this pacing. By putting RImuru out of commision it also does not feel forced and keeping his questions legit! I also really like the snarky tone he can have.. like when he is proud that Gobta learned and summon spell and says..  “Gobta rising quite a few points in the esteem of Rimuru”  and then as he watches the lesson that is mostly Gobta saying you have to go “nghnghngh”  he adds.. his teaching skills made him a few point lower in the esteem of Rimuru”  I love that type of humor!  It also had a few nice action moments.

On the negative side I don’t have a lot to say this week. I personally do still not care for all the girls holding the slime against their breast and him going all crazy over it but I can see why it’s in there! I still think not having those hormones should make that less appealing..but hey creative differences! What I am unsure about is the human trio. I think her name is Ellen.., or Eren not fully sure my sub is a bit off, Gibdo or Gido and Kabaru. They feel a bit  odd to me. I am not sure on what to think on them. I don’t think their appeal is to great and when Shizu kicked some group of giant’ ants their butts. I feel at least they could have supported her a bit, they are incapable sure .. but before they did not seem cowardly. Now they are just sorta there.. like Gobta was in the previous two episodes. I am not sure why the show feels the need to have these sort of characters around but it uses this a lot. The story so far could have been completely told without them , but like how Gobta gained an ability I am sure this will be good for something at least! Just right now.. they were a bit of dead air and I would have rather learned more about Shizu or see live in the Goblin village a bit more.

This is a set up episode done right more things are to come and this needed to be told!  There are some amazing implications that can be drawn from the dialogue that went on and I think the show is clever enough for this not to be a mistake a lot happend but it feels like a few thing did not matter that much.. so this episode is just good! Had a great time but on its own not THAT special but this doesn’t show always needs to be! For what this is, this is consistently a delightful watch.

Could it be possible that I will not love this as much as I think I would? I found myself asking this in the first act of this episode. Then I was quickly shushed and had to spend the next 5 minutes trying to get my heart shaped sparkly eyes to go back to normal again.

Cocona tries to pick up her school live again after her first adventure into Pure Illusion. Papika however thinks she found her partner and keeps trying to coax Cocona into a new adventure to find more of the wishing shards. Magical items they can bring back from Pure Illusion. When Corona’s pet Uexkull.. a green somewhat shiftable bunny comes with her to to school and flees from Papika Cocona’s trouble grow exponentially larger and she tells Papika to get lost she doesn’t belong in this school. So Papika enrolls and keeps stalking her. When Uexkull gets sucked up by a giant Vacuum hidden underneath a statue in the park Cocona and Papika get sucked into Deep Fantasy once more and they split up. Papika goes to get the wishing shard while  Cocona pursues the search of her bunny. When Papika accidentally activates a death trap that nearly burns Cocona and Uexkull  by dropping them in lava she unlocks magical powers much like her not so willing partner did in the previous episode.  After saving everyone both of them return to the real world and Cocona decides to join the organisation called Flip Flap and help Papika with these fun adventures. Dr Salt  a mysterious man with a fancy hairdo and a bit villainous shades tells them to see a certain person..and after getting locked up in what almost seems like one of those diver depressuring chambers..they seem to move into Deep Fantasy again ending the episode.

I LOVED the visuals of this deep fantasy setting! The colours were amazing! The Alice in Wonderland similarities were plenty yet it was still fresh at the same time.  I loved how Uexkull was almost a Jojo character in deep fantasy and protector. I love how this world building has no rhyme or reason, yet due to visual clues it has some machinations. There  world is incredibly zany but it does work.  That on-switch that Papika hits that puts Cocona out of trouble was there all along.. it makes no sense that it is there.. but it’s there long before it becomes a problem . The fact that the group ends up in a tunnel with a giant crushing metal object chasing them and a meat grinder in front.. comes out of nowhere but there is a logic to how the thing operates characters can use. Thus solutions and events are foreshadowed in a bizarre world as a result we get this fever dream sensation..but it is a few dream we can to an extend make sense of .we can still comprehend it. Both Cocona and Papika learn a lesson in this episode that brings them closer together. Papika learns to take responsibility for her actions and releases actions might have consequences while Cocona lets go of the idea of being always in control or having to be. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow!  Of course the visuals…I can’t say enough in praise of.. this thing is my jam!

I disliked how cold Cocona was in the first part of the story, again I get where she is coming from  but the whole will they/won’t they team up thing is a bit done to death and if you look at any cover art for this series.. which I am pretty sure you can’t escape from doing.. you will know exactly what the answer to that question is. I get her personality is uptight and I do get why she is annoyed at Papika it makes sense I just do not feel very invested in that part of the story because there is no tension.. of course they will go on more adventures.. their adventures is what the show will be about! Another thing I did not like.. well more in the sense that it confused me is the whole Bitey Bitey thing. Papika feels the need to bite in everything because she is a bunny now I guess and Cocona resists but I don’t really see where the bitey bitey comes from.. I mean why would she mind so much her bunny instinct tells her to bite something hard?  Why would it? I don’t see any other bunny instinct triggering either so is it a thing or is it actually something deeper.  Also why does the school have that vacuum cleaner?  As much as I love the surreal world building in the Deep Fantasy I would like the real world to be at least a bit of a counterpart to it. If Japanese schools have subterranean trash cleaning vacuums please let me know!

I saw some minor flaws with this episode but nothing I could not overcome. The highs it send me trough blow the lows out ot the water completely. I love this show so far. I really do! I like it enough that it might get a very high ranking amongst the anime I have seen.  So with that it gets it’s second highest score possible.. and is 2/2 for that!

Hikaru no Go has had a few rough set-up episodes before. It isn’t always as strong  when it’s not centered around Go and while the matches are all hits.. set up , really swings a miss quite often for me! This set up episode however is great. It accomplishes so much.

We begin the episode with Haze high School, the one Hikaru goes to. TsuTsui, Mitani, Hikari and to lesser extent Akiri prepare to go to the Go Tournament. Well Akiri makes lunch and cookies and takes some more verbal abuse from Hikaru  but hey she is there! We see a tension front between Tsutsui and Mitani because the former things that cheating in the games final phase is very low. Akiri will also only give him cookies if he stops cheating. Their story is mostly about convincing Mitani to participated and  showing these tensions. The perspective then switches to Touya who finds out Hikaru is the third board.. oftenly the weakest player in Igo of a team. This means Touya wants to become third board as well.. a strategic thing he needs to face Hikaru or as Hikaru notices at the end of the episode.. it’s not him who is Touya here to play ..it is Sai. Posing an interesting Dilemma for Hikaru in the battles to come. Some dramatic stuff happens in between but it is all of no consequences. Touya defeats a fellow student, gets assigned first board… cries .. gets third board. Sees Hikaru at the tournament.

This episode once again is insanely strong at character building, Hikaru has his reasons to play but also reasons not to play, Tsutsui has his reasons to grow and we see Mitani develop a new negative trade. He can not handle being provoked or looked down upon. After hearing he was not good enough to face I think it’s Kaizo high school ? not sure.. those names don’t stick to me very well, he flips right around and wants to play in a tournament while earlier he would not.  I foresee this giving trouble and I think they need this trouble. I see this end in two ways.. Hikaru’s highschool gets eliminated early or maybe even Touya’s by a surprise force or Hikaru loses to Touya using his own strength and the latter is upset that Hikaru did not play his normal game. I do not think Hikaru can beat Touya here .. nor do I think Touya can accept a win here. It would ever those ties or even a character.  So I think what happens here sets up plenty of options. Maybe the school gets disqualified because Mitani cheats.. maybe Tsutsui gets distracted because he is watching Mitani to much , the show gives itself a lot of options and this is very clever. I also like how Kaizo/Akira’s School is depicted in much more grey shades than Hikaru’s .. it seems to depict their different mindset. Where Hikaru wants to experience things.. grow and come into bloom Touya is much more narrow minded.. focussed on a single goal his world is a lot gloomier Something that does seem directly reflected by their environment. The use of the main theme throughout this show when Akira talks to his father was very strong as wel showing his zeal is close to that of Sai’s. Strong stuff.

What I liked less in Touya’s duel with the now first board. It happens somewhere in the middle of the episode but it has zero consequence other than establish these two are miles apart and that  Akira does indeed deserve first board. I would have loved this duel if it actually meant Akira had to play first board and that he did not get to play Hikaru but a good cry invalidated this math. There was little at stake here too. What do we establish here that hasn’t already been established. I am also not sure if I as a teacher would allow a student to join a club just to play a single opponent then quit the club.. a person who causes that student so much stress he completely breaks down at  every single thought of said person. I think as a teacher I would rather protect my student from himself. He also has to protect the schools reputation or so he says so why would you pit your unbeatable player against possibly the one foe that can defeat him?  What if he loses! So I do get why he made him first board.. I do not get why he relented. Aikra just joined this school so they haven’t bonded that much yet sure time passed but this favouring the boy is exactly what causes him to be “bullied” I think for a teacher  that should weigh heavier than an obsession.. So again this show makes me question the gravity that is given to Go and honour. In a way I sometimes feel this story is written by a huge Go fan who gate-keeps that fandom by tying some super heay Go related emotions and honour to it. It just feels off.

Regardless of what that we got a pretty good episode on our hands here! I was engaged most of the time and I wasn’t sure if Akira would get his third board so the reveal felt quite shocking still. I honestly expected Akira to quit the team. I dont think we are ready for their next face won yet.. it’s top early. If Touya loses here I am not sure where they would do.. so I think they need an out.. lucky this show has written characters so well they have plenty! This episode really helped. 

So that concludes another week! The upcoming week will be something special where we celebrate the Blog’s .. and Pinkie the Character’s Anniversary! With something nice on Thursday, the actual Birthday and on Sunday when we conclude the week! Other than that we shall mostly be exploring what this blog means to me and what this community means to me!
On a personal description on this week for me! It started out with a low as toxic person in my life has been revealed to even more toxic as I thought they were. Devaluating me behind my back to make our mutual friends appreciate her more or talking bad about me just to have a conversation topic. It resulted in a major somatic stress induced stomach sickness that kept me very weak until Friday. Missed my tabletop-roleplays ..luckily since Friday more good things happend to me! I got closer to another friend, got invited to a party, and went out for drinks yesterday with a few friends. After the toxic beginning of the week I really needed this!
Now that party is about to start so I gotta work on my head a bit! See you in my Birthday week! Make sure to at least check out Thursday and Sunday’s posts.. but also all the other cool content!