Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 16

It’s been another sleepless week for me but little by little I am getting in a few sleep hours that remotely approaches a normal human sleeping pattern. From an hour a day I am up to four or five hours now! Sleep deprivation DOES lower my standards for what I find funny though. So I might grade a bit high here, or perhaps these episodes were all pretty good again.

Digimon Adventure Episode 4

This episode is titled Soar Birdramon, so it already got me excited! I get to see Sora! I get to see Sora. I might have to raise my expectations for Digimon Adventure a bit because again I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality I have seen so far.

Taichi has reached the Digital World, which in this episode is explained, is the deepest part of the Network. The world Taichi visited in the first three episodes. Koshiro however is stuck in the Network itself so the two are seperated. However, as I suspected last time.. Sora got drawn into the digital world as well. There she stands looking at Taichi a bit sheepishly very accepting of her random predicament. Asking if Agumon is a dinosaur.   Even when he talks she doesn’t seem that surprised. They encounter an ancient stone tablet that Taichi can read despite not being able to read it normally. A beam of light makes them journey to a colourful mountain. Yet a cry suddenly draws Sora’s attention and a pink bird glomps onto her.. as she is chased by a Snimon!  Sora rescues the pink bird and Taichi holds Snimon off. The group escapes the monster by jumping in a river and the bird goes unconscious with Sora nursing her back to health. 

Yes that pink bird is Biyomon! Sora empties her bag of groceries revealing all sorts of camping equipment and her signature hat!  To get to the mountain they decide to make a raft. Biyomon wakes up and tells Sora she has been waiting for her.
A confused Sora travels with the group and Biyomon down the river when two Champion level digimon attack. A fight ensues and Sora not wanting to see Biyomon get eaten goes through great lengths to save her. This causes Biyomon to evolve and the fight is subsequently  won fairly easily. The group is then carried by Birdramon to a temple where I can see statues of Seraphimon and Hououmon respectively, which are Sora’s and Takeru’s Mega Digmon.

We get our first digivolution/evolution animation in this episode and it looks stunning! I love the new visual for digivolution. I also really liked that the first evolution of Birdramon like with Greymon is done differently! It gives it more of an impact. The cinematography in this episode is really good! Sora for once is portrayed as a very loving character. In the old show they tend to depict her as a bit cold. Sora this time around is much more the crest wielder of love. Immediately and without a doubt hugging  that strange pink animal that holds onto you.  Accepting her situation along with Taichi, even stating that since she is here she might as well make the best of it and there is no point to stress around this. I love this!  So many shows waste our time with the acclimatization phase. I know that  getting used to your environment makes sense but we all know it will happen anyway and this show wastes no time in having her faint at the strange sights.Forward! Towards the content we want to see. The statues of Hououmon and Seraphimon.. depicted from the looks of it as a Digimon deity also shows that this episode really respects the previous lore and just seeks to retell a tale in a new way and we might just get Mega’s for everyone! I really loved Sora’s depiction throughout and that is this entire episode so .. Digimon soars to new heights today.

Were there parts I did not like about this episode? I am not sure, maybe Sora was a bit TOO casual about her situation, but I get a feeling there might be something behind that. I think she might have a crush on Taichi so she is glad she is here with him?!  There are also a lot of little tributes to the old show here and there. I like how Sora’s new shirt which is pink holds a yellow BUTTERFLY, the yellow seems to be the colour of her original outfit yet at the same time it is kinda strange that some characters get different outfits and some don’t. I also had some issues with Sora’s immense physical strength. She can hold herself to a phoenix with one arm while flying very fast, she can lift a bag filled with camping supplies and a digimon without effort. Then again Ash held a 72 kilogram weighing Larvitar so this one isn’t that special.  While it may be a tad much it is great to see other destined can now shine! So while it took some suspense I am all for it. This show has clearly evolved.

I am going to do something strange and give Digimon Adventures Episode 4 my highest seal of approval. I had a blast with this episode. Perhaps it was the most amusing watch I have seen today. Sure this is no Flip Flappers and no Samurai Flamenco but what it did it did so well that I can barely fault it! I had a great time!

Samurai Flamenco Episode 11

I am so proud of Masayoshi he is finally legit.While I did love this episode this  one did make me a bit more unwilling to suspend my disbelief as it went somewhere I can’t exactly agree with yet.

The episode starts where we left off last time! Masayoshi has just revealed he is Samurai Flamenco when Red Axe or Jouji shows up at the scene. He tells Masayoshi to board a strange airship. Apparently all his travels abroad were a lie, in fact he has in secret been founding his own Sentai organisation. the Samurai Flamengers. He wants Masayoshi to become Flamen Red. They even have an underground base. You see.. King Torture was only a mild villian he was suported by a new evil organisation named From Beyond.. which seems to consist out of monsters who love to send people pixelised Trailers from their submerged space ship. To introduce their organisation in a way that looks a surprising lot like the intro from the old Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles cartoon. When Jouji wants to introduce Masayoshi to his new team we find out they have been murdered by a monster called Ugly Toxic Poison. So a back-up team is summoned.. The only problem is these are only Red Flamengers candidates. After some struggles Masayoshi is elected red and the group fights the monster as official Sentai..including a fight with a giant combiner robot.

As expected.. This episode fixed my issues with the last episode. The weird technology that King Torture had.. it was these alien folks of From Beyond who sponsored him.  Okay that was explained quick enough, the escalation also feels like how we swap Sentai seasons even. Including a replacement of the cast. Goto is sidelined and we see a new team of Sentai united in fighting for Justice.  While we know little of this new cast , and I doubt they will stick for too long, as the outfits do not seem on brand for Masayoshi.. weird reason to think they will be replaced soon huh,  and something just doesn’t feel right! The show is under my skin now.. what is happening.. what is going on? Will this last?  I love how this show makes me wonder about these things. Added with so many sentai tropes being tossed my way I feel like a girl who just got spoiled with lots of candy from grandma! So much happens and so much is done so well! The fights, the whole super robot thing, there is so much to unpack here I feel my appreciation for this episode might grow.

There is a big BUT in this one though.. it’s big enough to prevent it from getting my highest score and arguably big enough to even boot it to just being fine.  This episode killed a bit of the spirit of the show for me for now!  While it makes sense that Masayoshi can function as a ranger since Jouji trained him a lot of things are quite unbalanced by it. Why did From Beyond wait until the exact moment that King Torture croaked. It makes sense from a Sentai perspective.. so it is a great reference but in terms of narrative it makes very little sense. This show always walked that line perfectly for me and this time they heavily tilt over to one side. The fact that Masayoshi is able to pilot a plane for example makes no sense to me at all. Just minutes before Jouji explains that Masayoshi isn’t as ready to be a real sentai as those other people he trained here and so far Masayoshi has always operated within limits and now that is broken?  It is explained why his Sentai suit makes him stronger but it should not be able to allow him pilot a combiner mecha?!  I also REALLY hate Jouji as a character so I am not too pleased to see him survive this! …but hey props for at least having a lethal monster again… I think.

I liked this episode but I don’t want to lose Moe and Gotou from the show, I am afraid we will lose that humble tone it had before and instead move into a more classical Sentai show! I also had a bit of issues with the name of Samurai Flamenger on something Jouji came up with.. unless they link Masayoshi’s grandpa to the organisation in the next episode or so , so much came undone here! Yet that is why I will leave my verdict at Bery Good.. I feel the show will fix this and the episode in hindsight was very good! Right now it’s actually lower for me but this show has told me to trust it so for now I will.. with a healthy dose of scepsis.

That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime Episode 10

I got more of my pink ogre, they even made her cuter now!  They fixed a few designs I did not particularly like…. but that is also about all what this episode did for me.

Phew explaining the plot of this episode is kinda heart. We begin with a feast and the Ogres are invited to join Rimuru. The lead ogre doubts in swearing his loyalty to Rimuru and needs to think about it. We get some exposition on someone named Gelmud which seems to be the Plague doctor that is also named Rigur’s brother.  He serves one of the demon lords.
The ogres accept Rimuru’s offer and he names them all, after which he passes out.  After that we see more exposition on the orc army and learn there is a Lord Orc.. also a group of Lizard men seeks out aid in their war against the orcs who approach with a 200.000 strong army. Led by this Orc Lord. And that’s all that happened really.

I would not say this is a bad episode but it is even less a good episode. I love the new design for the most ogres, especially the pink one, named Shuna and Souei.. the sneaky blue one. The old man is cool as well and I like they have an Ogre who looks like a middle aged man as well. It offers some diversity among the Bishounen guys and pretty girls. Shion is one of those boob characters again so I don’t really care. Benimaru’s design is a bit too sleek for my liking but  it does submerge the standard trope-conform look he was before. The way the war against the ocrs is set up is nice and slowly builds some drama.

However this episode is in truth nothing more than exposition. They talk exposition during a meal, they talk exposition after the ogre’s have given names and even during they establish levels of monster classes. Almost every minute of this episode is exposition. Nothing is established through showing us everything happens through dialogue. Even the change in looks of all the ogres is mentioned into detail. After discussing the villain behind this, Gelmud, and discussing monster classes, we discuss the look change and then the lizard men begin to recruit people! We get hard numbers. Their army is only 100.000 strong and the orc army 200.000. Those seem like super weird numbers anyway  but after they tell us that 100.000 is a smaller number than 200.000 we see the son of the Lizardman king get a mission to recruit more people!  This could have been implied and might have gotten some tension but no everything has to be explained in this episode. Had I just listened to this episode (albeit in english then) I would have missed NOTHING important.. and that for an anime I think is a bad thing.

This episode easily is the worst I have seen in the series so far. It showcases some good new designs but once  more does the slime boob joke thing and other than that..it just tells us stuff we need to know. Also stuff we don’t need to know! Why linger 5 minutes on how everyone changed! We can see that! It wasn’t a bad episode but I did not enjoy myself here either.

Flip Flappers Episode 6

This was a cute episode that felt a bit clutterly here and there!  The second episode that isn’t going to get the highest grade. but one that still came pretty close by to snatching that appreciation.

Summarizing Flip Flapper Episodes can be quite hard and this one is no exception. Cocona and Papika baked cookies and they wanted to give their Senpai, the artsy one Iroha is here name Iroha Irodori.. or Iro for short.She likes Cocona’s cookies who for some reason are super nervous to give them to her! Papika is afraid to  walk into the class because the nailpolish overwhelms her senses. The three share a moment and suddenly we cut to a battle for one of the amorphous in Pure Illusion! This realm seems to be based on abstract paintings so it clearly represents Iro’s mind!  When the monster is defeated and the Amorphous is obtained, Yayaka comes to steal it. A fight ensues and while Papaki manages to retrieve the stone a portal is opened..one that seems to go deeper than Pure Illusion.

Inside we see how Iro had an old lady friend, who was suffering from dementia and ends up forgetting Iro. Cocona and Papika get to relive how happy Iro was with the woman unlike how locked up and limited she felt as an artist around her own parents. Scared off by the demention Iro never got to tell the demented lady her name so she rememberd and because of the guilt..she can’t wair nailpolish.  Papika and Cocona cope with the pain of losing a loved one in Dementia and introduce themselves as Iro to the old lady! Fixing the memory and allowing Iro to finally wear nailpolish .. or something?! So now Papika and Cocona can dive deeper so they can influence people’s minds? Maybe?! We will see soon.

My grandpa at the end of his life had dementia. I have seen him not recognise me anymore.. but also that spark of .. it is someone important I have forgotten. That is something this episode captures pretty good. The whole metaphor of an abstract painting or the weird style fitted in really well with it. It’s also nice to see that there is more at stake than just these Amorphous things.  Once more there is a duality in this episode. Papika and Cocona can only walk in one world of Iro at the time. The world of her parents where she had to hide her creativity where she had to be normal.. or the world with her “auntie” who supports her dreams and lets her bloom in the way she wants to be. However it is soon shown that that last world is not as durable. It will come crashing down sooner. The pain of loss can seem greater than the pain of locking things away. Eventually though both join together in realising that both sides of Iro have grown and can finally face that obstacle she could not overcome.
I really liked a lot of things here.

At the same time, I am not sure about the relevance of it. Where the last episode developed Cocona and Papika further as a possible couple and at least boosted the rivalry between them and Yayaka, this seems to not do anything for anyone at all. Except for Iro.. who in the big picture seems irrelevant. Maybe that is the point but this is a relatively short show so It can’t afford too much to linger without progress. It really is quite a touching episode but it is hard to grasp what just happened. Did Cocona and Papika help Iro? What was that portal even?  Maybe it was Iro dealing with things herself and that allowed Cocona and Papika to take a peek? I don’t mind the vagueness normally but here I am not sure if anything was gained with this episode so I am not as impressed as usual.

The topic of dementia is handled pretty well and I was emotional a few times during this episode. I felt what the characters felt can say it certainly was powerful. Yet I can’t say this episode felt relevant.  As if it’s a Van Gogh and a Rembrandt Exposition. It sure is a pretty piece of art and it can stand well on it’s own but you still can’t shake it doesn’t fully belong. Even if it’s strong on its own accord if you are at home and tell the weakest part of it to your art loving friends you are going to mention there was a Van Gogh that did not really fit and designate that as the flaw ..even if some of Rembrandt’s works could not hold a candle to that piece.

Hikaru no Go Episode 16

We get introduced to a new character in this episode! Also the Dutch player returns with a lot of art from his team! One guy is so horrible! He wears an orange shirt and has orange hair.. based on our sports teams that all play in orange! Like.. please don’t make him important!

I could summarise the plot by saying Hikaru let’s Sai play more online matches. And that would perfectly encapsulate what this episode is about! But I think I can add a few more lines. In the process of playing. Sai defeats a few people online including the young Insei (which is a sort of protege that tries to go pro) Waya , who plays by the name of Zelda. I do hope he realises it’s the name of the princess. A chinese, Italian and the Dutch Pro alos get defeated by Sai so all travel to Japan to some sort of expo on Go to find Sai. Waya however is the first to discover Sai might be a school kid! At the expo thing the search begins. Also Waya took the exam to go pro and faced Akira for a bit.

That is all I can make of the plot, there aren’t many other matches shown except parts of them. It offers a nice variation on the previous episodes. Waya is very much like Touya , he got beaten by Sai and now wants to find out everything about this person. His obsession takes about the same levels, but Waya seems less interested in playing against them and more so into discovering who they are. As Sai seems to be one of the most talented players he has ever seen, not believing he is a pro. I really like the Waya character, he is clever and driven and in my opinion a bit of a less annoying Akira. Later on he will also be the perfect crutch for Akira and Hikaru to become entangled again. Right now with how Pro players are set up and Touya Senior keeps getting named dropped I suspect they will host a big online tournament where Sai ends up defeating Touya Senior at the end of the arc or so.. and Waya revealing to him it was Hikaru. I might be very far off here.. but regardless I feel this show is steadily building to a big  story!  With Waya being an element I might very well come to appreciate. 

I once again think that the cinematography for the online matches isn’t that great. About half way in the episode in a montage we see a cool visual of Sai’s fan going over a board followed by clicks of Hikaru but over all, it lacks the impact the other episodes did!  It just feels less impressive.  I also really lack a bit of mentoring Sai could give to Hikaru here! This is the perfect time to make him a better player.. show him explaining to Hikaru why he plays what where so we know Hikaru is growing. Instead we see him depicted as a gleeful manchild who just wants to play! Come on guys do something that bond! Show you are a pair not two individuals in one body! I miss the synergy here! This is the perfect time to train Hikaru and teach him things. I get that this tournament focusses on Pro’s and Hikaru is not at that level.. but they also establish that Sai also challenges no pro players.. use those moments to show that against a weaker opponent Sai quizzes Hikaru on what to play next or something and I would be content.. but  just do something!

I love the set up for Waya and his potential, I really like how the story possibilities are set up as they go along. I feel this  series builds itself as an actual Go game.. not just making a moves for that episode but also setting up moves for later in the game. I see potential, I see a possible future. Yet at the same time I feel more and more that this bond between Sai and Hikaru isn’t fully utilised because both  the focus is too much on the individual. I want that bond from episode 6 back! I know you can do it! In the end it’s a strong episode that did not quite live up to its maximum potential.

So that was five shows again! While all episodes did amuse me, except for Slime.. there was a theme there! Most of these episodes did not live up to their potential in the bigger picture while providing some decent entertainment on it’s own! Maybe my mind is on the future a lot? On the personal front I had bad experience with my father, he really dropped us as his family! So that was a bad experience! I planned something with Mom and my sister to have some fun and shake it off and we did that fairly well. I had a pretty persisting case of insomnia as well. I think I haven’t reached over four hours of sleep for almost 10 days now. So my brain is a bit mushy! I have dinner with a friend today! He kept wanting to make it an entire day out but I told him I had no energy at all so with Covid reservations and the prices it was not something I want to risk.. I can feel so drained I can barely walk. I can sit out a dinner but after that I need a nap or some quite time. He is very intense as well, I tried so hard to make it clear that I am low energy but it did not work for a long while.

Next week we are celebrating my sister’s birthday. Indigo’s first blog should also go live! Maybe even Kuro’s if the weather doesn’t go insane! I might skip a day of posting somewhere to do some house cleaning but I will try to make sure you will get some amazing content! I wish you all a great next week! Tell me how your week was in the comments!