Tag: Pinkie is having an awesome saturday

The Perfect Saturday! Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 19

Yo Island Guests! So I’ve decided to give these things episode titles now! Why?! Well if you can’t guess from the title you don’t deserve to know! Teehee!  So how was this week for me?! It was pretty solid! I haven’t heard of my new rental contract yet so I am a bit anxious for that. Dad quarantined himself so we did not get to see him again either. So instead me and my sister went to visit mom and we had a nice afternoon. Board Game night at Bean’s place was pretty fun as well and tonight my GBF is coming over and I am sure that might be nice! Speaking of Nice… this week’s anime… it was perfect.

Digimon Adventure Episode 7

Wow.. normally I’d rank my episodes saying which spot in the top 5 they take. This week however everything was really really good! It began with Digimon really impressing me and I was sure it was going to be my favourite episode of the watch as soon as I saw it.

In this Episode the Chosen Ones travel towards the sea in an attempt to cross it.  Mimi is lounging in a chair enjoying the tea that her butler Palmon made for her. Having no sea worthy digimon in their team they decide to evolve Biyomon into Birdramon to scout ahead.  When they encounter a strange vortex in the water , Bidramon gets hit with a mysterious attack and takes some serious damage. With a defenceless Biyomon the group has no chance but to retreat. They are helped out by a cheerful young Digimon named Gomamon who tells them he has a partner as well and he brings them to Joe. Joe Kido is the senpai of Taichi and Sora and they vaguely recognise him but something is wrong! Joe isn’t at all interested in being a chosen one. He knows he lacks the physical strength and the courage to be a hero and besides that his family RELIES on him to become the next generation of doctors to help people in a way where he CAN make a difference. He refuses a partnership with Gomamon because of this as he can’t let people down.  Gomammon travels with the group and they decide to cross the canal but they have to deal with the tentacle digimon named Gesomon.

Since Birdramon got injured last time and used a lot of energy to keep her evolution up so long to scout the last time she is out of the fight for now. Thus Gomamon decided to be bait and lure Gesomon to shore so Greymon and Togemon can fight with an advantage. However because Gomamon gets injured the squid like digimon flees back in the water again and the group is at a disadvantage. Gomamon gets slapped around and Joe, who came to spy on them, feels responsible. Gomamon needs him just as much as his family needs him to become a doctor. Gomamon being aquatic is the only one who can help them here.. they have to rely on him. Joe realises this and talks to Gomamon, who tells Joe that it doesn’t matter if he isn’t;’t brave or strong, they are a group he can rely on others just like they can rely on him. Joe accepts this which causes Gomamon to evolve to Ikkakumon. Using his Harpoon Vulcan technique he alongside his friends defeat the evil squid. Joe joins the team and on Ikakumon’s back they travel across the water-straight. 

Okay so that is a whole lot of plot.. but I had to because that was the strongest thing in this episode. I loved how everything was so connected into a compelling narrative where everyone was needed. Bidramon is established as a scout.. but also gets taken down  for understandable reasons. This gives Joe and Gomamon a perfect opportunity to step in. Joe not having time for Gomamon was established as a problem in the earlier show as well but it came AFTER they had bonded so much which always made me hate Joe.. to make him start off with that trait and to burden him with his virtue however was such great thinking. It feels like a much healthier version of Joe. Early on he was amazing but after S2 was launched and especially in Tri he was this mean selfish bastard. This actually fixes Joe for me.

The way they kept in the princess Mimi thing with her having a luxury chair out of nowhere also felt funny and it made her stand out so much more yet again. Having Taichi rely on Mimi instead of Sora like he did before also spreads the screen time across the chosen ones and for every narrative problem that could arise in this situation they had a valid solution. This way you can unlock the Ultimate stage digimon way sooner as well as everyone really is working on that virtue they have so I expect this to be much better paced. Maybe not even needing a mc-guffin like the crests. I loved the animations and the camera angles for this one too. We got much more close ups which allowed for much more detail to be inserted here as well as it made the ocean more vast and the Digimon bigger! It really did everything right for me.

This episode did not really have any weaknesses for me that at least are not inherent to the genre. The monster of the week was a logical complication for a problem that needed to be dealt with the way things unfolded made perfect sense for what this episode needed to do and Gomamon and Joe got a fantastic introduction. This show seems to be way more focussed on the characters rather than just the adventure and it works out so great for this show. Now that they polished away last weeks cinematography/graphic issues nothing can stop me from giving this show my highest rating.

Samurai Flamenco Episode 14

After last week, thoughts of dropping this show came into my head if it did not pick up by episode 15. Yet by Arceus.. this episode improved SO much!  It threw some amazing twists at us and it felt “fun to watch” again

Last week’s episode  was a rather big downer for me tonally it seemed to grim and while this episode continues that dire situation there is much more a hint of positivity again. The Hero’s dilemma has been dealt with and Masayoshi is receiving positive feedback from it.. as well as negative but he stands by what he does.  From Beyond will attack the next day and the government is not playing very nice only wanting to evacuate VIPS. This results in Masayoshi making a plea to the people to help the Flamengers out.. but mostly to stay safe. The president scolds him for his mistakes but it seems the choice is made and so we move into the final battle. A battle against the 60.000+  members  of From Beyond. The group uses their Robo’s to fight them but quickly get overwhelmed.  There are to many tiny monsters, and also a need for the combiner robo but they can’t do everything. When Flamen pink is about to die she gets rescued by Red Axe  who recruited all the other Sentai who now have actual Sentai powers. I love that trope in Sentai episodes.  They all fight together when the strongest member of From Beyond contacts the Flamengers requesting to meet with Flamen Red.  It is then revealed he is From Beyond Flamenco.. Massayoshi’s brother.

This episode is gempacked full of sentai goodness. The Sentai cross over is always my favourite moment in any power ranger series and even though we only saw the other sentai as fictional characters in this world somehow seeing them show up still feels amazing and powerful. The monster designs as well as the silly sentai designs make sure that this episode is also gem packed with humor, even if there are no actual jokes. There are just so many visual gags that this episode is a delight to watch. The action is fun and I worried for Flamen Pink. We get a few great scenes where Mari is being picked up by her friends as well as Mrs Kaname finding that handkerchief revealing it is actually from Flamen Pink trying to convince Joji/Red Axe to commit adultery but he refuses it.  So many characters here get a redemption arc just before Japan is destroyed and that is pretty amazing. The glum atmosphere is washed away with tons of fun references and a lot of negatives are revealed to “not be as bad” as they think! Yet with Japan at stake with a big monster in a Mount Fuji.we can’t rest yet! I am so excited for next week.

Do I have any negatives to this episode?  Not really and that will be a theme across this installment of Anime Adventure. The only thing I will say here is that I am a bit dissapionted that Masayoshi’s brother was not hinted at before. In a way it makes sense because it’s always a mystery family member that shows up  but I would have liked to see their twist on this rather than them doing this trope.  This is only a nitpick though as I am happy with this one as well. The one sloppy thing  I found a bit dumb is the fact that non of the Flamengers family decided to be rescued. Some have a great reason like just having triplets and thus the flamenger only having five spots to give away.. and not having room for the childeren.. but others felt dumb. “We do not want to be saved, because you are in love with a married man”  seems like a stupid reason to die for. 

The fact that both Sentai and human’s fought side by side paid tribute to what this series is about for me and it shows the two sides of Masayoshi.. this entire episode to me is a perfect mix between season 1 and season 2 and works towards a great conclusion of that story arc. I adore this episode not only for being vastly entertaining but also fixing some past mistakes! I know this series has a habit for that.. but today I was completely blown out of the water.. and that is why it earned today’s rating.

That Time I got reincarnated as a Slime Episode 13

I can’t believe they actually gave Gabiru a good fight, I also can’t believe how badass this episode was without Rimuru even doing a single thing. This episode made the “side” characters shine and shine they did in a very good episode that was the great buildup to an even bigger battle.

Now that Gabiru has betrayed his father and taken the crown he takes the offence to the orcs, not knowing about their Hunger ability that allows them to steal abilities from the dead. When a Lizardman gets eaten by the powered up orcs, suddenly they can move through the swamp without problems and any advantage the lizardmen have gotten is gone. Luckily Rimuru’s ‘dreamboat’ Souei  saves Gabiru’s sister who then meets up with RImuru a bit later on. The slime names her acting chieftain and forms an official alliance. Now the ogres and Gobta can  official step into battle. Ranga as well. While the dryad confronts Gelmud in the forest Ranga, Souei, Shion Benumaru and that old guy.. I forgot his name.. show of their skill. Which easily wipes the orc army of the map. The lizardman king is also rescued and he is glad to have these powerful allies. Rimuru watches from the sky and finally finds the Orc Warlord as Ranga effortlessly deals with an Orc General and evolves into a Star Tempest Wolf.

While nowhere near as narrative as any of the other episodes here, this was such a “power walk” episode.  One of those HECK yeah. Where Digimon was one of the best written episodes, and Flamenco was the ultimate redemption and the best “on brand” episode.   This one made me feel so good and it was such an epic feeling. I love how these creatures can decimate entire armies with a snap of their finger. The way it is all brought onto my screen is really good. The poses, the difference in height, the colours, the motions. It all felt very satisfying. Yet my favourite moment is when Shion reassures Gabiiru’s sister he is going to save her. Not only reflecting her perfect faith in him.. but also doing her job as his secretary. When she used her Getsuga Tenshou like attack and waved at Rimuru after having created a giant crater was great too. It had the perfect tone for such an episode for me. 

Dislikes.. well.. I am kinda sad Gabiru did not die.. but that is more personal. He had a pretty good fight against the general, which actually works as a great measuring stick to how powerful the rest is. Gabiru is slightly below the Orc General and Gobta can knock out Gabriu in one attack so he is most likely above.. and he is one of the lesser warriors of the village. Gobta not getting the kill on the general is a bit of a missed chance and maybe powering Ranga up more was not needed.. but man his special attack looked so great.
So while I can come up with a few flaws I can also give a counter argument.

This episode is something slime really needed. We finally get to see what the evolved henchmen of Rimuru are capable off and despite them being so powerful I felt thoroughly entertained. It is a nice twist on the Isekai genre to not only see the protagonist overpowered but his side characters too! This episode just really worked for me and it  made me a very happy Pinkie to be able to watch this. I could come up with flaws but I was happy so who cares.

Flip Flappers Episode 9

I never would have thought that I would like an episode with a negative mindset so soon after seeing Cocona restore from one, but this one really worked for me. I also begin to suspect some things here as the plot thickens.

Cocona is angry at Papika for calling her Mimi. Thinking she is insensitive for misremembering her. Papika isn’t aware of any ill actions on her behalf and gets angry at Cocona for ignoring her and treating her like filth.  When they dive into Pure Illusion again they arrive in a scene almost like the loading room in the Matrix. Yayaka is send to deal with them and steal their Amorphous.. a new Amorphous sister who kinda looks like Papika is to be her replacement if she fails. When Cocona is trapped with the other two twins Papika and Yayaka fight over Cocona and the Amorphous. We find out  how Yayaka and Cocona met over medical testing.. but we also find out their friendship has been staged as Yayaka is supposed to monitor her.

Papika gets pretty beaten up by Yayaka but despite the twins lying to her Cocona eventually finds out Papika really DOES care about her.  Breaking the trap. The two are reunited but once more attacked by Yayaka. Papika gets taken down and the two childhood friends face off with Cocona losing. When Yayaka is forced to cut out the shard in Cocona’s leg.. she refuses and the twins attack and nearly kill her.  Papika saves the pair and the twins leave with the shard. Papika and Cocona bring Yayaka to Flip Flap where she is about to be nursed back to health.. waiting for any news Papika has a drew and yels out for Mimi again revealing it was her former partner.

This episode was the most emotionally powerful of todays line up. I felt genuinely concerned for Papika , Cocona and even Yayaka.  I understood this conflict as well.So I get why this became an issue. To me it seems to indicate that Cocon indeed is falling in love with Papika and coming to accept it more and now being mistaken for someone else hurts. Yayaka balancing friends and duty might not be a theme directly related to me as I would not be in her shoes but it is a place I saw some of my friends be in.I loved that Papika finally stepped up for herself and would not let Cocona treat her the way she does. She is indeed a super loving grl and she doesn’t deserve to be treated that way.

The empty world with the defective trap fascinates me.. I think this is once again a reflection of Cocona.. and with the mystery that has been building up, pure Illusion might resolve more around Cocona than we are led to think. That medical test that happened on her.. the fact that she has a shard in her leg. I also think Papika’s former partner is the third amorphous child. The other ones are called Yuyu and Toto so Mimi would fit that same namesake. Meanwhile Papika, Cocona and Yayaka also have a very similar naming convention. So I still think Yayaka might become a third Flip Flap girl if she doesn’t die. 

Okay so these weren’t exactly positives about the show but any show that makes me thing this much must be captivating. I don’t see animated characters , I genuinely care about them!  This episode made me realise that more than ever. I felt for all of them! It is structured in a way where it really does that very well. The fact that nothing except the characters exists in this episode highlights that.. Well there is the defensive trap which I think symbolises Cocona constantly putting up walls towards Papika. First because she is so dangerous, because she is so weird, because things happen she did not expect etc. I should be talking about the negatives in this paragraph but as you might hav guessed there are none. 

I never like the break up trope, so when I saw how this episode started I was super worried, however unlike episode 7 I think this episode did it well. This fight stems from a bigger narrative that drives the plot further much more than the incident in episode 7 did.  The fact that the fight was mutual this time helped that as well and the fact that these emotions feel earned. Not only is this is the first  “our heroes” fight episode in Flip Flappers that I REALLY like., I think this one is an example on how it should be tackled for other shows. This is my new benchmark for that trope! So with that honour what other grade could I give…

Hikaru no Go Episode 19

After last week I was afraid that I would be shoved into an arc about Akira and Waya and I would not see how much Hikaru improved after the Internet Go arc. Luckily I was proven wrong.. I was so wrong.. and I am super happy about it!

The deals with Hikaru’s return to school and people noticing his growth during the holiday.  He beats Mitani with a handicap in his favor and he beats Tsutsui without a handicap! Finally he  seems to have caught up! Sai now wants to play Hikaru but there is one problem. Hikaru has no Go table. So he goes to his grandpa and ask him to buy one for him, he even wants to play Go with him to buy an expensive one.. or get the table that Sai possessed. His grandpa is astounded by  Hikaru’s talent showing he was a prize-winning Go player himself. While grandpa would win he forfeits as he thinks Hikaru has become so good in such a short timespan that he deserves one of those go tables with legs.

  This allows Hikaru to play Sai and after working out some “bugs” in their playing we see he grows stronger so fast that he can even beat Mitani on equal grounds.  Akiri meanwhile gets a new female recruit for the Go club and gets confronted with her feelings for Hikaru..Mitiani become more serious and Tsutsui is having to graduate this year so we are introduced to the new rules of this year and a new “season” of Go.

This episode was the most rewarding viewing experience of all the five to watch. You finished the Internet Go Arc “here you go.. all the character development that happened during that arc will be neatly presented to you”  Once again I love it! This is what I said I  wanted to see last episode and it is exactly what I got.  While it lacks the spectacular imagery that the previous episode had it was a great touch to show the next tier of this story to begin where it all began. At Hikaru’s grandpa’s house. To show the progress by taking him past the Go club he used to visit by making him face both Mitani and TsuTsui!  There is cleverness in that design.  We know how weak Hikaru was at the Go Club as he got kicked for his weird behaviour and barely could follow, now he can beat their strongest student. We can see him face Tsutsui and Mitani and they acknowledge him for his own skill not Sai’s now! We see the passion he has gotten for the game. This episode did so much for Hikaru!

The title of this 19th installment is not for nothing. This anime also gets my highest score! I had little to no gripes. Seeing Akiri do her thing was nice and we even got to see her develop and recruit a female friend. I am so happy for her. However there is one gripe I had with this episode and that is how Sai is depicted. He has been depicted like this before but he is obnoxiously playful when begging for a game.  His awkwardness around the board feels unprofessional. His demeanour doesn’t fit that of a ghost who commited suicde over losing a rigged match in front of the emperor. I don’t mind if he gets like this sometimes but this guy is supposed to be the absolute zenith. He displays this whimsical a bit too often and when facing an extremely strong opponent I get it.. but for facing Hikaru it seems a bit much! Still a nitpick but it was an actual gripe I had here.

The fact that Sai can be a tad annoying did not make me think that much less of the episode though! It is still  very good and I do get why it happens. This show needs that kind of flavouring as well. I just wish I could respect him a tiny bit more! Now I just like him/ I like him well enough though so all in all I am still very happy with what unfolded for me today! This weekend was the perfect weekend! When it comes to anime at least!

And my weekend ended perfectly! At least when anime is concerned! Besides a bad migraine on Monday I had a great week! For the next week I will actively pursue my rental contract for my new home! So it will be an exciting but also kind of stressful week. I would see my dad again but he cancelled out yet again, which this week is actually nice as I have more liberties to chase that contract I want so bad! I am so happy if I can get out of this place! We have a verbal agreement already just waiting for the paperwork!

For the blog next week! I am going to tell you about the adventures in my Pokémon Heart Gold Randomiser Nuzlocke started this week, I watch a movie about a very jumpy prince person and I play a retro game one again! We will also see Sunny’s first post go live! Telling us an amazing story about fishing! So you can look forward to that! Speaking about something fishy!?! Did you know the fictional museum of Paradise holds a cursed jewel that is said to be worth a lot of money?! Well I know of a shady guy who really wants it! If you don’t want me to do anything FISHY, like that please consider supporting my Kofi page!

Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 17

Another week is done! It’s been a post where I struggled with my health a bit. Insomnia caused some extreme fatigue issues in the middle of this week and my heart being a bit weak at times caused me some extreme nausea in the earlier parts of yesterday! All good now though! Happy and with colour on my cheeks again! Time to tell you about the anime I watched saturday!

Digimon Adventure Episode 5

Holy Digicow  another week that Digimon is my favourite view of the day?! What’s up with them?! Yet again another very solidly paced  episode with plenty of action to balance the fair amount of exposition! And so much great foreshadowing! Wow!

In this episode Sora and Taichi reach some ruins of what was once a great temple. Using their digivices they can read the mystical text on giant stone slabs and it asks them to feel the words. Once they touch the slab they get a vision of a digital world of the past. A war was fought with the Mega forms of the Digidestined digimon partaking in this war. They also see Omnimon again. They learn that they, along with other chosen ones, have a role to fulfill to help their digimon evolve and face evil. If they can’t stop this evil it will leak out into the network and eventually into their work. From inside the belly of a Whamon Koshiro deduces that this in fact must be happening right now.. but through his digivice he shares this vision. 

Also it turns out the statue is not of Hououmon but the digimon whose feathers Takeru and Kairi have been getting.  Almost as if it is one of the three digimon deities. Yet to my knowledge the holy trinity was always Ophanimon, Seraphimon and Cherubimon.  So who is this?!  Before all exposition is given however both Koshiro inside Whamon as Sora and Taichi are attacked by the forces of evil! The Goggle boy and helmethatted companion are attacked by Dokugomon who trap them inside the pantheon of ruins with their webs and Koshiro is attacked by Tylamon. Through the power of evolution all the forces of evil get dispatched and we learn of a mysterious digimon that controls others with sound.. and it seems to belong to Devimon! Now that Kabuterimon has been introduced.. Koshiro travels on him to meet up with the group and we pan to plant-village. A cute Pelmon runs around..towards a girl with a pink dress and pink hat! Mimi is here! Yay!

This show is SO well paced out in comparison to the original. We get background story, we get world mythos, we see every character so very much established!  Koshiro uses his smarts to analyse attack patterns and uses it to dodge foes. Sora once again is very lovable towards Biyomon (whom I shall keep referring as Biyomon even if in Japanese it’s Piyomon)
We see their mission, get teased  with the return of a classic foe, and now that we know these three digidestined we get introduced to the next one. There were so many great moments and the pacing is so nice. For example at one point Birdramon needs to escape from a web so Biyomon digivolves real time. In the fight that happens next that has much more a montage feeling to the beat of the new intro song we see the “stock footage” digivolution scene of Greymon. Both feel incredibly well paced.  Koshiro is making contact with Tentamon when the evolution occurs so he also gets a real time evolution sequence which again fits the tone needed greatly. The whole backstory about the original war gives this world so many more layers and Kabuterimon’s fight was pretty awesome. My favourite scenes would be the hints of Devimon and Mimi coming, I want more! And I nearly broke my own rule and continued to watch on! I was that excited.

I have little gripes with this episode. If anything, displaying Digimon’s names even if we saw them before looks a bit tacky in red but it is very readable.. I just don’t read Kanji so it feels a bit wasted. The only real gripe I had is that Taichi and Sora seem to have forgotten soundwaves were running through the web earlier, when Koshiro mentions a soundwave using Digmon over communications. That feels a bit cheap. Biyomon tells him  that she saw  Digimon before and in fairness Digimon eyes , especially birds would be much better than that of a human so the problem is subverted a bit but there the exposition given in this episode felt a bit forced. Only standing out because of good the backstory is delivered in the rest of the episode. It is a very lore heavy episode and to me as a fan, that lore came with a lot of interesting visuals. I could recognise Mega’s I could recognise other important elements of the digital world. Perhaps if you are less versed with this world it might be less appealing to you. But I can’t judge that I can just speak for myself! 

This in a way reminds me of my beloved DuckTales reboot..but maybe better. Both tell an old story in a contemporary way but add much more substance to the world. However where Ducktales came from an episodic format to this mory story driven one.. Digimon already had this sort of Origin with a progessive storyline. It really seems to fix everything what did not work about the old digimon and weave a much more interesting tale. Assuming this show will run as long AS other Digimon series I love this pacing! I love how this episode gives us something new.. some fun action to digest it and then sets us up for another episode! As far as my viewing experience goes! I can’t fault it!

Samurai Flamenco Episode 12

Unlike Digimon this is an episode I can fault! I loved a lot.. but there was also a lot of stuff I really hated as well. I am still not sure but the show seems to be making choices I really don’t think fit in with what came before. For the first time since I started watching it Samurai Flamenco was my least favourite watch of the day.

We see Masayoshi be part of the Flamengers and do their thing in this episode. In a style very similar to how Samurai Flamenco.. the character got rushed to his final battle.  We see all three of the other monster generals being dispatched in this episode!  We also get a really weird new opening. Why weird? Because it only shows the fight against Ugly Toxic Poison and no new stuff. It barely even focuses on the flamengers.  Something feels fishy about it.
We see Masayoshi struggle with his new command and with being respected…this leads the Flamengers to be in more danger than they have to be! We see some act to cold others to be hot headed and Masayoshi needs to pull them all together! Even if his heart might point out one way or the other. Because he misses his old life he goes back to Goto.. mostly because the new team doesn’t want to eat Curry with him.  They talk a bit and we find out that Moe has been depressed because Mari went missing.  She is living in Goto’s closet and still trying to seduce him. He seems less averse of her but that might be me! Masayoshi tries to recruit Goto as the Yellow Flamenger but he refuses. The Flamengers fight the final two generals of From Beyond and defeat them ..after they find out one of them is actually 43 monsters. Slowly the team begins to respect Masayoshi and they go eat curry together.

I did not enjoy myself that much with this episode. Something felt off for me. I don’t like how easy controlling that giant Robot feels like and how easy these new abilities are to wield for Masayoshi.  I do not like that Moe suffers without Mari! Yet I also saw a lot of good things. As always it does a great job on setting up stuff. I liked how their robot’s emblem could melt in the heat, I love how Masayoshi’s career is now inverse as how he started. My favourite scene is him encountering a drunk man on the street smoking. Masayoshi tells him it’s a no smoking zone and the guy recognises him and puts out the cigarette without polluting and puts it away. Thanking Masayoshi for all his good work. That is a really great callback to the show before. I also like how his reliance on Sentai Tropes makes him think of a good solution later on in the episode! There are some very solid thoughts going into here. I also really liked how the Giant Robo took realistic damage from the fire! That isn’t a thing in Sentai shows normally.

I really do not like the flamengers though! The way everything is paced, how Masayoshi suddenly doesn’t have to learn things anymore, the way every important element is dispatched without impact. this doesn’t feel like a team. In part that is what this episode meant to convey. I like how everyone tells what they add to the team in a documentary style but suddenly that style is dropped near the last bit of the episode so it doesn’t fully pay off. It also shows you a big problem. I know nothing about these other guys. So I am not invested at all in what they do. I don’t feel invested in these fights. I recognise it’s still solid. I am just not having any fun with these guys, they feel flat and one dimensional.  It feels like I suddenly have really bad seats in a cinema.  I can sorta follow the movie and it’s sorta good still but with all these tiny little annoyances around I just can’t get sucked up into it anymore. I do not like the Flamenger design as it feels as a downgrade of the very personal costume Masayoshi had, I can’t be invested in their weapons because they now have so much less flavor.  Even their posing explosion is dull and grey as if something is off! It lacks the energy it should have..maybe it is intended..but I just felt a whole lot of meh.

I can’t score it to harshly though because there still is so much great writing going on! I just don’t care about it as much! It is an issue that needs to be fixed though, maybe now that Masayoshi is forming bonds so can we.. or maybe we go with something new yet again.. like I said things feel off! The opening was weird and a few things do not align and this show is to clever for it to not mean anything. As a solo episode however this did not do anything for me.

That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime Episode 11

Slime climbed back up a fair bit after last week’s episode. It still did not reach the level of some of the episodes before but this was a very entertaining episode nonetheless. It takes the number three spot for me. 

Gabiru the named Lizardman shows up at the Village of Rimuru and tells him he now can serve Gabiru.. which doesn’t go over well with the Ogre’s , Ranga or Rimuru himself.. but first we see Shion’s cooking actually kill Gobta. …well not actually kill.. but everyone assumed he was dead. He has become a bit of the Meg Griffin of Slime which I had a lot of fun with.  Gabiru challenges Rimuru for ownership of Ranga but there is one problem. If any of these guys fight Gabiru they will almost certainly kill him and they want to find out what he has to say. So a Gobta.. who luckily gained poison resistance because of Shion’s food is there to fight for them. Threatening that Gobta might have to eat more of that food if he loses the little HobGoblin is unleashed and trashes Gabiru who tells the village that an army of 200.000 orcs is coming. Which one of their scouts confirms. Rimuru tells Gabiru he can come back later to talk about an alliance but he will not work under him.. and then a Dryad shows up! Pleading for Rimuru to go out and defeat the mysterious Orc Lord named by Demon Lord Gelmund. Since the group more or less were gonna do that anyway this hardly seems like an offer Rimuru will reject.. but the episode ends before we see an answer.

Comedy-wise this episode had a few great hits for me. The poisoned food scene was very funny and Shion and Shuna’s fight for Rimuru’s affection was done in a way that visually really pleased me.  Even if Shuna is a bit of a throw away character for a princess for now , instead just weaving. The other ogre’s also all add something to the village. It fleshes them out a bit more.  The treat of the Orc Army is now nice and thickly layered on and it will allow the show to go a few directions. Will they go for a direct confrontation or first recruit more allies for Rimuru’s little group? Everything is possible and that is what this show does well. It sets up expectations but also ways to subvert them. The way to write off Gobta so cold and cruelly came out of nowhere yet felt in line with what was shown before. His return however also did! I really expected him to be dead. The way Gobta used his powers as cool and I loved the visuals in this episode! I am happy that not everything is solved through Rimuru’s powers and they do come with a drawback.

Yet this episode felt like it was slacking a bit. It dragged in some parts. The rivalry between Shuna and Shion for example.  It was pretty established yet the seen lingered for a while to make some boob jokes and fangirl jokes. It wasn’t bad but it feels like it just could have been a bit snapier. Gobta’s fight was an example of how it was paced well but for some reason Rimuru kept imagining how the situation would have gone differently.. which all was super obvious! I don’t need to imagine Gabiru annoying people so much they will beat him to death! I know that would happen anyway. It kind of feels like those skits in Scrubbs the tv show where JD imagines a situation going elsewhere, it can be fun..but for some reason those fantasies are kept really toned down.. almost still images as if it’s a virtual novel..with some extra art. Because of this these scenes do not land for me and put a brake on the flow the episode. 

In the end the episode felt like a kid in one of those pedal cars. It’s cute and charming and it does move forward and you can clearly see where he is going..Yet it is also a bit impractical meaning the kid can’t really move as fast as they would like and the spectacle becomes a mix of endearing but also awkward. Still a mighty fine episode!

Flip Flappers Episode 7

This episode made me appericate the episode before a lot more! It contributed to things before I even knew! So with that my gripe against the last episode was gone. This one I really liked..yet because of the theming it ended up  at the fourth space when it came to my favourite views.

The plot of this episode.. how do I talk about that?!  Papika and Cocona discover that they have altered the personality of Iro-Senpai and feel really guilty about it. Suddenly she doesn’t care too much for art anymore and she paints her nails. Did they break her? Did they fix a trauma for her? Nobody exactly can tell them what happend and thusly Cocona doesn’t want to dive into pure Illusion anymore. “The Break-up”  is one of the anime tropes I really like the least so doubts if they should continue what they are doing midway a show.. that is about them doing THAT thing..fllies under that same banner for me.  They force Cocona into Pure Illusion however and she ends in an exact duplicate of her world.. with all sorts of different Papika’s.  Reflecting her doubts about change most likely. Is Papika still Papika if she is a pretty boy, or a scary girl? It seems these all reflect different aspects Cocona’ thinks about when thinking of Papika. The girl she can learn from, the scary girl, the pretty boy which she is attracted to and the little sister she must keep safe and tries to appeal to her. These are all aspects we have seen from Papika towards Cocona before.  In the end Cocona is unable to find the real Papika and she falls into a hole but Papika comes to rescue her with a spaceship made of the sewer pipe where they first met and Papika’s alleged house. or her stay over place at least.  They then fall into a field of flowers and Papika’s shard glows.. as she suddenly has a memory of being Mimi? A man has a shard that resonates with hers.

I really liked this episode from a distant observer kind of way. It was fun to see these different incarnations of Papika and see how they actually tie in  with the actual Papika. It was strong to see a much more realistic but empty world reflecting Cocona’s worries. It also shows to me at least how hard it sometimes is to separate dreams from reality. It can be really hard to tell, and sometimes in the real world even when there are actually people around you can feel as Lonely and lost as Cocona feels.  I do think once more they depicted her struggle very well. I like how we do not get a magical girl transformation in this episode either  as it was much more about Cocona’s issues to deal with what just happened and given what just happened these are very reasonable and logical doubts. So as far as cohesion is concerned this is one of the stronger episodes. The tinier form of storytelling, the much clearer metaphors. It very much works for the episode they made.

But yet again, I did not feel that swept up by it. I know why Cocona is having doubts and it makes so much sense..but with half a series to go I know it won’t last and that is my big issue with this trope. I get that it’s a storyline and in the context of what happened it works yet this trope never carries too much weight with it because there still is half a show to go until characters will get over it. Just like I know that Cocona won’t die at least not before the second to last episode, it feels just a tad pointless to make us the audience think she won’t be.. because.. who are you trying to fool?! While a character is in mortal danger there still is an excitement in showing how they escape. However when a character has to make a decision that struggle is much harder to make exciting. As a result the issue of Cocona’s inner conflict feels a bit like a non issue. We know she will flip the switch and no matter if it is because of Papika rescues here with a spaceship.. or she would have found the real Papika amongst fakes.. it would not have really mattered to us which one it was.. I am glad we got from A to B .. and A and B are legit. The stuff in between just feels just a tad filler.. entertaining filler but filler still.

It really is a great episode, it is just not MY episode. While this show really earned the feelings on display and does it well, I really do not like to see the hero in doubt about their involvement in the show, especially in such a short show. I want to see more content like episode 3 and 5 rather than this, so in a way the show just spoiled me. I still had a fine time watching it..but I want my amazing things from this show not just good things.

Hikaru no Go Episode 17

This episode was really simple yet effective. It is weird how involved I got with this. I might even argue it is a bit of a messy episode, but I had so much fun watching it!  Just because of a weird way to raise the stakes.

We pick up at the same go convention we left last time. People talk to each other about Sai and Waya even hypes him up to be that great historical figure whose name I unfortunately forgot..the legendary Go player that was indeed possessed by Sai. We see everyone going completely mental over Sai once they figure out that half the people of the convention are there.. and Waya’s word of hype triggers a young prodigy to get involved. That is right Akira shows up! A laptop is brought up ..with the internet for some reason even though I am pretty sure there was no  wireless internet yet? Where Dongle’s a thing? There is a thingie sticking out of the computer. Akira faces off online against Sai.. and they replay their second match stone for stone! But then to avoid being recognised Sai plays a different stone and  Akira resigns making an appointment to face him in the middle of his own Insei exams, showing he has not let his obsession go yet. Maybe he recognises Hikaru and wants to face him alone?! Whatever is happening clearly he is willing to risk anything for it, which angers Waya a great deal. The episode ends with Hikaru and Sai going to the café to face off against Akira when at the exams it is revealed Akira has not shown up.

I really liked this episode more than I should, for the most part it’s just a bunch of agitated foreign men shouting at each other if they know who Sai is. An international bunch of confusion. We mostly see side characters do unimportant things as they all speculate, until Waya recognises the playstyle of Sai and tells his master. Also adding in his theory that it might be a school kid. This triggers Akira to become involved as well, stepping a bit on Waya’s turf giving into his obsession. I like how the psychological game between him and Sai starts and how Sai is able to identify Akira because of it. I also really like that Akira recognises the online player as Hikaru. Opposed to Waya who sees Sai, though not knowing it is Sai in name of course. Hikaru got completely unmasked without being unmasked. It also gives Akira a bit of a different rival and maybe a potential friend in Waya. Sure Waya really seems to hate him now..but should they find out they obsess over the same guy. This episode has a way of building tension towards its conclusion..and then by making Akira resign it takes the tension to even bigger stakes. Thingies just got real.

Like I said before though, with all the international players shouting through one another the episode kind of starts out very cluttered. It’s a bit tiring to be tossed around all those international players whom we barely know. I recognise most of them but they haven’t been that established yet so I am not that invested in their perspective. The shouting can be a bit draining to the attention as it is hard to focus your attention on one thing. The show cuts around that fairly smart but it is very VERY clear that the goodness that was this episode came from the second half. I became so invested in this episode and the set up for the next during that half. The first half falls a bit flat in comparison. What it did though was show the emotional involvement of all these people! It shows all these people are really committed and that for me helps with the world building for Hikaru no Go. I complained a bit on how oddly these kids react to things.. almost inhuman but by mirroring them to these guys their reactions feel less over the top.It’s just how this world is. Visuals in this episode are a bit off I feel.The dutch guy seems to suddenly have lost a few pounds of weight and Akira looked a bit differently to me too. Hikaru no Go doesn’t have the best visuals and by setting this episode on a busy convention floor we do see some issues I think. Yet nothing I really worried about.

This wasn’t a flawless episode but it was one I was really engaged in and thus really enjoyed. While if I would measure with more objective standards for all we would get an entirely different list and different grade.. but as for my enjoyment this took second place. I really loved the ending so that’s why it gets my highest grade!

I already updated you on my last week! I have also been catching up with my laundry! I hate doing that as it makes noise that might bother other people! All caught up now again though! Also did a few cleaning things throughout the house where energy allowed at least! This week I have a nice family outing planned! The one that should have happened last week but due to my health.. and my sister making double plans this worked out better! Excited for that. Later today I might get some very important news that could be a big change in my life as well so I am a bit nervous today! So be sweet in the comments!

Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 15

Even though it was really hot this week and I barely have gotten any sleep, the week has come to an end! When the week comes to an end Pinkie celebrates by watching five anime as if they were a Saturday morning cartoon line-up. Last week I was a bit disappointed but I also cried a lot! So much so that I labelled two episodes wrong!  No biggie though! I fixed it and this week we got proper episode numbers again! On both this post and the last one! Yay for me!

Digimon Adventure: Episode 3

So as expected this was the weakest view of the day. Yet once again this is saying more about my line-up than this actual series. Digimon Adventure is surprisingly good for what it needs to be. I saw the adorable Sora today! I really like her character so far! Even if we did not get to see a lot.

The episode picks up after the early omnimon digivolution! I had not noticed it yet but the logo for this show is basically omnimon.. so him coming out so soon kinda made sense. I am not sure exactly what happened in this episode as we leave the world of the Network after the virus from the last episode has been defeated. The nuke is still on it’s way to Tokyo but using their Digivice Yamato and Taichi manage to destroy the web virus infecting the missle.  A chain of mysterious events start, the missile flies up and explodes into space and an EMP cripples the city..but not for good.. everything restores itself. Taichi gets booted back to the real world seperated from Yamato again. Koushiro and Taichi head home and talk about Summer Camp.You know that location where everyone was at last when they got sucked into the digital world.  Yet nothing happens there.. they meet up with Sora and we see Jou stress out about wrongly cut meat and veggies.

Sora is the popular girl everyone heard of her and thinks she is cool. She also seems to have a bit of a thing for Taichi, setting her up more immediately as the crest keeper of love. Then time skips a bit ahead , people no longer talk about the mysterious incident when suddenly all the systems that the nuke shut down before began to shut down again. More malicious this time slowly crippeling Tokyo.  Koushiro and Taichi’s digivices begin to glow and they decide to meet up!  Sora runs after Taichi after meeting him up at the street and as the two known digidestined lock hands they get teleported to the digital world.. with a visual of a third thing being teleported as well.

Is it Yamato who get teleported? Could it be Sora?  Who knows?! The show offers us a few mysteries that feel much more concrete as the start of the original show. Why are these viruses targeting Tokyo , what are Digimon? Where does Yamato live?  Did he or Sora get transported? We don’t know yet  are able to ask questions. Unlike in the orginal where stuff just kinda happened.. here everything seems to be happening for a reason. As a result this is much more like a proper show with attention and care to it’s story writing. It is as if we are watching the story the original SHOULD have been. With some clear hints of dark elements, but also a lot of mystical isekai elements and cute interactions.  Whatever happened to the Network after the nuclear strike seems not to have created a much more beautiful digital world.. or is the Network just what connects the two worlds? I am not clear yet but I am intrigued. Compare this to the Original and there you just wanted the next episode to happen to see more digimon.. here I am finding myself invested in the story. The way Sora and Jou are just teased, yet so in line with their crests was definitely my favourite scene.. the camp scene is a great homage  and with just two lines of dialogue each I already feel.. Jup that’s right! That’s Sora and Jou! Sweet!

The Omnimon fight was a bit weird though, that guy is Beyond Mega level. Yes I am using the English terminology here because in English an Ultimate is the third form of a digimon after Rookie and Champion, while in Japanese Ultimates are the final form after Youth Adolescence and Perfect forms since I feel people are more likely to be familiar with the english branding I will use that indicator even though I am watching the sub version. This is how most people remember it… regardless Omnimon feels REALLY underpowered here or this enemy is already stupidly strong. It makes me worried for the future, the power scaling seems a bit skewed. If Omnimon now already is an option will the others even be relevant?
They go through a lot of effort to make him look cool but that also involves breaking earlier established rules.. if you kill a boss you kill the virus.. yet here Omnimon has to use a special technique?! I am not sure if I like that. Let’s keep everyone relevant and not make Omnimon  some kind of digi-jesus. It will all depend on the rest of the series though.

Despite the slightly convenient start.. which very well could end up becoming a big writing trap I really enjoyed myself with this episode.  There is plenty of potential for the future, but unfortunately the show also sets itself up to fail in the future. Dropping landmines in its own court alongside nuggets of gold. Whether we will get rich or blow up remains to be seen but this episode was a double bladed sword. There is not much wrong with this episode. It’s a bit like  making a delicious tea when your favourite, but dumb,  nephew is around.  You may end up with good company and some good tea or you may end up with screaming company and hospital coffee. While nothing is wrong yet when the tea is on the stove.. those minutes until you pour your tea aren’t as enjoyable as they could be.

Samurai Flamenco: Episode 10

The final battle has been fought and we aren’t even halfway through the series! What the heck! Also I was wrong! There go my  predictions I really thought we would get a Fight Club like scene but no! Instead my favourite girl gets tortured, the  poor thing. Pinkie is here for you Moe!

The episodes opens up with Samurai Flamenco on his bike speeding to King Torture’s secret base to do his final battle and save Mari. Mari meanwhile gets tortured by King Toture, I never suspected he would be into that. He tells her she is a side character and he has no interest in fighting her. When she refuses to believe this he tells her she is a horrible person and it is revealed she is not the only one in there. King Toture has captured Moe as well.. as he begins to crush her finger and she cries in pain he offers her to give up her life for Mari and agrees  without any doubt. She tells that she lives and breathes for Mari so she would happily die for her as well. Which makes King Torture respect her.. she is an actual good person an actual hero. He then tells Mari she is a fake hero, who only told Moe to save herself because it’s a hero line.

Mari goes silent as King Toture reveals that Moe is aware that Mari said it to spout a line as well but hoped that Mari hoped she would sacrifice herself. Samurai Flamenco drops in and the final battle begins! It is revealed that Torture plans to use a missle to make his monsters grow.. he was a Sentai fan like Masayoshi but saw the benefits of evil and began turning people into cyborgs. Goto is warned and joins Masayoshi in the final fight with him being tasked to stop said missle, which he does by ramming Mari’s car into it.. and Masayoshi rips out king Torture’s robotic heart. With the fight over, Flamenco walks outside and reveals his identity to the world.

Wow last episode was kinda lame but this episode was SOOOO strong! I can’t believe he did an Iron Man.  And Moe.. I love her so much! That scene  with her was so touching. Even if she knew Mari wanted Moe to die in her stead and be the one that is tortured , Moe loves her anyway. Her friend and the woman she is in love with is hurt so she just hugs her and tries to keep her safe at all costs regardless of what that friend did to her. King Tortures dialogue with Mari really felt Tarantino-esque.. I am specifically referring to the “Superman” talk  from Kill Bill 2. The way he twists Mari’s beliefs, yet speaks truth and makes sense is briljant. That whole Moe, Mari interaction is my favourite moment in the SERIES not just this episode. The dialogue with Samurai Flamenco and that he is a Sentai fan who took lessons from villains is friggin great. His bond with his monsters, his logic.. I get it! Even Samurai Flamenco being his trigger to finally dare to do this is amazing.  There is so much heart in it. I even had a chuckle when Goto’s girlfriend texted him while he was busy driving a car into a missile. Finally that stuff paid off. It even tried to make sense for why monsters exploded.. I love this show a lot for how it brings Sentai much more down to earth and in such a clever way. This episode is filled with that.

There are few minor gripes I have with this episode though. Reality has been a bit floaty around these bad guys, which I do not mind but all our human characters have been very much exposed to normal human limitations, which makes this show so good. Yet they make Goto jump out a moving card drop three stories into an exploding room and walk away without injury?! That seems slightly against the point they were trying to make. I will go lenient here because we do not see exactly how deep the drop is and maybe he landed better.. but still a bruise or a shoulder injury would be nice there and help keep the story feeling a bit more humble. Secondly a few things did not make sense. We saw that first guy transform in a monster as far as I remember. King Torture here says people willingly let themselves transform into monsters by surgery.. that first one did not look willingly..also he would have had sugery again to make him fold into a human again then?! I don’t get it.. maybe I missed something maybe it’s a plothole.. maybe it’s intentional?! While it did strike me as odd.. unlike Digimon.. I have the faith that this show will explain this to me.. it’s good at that. So for now this is only a small issue!

Thus this episode does it again! I might have found a plothole but even if I did, I don’t really care. I am willing to accept this retcon because this story is so amazing!  There is so much cleverness hidden in here and the dialogue in this anime is absolutely among the best I have seen. Top 20 easily if not top 10. That Tarintino influences once more is shown and along with the whole concept of this show it blends so well into this episode! Highest Score possible.

That Time I got reincarnated as a Slime Episode 9

So obviously this episode wasn’t going to top last week for me! I cried so much last week! I thought I would see a battle against the orcs this week.. and in a way I wasn’t too far off. Instead we are introduced to Ogres..I think it’s the guys in the opening before they are named or something but I am not fully sure.  All I know is, we got a pink character introduced! She seems important as well so YAY!

Rimuru is exploring the benefits of his new human form and discovers in his natural state he has no gender. He can give himself one if he so desires but he seems to opt out of it wanting to honour Shizune. He carries her mask along as a keepsake. Shizue had a skill called degenerate which allows him to combine skills I think.. allowing him to grow even more powerful and develop black fire.  He also discovers the mask Shizu wore completely hides his magical presence. So he decided to wear it when facing new people… suddenly Ranga cried out for help when the village is under attack. Rushing back he sees the Goblin Lords overwhelmed by a pack of ferocious fighters who protect a cute pink horned girl who puts their defeated opponents to sleep. This leads Rimuru to believe they are not evil and he tries to talk to them..however they think he is a Majin,.. as their village was attacked by someone in a similar mask.. an orc. I assume Gelm or whatever that orc at the end of last episode was called. Since RImuru refuses to remove the mask not wanting to show his true potential yet.. things escalate and he has to fight the ogres easily defeating them.. wanting to talk to them by sparing them does not yield any results as the Ogre Leader is willing to die.. while fighting with his head held high. When the Pink ogre stops him.  She tells him Rimuru might not be evil as he is so powerful.. he doesn’t need to work how their Majin did.. he gets convinced and decides to talk with Rimuru at the village. That’s where the episode ends. 

Surprise surprise, I liked the pink Ogre, there is a mystique to her and this group seems powerful. I think they will lead us into the story that is the season’s main “arc” both based on the opening and the fact that we are almost 10 out of 25 episodes in without having a main mission to focus on. I doubt demon lord Leon Cromwell is in his direct sights unless he is responsible for the attacks on the Ogres, but we still need to find out the identity of the plague doctor as well. I like how this episode feels to have some weight to it and I do like Rimur’s battle with the ogres, with my favourite scene being the moment his hand gets cut off and he casually puts it back on. Also having another character that recognises the skills he uses is nice. The old man ogre might have a great sage like ability as well. I also like how snappy great Sage can be from time to time.. she doesn’t do it often but she can do sarcasm which lifts her beyond just an exposition tool for me. The pacing is nice and we get a very solid episode throughout.

This episode does stick very much to the clichés thought. The Red Ogre has fire power, the big ogre is strong but slow.. and the tiny girl ogre with pink hair has the support skills and might be a princess.  As a D&D player I know these tropes are super common in any tabletop and it helps us evaluate danger a bit, yet it also means it does never feel amazing. Even the old man .. being white.. being super fast feels kinda cliche.  What is it with fast old guys. Gran Torino (My hero academia) , Yoda, The Whizzer (from Spiderman)  and much more. Then Rimuru disappoints me a bit. In the beginning he makes a female clone of himself but matures up and gets all embarrassed by her breasts. It feels a bit needlessly fanservicey even if nothing is shown. Also he used to be a 33 year old guy.. a virgin but still.  He also has been buried in elf boobs earlier so I don’t get why he is THAT awkward about it. Part of what gives Rimuru his charm is that he is actually a matured character. A bit of an otaku sure, but here are a few moments where he feels a bit too much like a sixteen year old boy to me. It’s not like I hate it , I would just have loved to see him act a bit more mature and less .. again…cliché.

That could not ruin my fun with this episode though and this episode is makes me understand why people call it one of their trash-taste-favourites or lower class gems or whatever else they use for a show that isn’t deep but very entertaining. I do even think these terms sell it short. Even if it has no deep message , this show has won a place in my heart regardless of what standard it adheres to. And it rarely scores lower than my second highest ranking. 

Flip Flappers Episode 5

I love it when a funny show tackles horror, that was why I was so upset Bofuri skipped the horror locations each and every time!  Flip Flappers though delves into a Victorian Horror World this time, as our heroes get their transforming items and their catch phrase. Having won my heart yet again , it was time for some Flip Flapping.

This episode picks up post whatever pure illusion they got sucked in at the end of last episode..which made me a bit grumpy at first, but briefly it was explained that they lost more amorphous thingies to Yayaka… which made me grateful for not seeing it. We could feel the sense of loss, and get their frustration but we do not need to see that loss. As it would not have meshed with the tone of last episode.  This time the girls get a magic item that allows them to help transform for this they need to pick an item they cherish. Papika has plenty of stuff and chooses a bracelet while Cocona has difficulty deciding  She has no items she cherishes so Papika gives her a twig. She rejects it at first but then settles on it anyway.  I began to notice how Cocona always has trouble when she needs to make choices. They then travel to a Victorian horror world where they find themselves stuck in a time loop. Occasionally encountering Yayaka who isn’t making that much more progress than them.. but always seems to be a step ahead rubbing it in their faces. 

There are creepy dolls, girls with no faces and time loops, so I assume this might be Papika’s fear.. of a mundane life.  I am not sure thats what I make out of it. Of being locked inside the house as well as there is a fairly deadly sort of rain that knocks them out and bloody.  Lots of freaky stuff is happening here. Eventually though the girls find a secret exit that allows them to enter the mysterious clock tower. Where they race Yayaka and her fellows.  When Cocona ends up in trouble along with Yayaka .. her allies betray her  and basily leave her to die.  Papika transforms to save Cocona but also saves Yayaka even if the doesn’t care for her.. surprising the latter. Papika tosses Cocona towards the bell to destroy it before it can ring 11 times.. and resets time but misses.. Cocona transforms and hits the bell with a hammer, actually allowing it to ring 12 times breaking the curse and revealing the artefact. Yayaka saves them from Pure Illusion and the episode ends with Cocona refusing to give her the item saying she earned it herself.

I loved how the creepy girls spoke and the two girls being slightly endeared to them after finding out they are not that scary, The girls give them tea, do embroidery with them and live the same life day in and day out. Meanwhile Papika and Cocona are actually different, that is not for them. They have a mission! They have to break that routine and can’t be shackled down by it. This resonates so hard with me. While we have taken a look in Papika’s and Cocona’s mind with Pure Illusion this could be a look into my fears.  The rain prevents me from going out maybe not so much, but as a metaphor of not having other options than stick to what is done there.. It still works. So yeah my favourite part of the episode is basically the entire episode. At least the parts in Pure Illusion. I loved LOVED the visuals in this one.  The red glowing clock, the faded out colour palette, the creepy faceless masses. I adored the design.  I also loved what they did with Yayaka in this episode. It made her a bit less stuck up. She has some redeeming qualities so yay for nuance!

What I liked less is once again that Papika is very dumbed down. This time for some reason she is not smart enough to remember Flip Flapping.. she can just remember the Flip Flap part… the magical spell to transform them. She overcomes this but come on! This is a girl who worked for Flip Flap for a while. She can identify poisonous and good berries on instinct. She is capable of having normal conversations. I guess Flip Flapping makes more sense in english so maybe that’s why.. but remembering to end a ping behind the organisation you worked for , for quite some time seems quite easy. I don’t know why they do her dirty like this. I don’t mind her being a dunce it’s cute.. but they push it a lot at times.  This event only occurs twice though so it’s not that overused and it is not like Cocona has higher success who knows the words so it’s rather irrelevant I just love Papika as a character so it feels a bit bad they make her THAT ditzy. But that’s like five to ten seconds of this episode.

That’s right, it’s a bit more brief about my positives and negatives.. because it’s just that good of an episode again.  I could highlight more specific points within the episodes that were good but I loved 21 minutes and 50 seconds of it dearly. I am very scared though.. Cocona has trouble with making a  choice in almost every episode. Let’s hope they dont build up to her having to make the ultimate choice in the last one.. I would be very sad. This episode however made me far from sad.

Hikaru no Go Episode 15

So there is a pattern for every two episodes or so of Hikaru no Go. I like there is oneI like less. More in favour of the positive.. never two negatives in a row.. so that would mean this episode would be good again.. as last week I was very dissatisfied. This turned out to be true! I really enjoyed episode 15. Also I was surprised to learn that the Netherlands has a character and apparantlu a Go Scene? I mean .. they based it on something right?

In this episode we see Hikaru and Tsutsui visit some sort of Go convention, as the main event it has an exhibition with pro players.  While Tsutsui is fascinated by the match Hikaru can not focus thinking on how he did both Sai and Touya wrong! He doesn’t want to be called the luckiest Go Player in the world for playing over his skill level either though so he has to find a way to let Sai play..without it affecting his own reputation. It harms people. So Hikaru discovers about online matches. I assume this series takes place before 2002 then because everyone is using those bright colourful macintosh things that were very popular in the 90’s. He is being instructed by some guy and reveals he wants to use this system to make Sai play.. as himself! Build up his own reputation. So together they visit an internet café  where Mitani’s sister works so they can play for free. Sai beats a few people including a really good Dutch player who is like fourth in the world or something and they promise to play more during summer break. Akiri Mitani and Tsutsui also make plans to meet each other and play go during summer break.

And that’s the entire lot summarised. Unlike all the other shows this one could be recapped very easily and it’s in part of what I like so much about this show. It’s always a simple humble tale that is the perfect anime to end my Saturday Morning Cartoon block on. After Flip Flappers blew my mind I can have a cooling down with this, and  this episode really does that well. It shows a boy wanting to redeem his mistakes, this is a logical consequence. This is also a logical solution to Hikaru’s problem which in its own is a conflict within himself  that feels validated by what happened before.The whole concept of online matches opens up the level of challenge we can get as well. Maybe even Akira’s father, big man Touya can now be a target. The Dutch guy did say that some Asian pro’s play online. It could give Sai an arc alongside Hikaru as two separate entities while Hikaru  can still learn from his mentor that way. Akiri learning Go and becoming more skilled at it was also great. She is so humble but I also felt my heart warm when she wanted to play team matches and hear her tell Tsutsui about what she learned from Mitani.. I like how she has a small arc but it is still kept measurable.

There wasn’t all that much I disliked about this episode either. Hikaru finally does right by Sai.. but he forgets about Akiri and his other friends again..which needs to be tackled soon. I also felt a slight lack of a closure on  the Touya front. For the tournament his match had been really built up, I would have loved to see him at least quit the theme or cry into his pillow or something with next week’s episode fleshing it out a bit. He was just as important as Hikaru but it feels like a lot of time has  passed since their loss. I also like the cinematography of the online matches less. That could have been done a bit more dramatically.  Not a lot but they could do something like where you replace the mouse in their hand with a go stone and place it on a board in their head.  Most matches are skipped anyway which is a shame because I really would like to see Sai play for once. Finally Sai’s crying when Hikaru walked out of the demo felt a bit lame. Where everyone’s tears mean so much normally this cartoony approach annoyed me just a tiny bit. Not anything major but it was my least liked scene nonetheless.  Just less heartfelt as all the other moments.

In the end it is hard to fault this episode. It did not have me in awe as much as Flip Flappers and Samurai did, but I probably placed it a slight nodge above Slime this week. So while it doesn’t gain my highest ranking it is on the cusp of it. It’s like a fifth glass of wine during a wine tasting where you don’t use the spitbucket. The taste sensation is a bit dulled in comparison to the bold flavours that came before and you are not given the best wine and the staff just pours you a rather mundane but passable wine. Yet somehow this one in all it’s humble origins can measure up with the best. Is that a merlot grape I am tasting no.. it’s a :

So this week is over. With temperatures this high my focus had been very low! I had a bit of trouble writing! I am lagging a bit with my posts as a results. So some slight struggles! So my backlog is a bit dried up! I had a few days I got some heat nausea. Had a lot of fun though. I finished Divinity Original Sin 2. I started Pokémon Ranger Shadow of Almia. I got a few shinies in Pokémon Go and other than that , I mostly isolated myself. Too hot to hang out with friends! A new wave of outbreaks for Covid have made me a bit more careful to go out, and well I felt like Cheddar for the most part of the week though. It’s not fun to go out for drinks if people just see Cheddar sitting on that chair! Pink Cheddar would be awesome though… so I am going to make a hamburger now!
I hope your next week will be amazing! And I will see you all when I see you! Stay Safe stay Happy!

Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 14

My dear Island guests! It’s the end of the week again! So that means I watched a whole lot of anime like it is a Saturday morning cartoon program. Five shows with fake commercial breaks in between, set time slots (so if I am late I skip part of an episode) and a bowl of cereal! The past two editions quality was pretty amazing with over half the shows getting perfect scores! Unfortunately that streak ended this week!  I still had a good time watching my five shows but the overall viewing experience wasn’t as great. Let’s take a look at what we saw. Of course since these are episode reviews they will contain spoilers!

Digimon Adventure Episode 2

Digimon is a great way to start your morning and this second episode.. really surprised me!  I did expect to see what I ended up seeing. Other than that it was just perfect low brow entertainment befitting of a Saturday morning… with a seriously dark undertone though! Jeesz!

This episode is a direct continuation of last week. Taichi has just encountered Yamato while Koshiro tells them about the attack on the  United States army.  Inside the digital environment , Taichi and Greymon and Yamato and Garurumon have to rush towards the new location where the virus digimon are causing trouble. The “new kid” seems to know what he is doing but he has difficulty playing in a team and communicating with Taichi which causes some problems. As we cycle through a set of techniques and digimon forms from the viruses we discover the point of this hack is actually to fire a nuclear missile. The group is unable to stop the monster in time which keeps evolving. As the missile is launched it is headed towards Tokyo as a strange feather falls down on several places in town .. going to the youngest two digidestined of old but also to Koshiro.  As Garurumon and Greymon are about to be finished off.. we see blue and and orange lights swirl intermixed on their digivice… and we see….. OMNIMON?! Huh!?!

This episode was a bit of a mixed bag for me, I really liked the darkness of the ending. A nuke being fired at Tokyo killing Kairi , Toshiro and Taichi’s family in nuclear fire if they fail? Man that sure is concrete… and a very heavy consequence for episode 2 and a children’s show.  Greymon and Garurumon suffering defeat this early on is also very powerful! It establishes this show is something completely different from the old Digimon Adventures. I like how characters are more defined into a role. Yamato clearly has much more of a road to travel.  The old one was a jerk but he was pretty easy to lean into the group dynamic making his crest of friendship an easy journey. Here it seems a much more tangible element.    I also like how the enemies seem to have more of a style. While it does make them more interchangeable with the plot being chosen so far I can really see this being much more of a designed attack. While it is still monster of the week-like it feels much less so due to recurring design.. it feels much more like a designed attack which makes this the most high stakes digimon series from the get go I have seen so far. I also like that we only see hints of the other digidestined drizzled in. Kyoshiro’s laptop had an effect and the feathers were a thing but it’s not all.. bam! Happy group here and ready. These guys don’t bond over years we never saw.. these guys bond over a experience we also experience and thus I feel their characters are all much stronger already.

Yamato’s personality however also puts the first half of this episode in some trouble. He says nothing.. so we only see him say like.. Watch out! GO!, or “where do we go” . It creates a bit of a weird dynamic where the new character being introduced is basically just “shown” we learn nothing about him. We SEE Takeru so we assume is in Tokyo as well.. but I have doubts. He did not seem as startled, does he even know of Takeru?! Do they even live in Tokyo? We don’t know anything he is just there. While the fighting in digimon never looked as good and fluent as this did.. by having the villain constantly evolve all previous fights are basically nullified unless they took lessons out of them.. and to be fair .. they didn’t really. In te penultimate phase..which is in the second half of the episode they begin to sync up and come up wit some more advance tactics but the first half is just about shooting fireballs or blue fire beams.  Which in the end do not do anything..so it felt a bit wasted. Entertaining time waste but still time wasted. It’s not bad but if you did not see the first 15 minutes of this episode you would have not missed anything establishing. So I would  have loved to see maybe a shadowy figure of an evil guy telling the virus to hold on.. or sending it some energy to evolve. Maybe have Yamato spout a line that he only trusts one person.. or give us a gander at where Joe and Mimi are.

It’s still a nice episode but clearly less than the first episode! The Omnimon reveal in the end is super cool but only if you know who Omnimon is. Also the design still has Metalgarurumon and Wargreymon arms so .. how is that explained?!  I know DNA digivolution is something else..  but if you are not a fan of the series this reveal might not have any impact. Also DNA there a very much visual clues for a fan.. but if you are new to the franchise or joined in post Adventurers you might be very confused to what happend. I am a fan though and the reveal was pretty cool!  Regardless how it happend! I want to know more! So with that in mind my score is quite favourable for this episode! But lower than last episode.

Samurai Flamenco Episode 9

Another mixed bag episode for me! On the one hand I really loved WHAT happened but I kinda hate HOW it happened. There was this air of negativity surrounding this episode that just made EVERYONE super petty or bratty save for one character. When everyone acts unlikeable you are going to have a hard time making a likeable episode.

In this episode we make another time jump. Masayoshi has been steadily dealing with monsters and is becoming arrogant over it. He deals with them with more and more ease. Even so much ease the Flamenco girls just bailed. He can do this by himself. No one has died since the Gorilla and all monsters just end up exploding once Samurai Flamenco is done with them. The people now rarely react to monsters anymore. So when Branding Piranha shows up which tosses like poisonous business cards .. everyone sees it as a hassle for their own reasons. Masayoshi gets smug, Mari gets resentful and challenges Lord Torture and Goto is fed up with doing te paperwork and quits working with Samurai Flamenco. Mari tries to seduce him after he scolds her for trying to provoke the dark lord.. but as he refuses her again she pouts and sulks for te remainder of the episode.  Mister Konno, the tv guy who tried to unmask Samurai Flamenco gets captured by King Torture and his mind twisted near the end..and ends up betraying Flamenco Diamond’s identity to King Torture. Samurai Flamenco is summoned to fight is final battle against him but is stopped by henchman! Jun.. the gadget guy however steps in and fights in his place as he Masayoshi dashes off on his bike to save Mari.

What this episode does great is tying in consequences to the actions of the characters. They had a few episodes everything was going great and now they have to deal with the fallout of that. No one really appreciates a hero anymore when it becomes that common. The show shows how tv and reality work differently. This is best seen in my favourite scene! When the Torture Boys try to stop Samurai Flamenco when he is heading towards King Torture. He scolds them for being bad henchman being very annoyed. They tell him that they are very passionate about being evil.. so even if they are deemed of grunts they all dream of taking him down. Just because their leader wants to fight him too doesn’t mean their dreams and ambitions suddenly stop!  Great! This is the writing I want from this show and it is in here pretty deep! Jun stepping up with his gadgets to take these people down spouting lines like! Do NOT  underestimate STATIONARY are great and remember me why I fell this in love with this show!  The fact that the hero doesn’t remember all the villian names is also great. It’s like Sentai actors who forget monsters they fought because most monsters are just total pushovers and leave little impression even if they do with a crowd.  There is a lot of subtle references to tropes and expectations here that are being challenged and it was time for that. The narrative timing of this show is impeccable as always.

However the smugness people got over them in this episodes makes me care little for people. Mari’s envy getting her captured and tortured feels deserved, Masayoshi being shown some sentai tropes do not stick up in real life feels earned..but as a result there is no tension. Everyone in this episode except for Jun..who is the hero of this episode for me.. felt very shallow and deserving of the bad things that happened to him.  The fact that Masayoshi is just annoyed at the henchmen who stop him..instead of panicked he might not make it to Mari in time.. kills suspense though. The episode is to somber to be funny and that is fine.. but everyone is to flawed to be forgiven for their mistakes. Akira Konno, Masayoshi, Mari and even Goto all react super petty at several things and my least favourite moment is how King Torture made Akira flip over by simply saying.. it will give more interesting tv if you turned evil here!  Think of the entertainment value.  This is explained a bit trough that he got to know how the man works trough torturing him for hours, but the calmness of the flip made it feel a bit forced.. it does play in my theories though!  So we will see next week how things go!  I could have done without this episode if I am honest. It’s not bad but all the main characters took a bit of damage for me! 

Had they at least kept Masayoshi a bit more pure or Goto a loyal supporter I would have probably liked this episode a whole lot better. If they did not have Jun step in and fight the Torture Boys I would have given this episode a grade lower and it would slip into the “bad”  third of my review system. I love the world building..but I hate what they did with the characters this episodes! It does look like they are on their way to redemption so I doubt the bad taste will stick..but this might be my least favourite episode of the show yet.. as it did deliver what I wanted to see.. but in a way I really did not enjoy.

That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime Episode 8

Man I was not ready for this! I half expected to see what I was about to see.. but it was an episode where I constantly fought a battle against tiers.. and then Eren made me lose that battle.  Hard. Wow… I did not expect to cry over a show like Slime.

The plot of this episode is all focussed on how adorable slime Rimuru gets the body he has in the opening. I had seen it had to much similarities to Shizu  to be a coincidence but I had hoped for a slightly more light hearted explanation than what we got. Shizu is dying after having her Ifrit removed from her.. having unfinished business she asks Rimuru to hear her out.  A bunch of exposition is given about the powerful demon lord, Leon Chromwell. We mostly see what she did with her life after that. How she met another Iskaid character.. like I already expected.. that thought her about Dragon Quest. We see her attempting a few things but failing at most things which she did in live.. even though she also had some great successes she recounts herself mostly trough her failures. As she starts to slip away from live she asks Rimuru to eat her..saying she does not want to decay in this world she had come to despise so much she does not want to be absorbed into it. Rimuru agrees and swears he will fufill her final wish and get her existence at least acknowledged by Leon Cromwell. The girl dies and Rimuru and her party say their final goodbyes as she is send into a perfect dream of meeting her mother again.  She is gone.. and now Rimuru has a new mission!  As we see a plague doctor like figure give an Orc a name and tell him he is Gleb or something.. the one that shall conquer Jura Forrest.. which is where Rimuru and his clan live. A new phase of adventure is about to begin! 

Man seeing Rimuru turn into  a human body just so he can cry tears over the lost Shizu was hard enough.  Seeing everyone shocked over her loss made me all misty eyed as well.. and seeing a woman die seemingly young..upset that she did not achieve what she wanted hit very close to home for me! It was not an experience I minded though..I just did not expect it. I fought against tears and I was winning. But when her old party asked Rimuru to transform into a human I was like.. oh they hug him for everything he has done for them.  When they used it as a way to say goodby to Shizu and talked to her and thanked her for everything they had done for them I knew I wasn’t going to win the battle anymore. When Eren then broke into tears… I followed suit. In fact I cried again just writing this review. This one really hit me right in the heart. Dying a failure is a big fear of me and the whole, wanting to say goodbye to someone..in such a way was really beatifull to me. Everyone got closure. Everyone moved on pretty fast sure.. but it’s a fantasy world.. people die a lot.. so it made enough sense.. they had their closure.. they thanked her from saving them from those big ants.. and for being their party member and that was enough.. it might be my favourite scene in Slime so far.. and I love how the fantasy world this show creates feels quite down to earth.
This was a great goodbye.

I am not  sure if the death was necessary to tell a tale  and her flashing back telling her tale felt kinda fast paced.. but she knew she was running out of time.. so it makes sense it was going fast as well , so I am not sure if I really have negatives to tell.  Eren doesn’t look great in her white mage like outfit it doesn’t seem to match her colour-scheme and design all that much, then again she is an ice mage.. but yeah ..that would be a nitpick!  Their story is probably closed now at least for a long while. I don’t think I will see them again in season one but I might be wrong..these characters really grew on me so while I said before I did not like them much..that has completely changed. I do feel Rimuru will leave the village behind after stopping the orc next episode so with that said I do feel like there isn’t much being done with that but I might be wrong. While I do love the set up of the bigger story the tinier subplots like building the village and the minor characters, they are parked a lot.. but it would not have fitted this episode either.. they should have done it before.

If an anime can make you cry it is doing something right. I would not cry for characters I did not care about and this show made me cry three times. Once during the viewing..once when writing my positives and even made me sniffle when I thought about crying for the characters typing these lines just now. I assume people dislike this episode .. but I cried..it was a good cry! I had closure in the end and it was a nice way to end a three episode arc.. in a more powerful way than i could have ever imagined.. it sets up plenty plot for the future as well .. so I can only give this my highest praise! 

Flip Flappers Episode 4

The fourth episode was the one that broke the perfect streak it had going so far! It still scores very high in my book but it slipped up a few times to many here to be the absolute best. It did not help it came after such a powerful other episode of it’s own AND Slime either.

In this episode Flip Flap established Papika and Cocona are out of Sync. This causes them to land in different spots which made them lose the important artifact to the other organisation and Yayaka’s group. To prevent this they must live together for a few days.. so from so from Friday till Sunday they will have a sleepover..which Cocona first calls a camp to patch up issues.. not for fun.. but as Papika is her usual self and shows her more and more wonders, around the school and later even on a deserted island Cocona warms up more and more to the weird girl.. although with some reluctance. She starts to respect the much more feral girl as she managed to turn a sewer pipe into a cozy but weird little house,  some weird vegetables she doesn’t even know into food.. and even can survive in the wilderness no problem. Cocona is confronted with her own shortcomings and realises Papika is very much an addition to her as they grow closer. The sinking of Papika’s rocket board leads them to having to escape by building a raft that quickly manages to get sucked up in pure illusion. In a Myriad of colours instead of getting blown apart the two now hold hands as they venture into a new adventure together saying they will never let go of each other!

I love this show! I love this show I love this show! Even when the episode is a bit weaker I can not help but to adore it. It does flirt around with one of my least preferred tropes.. and that is the “doubt of the partner trope”. You know “I only do this to save the world”  and claiming not to enjoy their company while the last three episodes proved otherwise. Where it shines though is in the fact that it doesn’t linger on that. Cocona is depicted throughout the episode more as someone who reluctantly accepts Papika only to find out more and more that she needs Papika in her live as much as Papika needs her. She is the brain while Papika is the heart. She is the break that keeps Papika in check.. or functional while Papika keeps her alive and while not very well adjusted in her own way she is just as skilled as Cocona.  In fact Cocona even begins to look up to her.. we are shown her limits on the deserted island.. which is my favourite scene. We are shown that these girls are not like each other and will most likely not change that much.. they need each other compliment each other and that’s what makes them such a great pair. They really do fit together like heads and tails on the same coin! With the exception of Papika’s house the colours are a lot more real as well..there isn’t anything strange going on. Showing us that this bond is not just needed in Pure Illusion but also in real life as well. 

The downside of this episode comes for me in the form with how Feral Papika is. She is almost a Tarzan to Cocona’s Jane.  While adorable it also dehumanises Papika a little.  At times she can almost seem more like a pet. Like A Pikachu to Cocona’s Ash..even though Uexkull and Bu-Chan are also there.  Papika isn’t THAT simple. Also what happened with Cocona’s need for glasses?! She doesn’t wear them at all anymore. It kind of invalidates Papika’s effort in episode 1. I would like to see some equality in that relation .. we constantly see Cocona huffing and puffing at Papika’s action but I would like to see Papika depicted as slightly less of a simpleton.. who doesn’t blindly love Cocona.. it’s nice she is a counterpart but I would love to see how she gets upset that Cocona doesn’t like spending time with her as the other way around. In the last episode we saw glimpses of that.. we could see Cocona shutting herself out because of doubt. or  maybe doubting Papika’s soup hurt the soft orange haired girl. The Cocona she adventured with would not say that or something.  Instead she is a bit over simplified and to me feels a bit like a puppy following her master. I do think more highly of her though so I think she is sold short by showing not even being able to tie a scarf.. even if it results in a super cute scene. 

Regardless of the route they walk I do really love this show still if Papika is a puppy she will is still a puppy I love! My gripe is more so that I do fully sense the equality the show is trying to aim for.  I hope this will fix itself as the show goes on.. if it doesn’t I am still perfectly fine watching the show.. but in episodes like this it will be fairly noticeable.  I still found it very very good but where the rest of the episodes really gelled for me.. this just sold a character slightly short!  So it gets a slightly lower grade than the other three episodes. Can’t wait for more though!

Hikaru no Go Episode 14

The long awaited third match between Akira and Hikaru. I knew Hikaru should not be able to win as it would cause narrative problems.. and while it was a very dramatic episode..what some might see as a nitpick or a misinterpretation from me .. really soured this episode for me and it all has to do with worldbuilding. 

There is not that much plot to discuss in this episode! Kaze Junior High is playing Akira and his buddies and they soon find out they are getting more than they bargained for. While Akira finally gets his rematch against Sai we see he is super nervous.  When Hikaru notices the change in the eyes when Akira plays Sai.. a moment of clarity causes Hikaru to take over the match from Sai.. trying to see how far Hikaru stacks up to Akira instead.. which of course he doesn’t. Sai is surprised by Hikaru’s initial play and allows him to make his own mistakes once more he spots the raw seeds of talent in the young boy  but has to acknowledge he is not there yet! Akira consumed by rage that this was not the match he was looking for makes Hikaru cry and walks away crying himself.  Tsutsui and Mitani also get dominated in their matches and cry over their loss as well. They did not stand a chance. Kaze High now being eliminated must now come to terms with their loss and Akira must leave knowing this was not the match he wanted. Everyone.. lost this day that much is clear from the episode. 

Since I know there are well over 60 episodes left into this series alone, and there is a second, I knew this is how the story had to flow. Something like this had to happen given how much the show had focussed on Akira. The grim everybody loses atmosphere made for a very very powerful statement. It left everyone with goals to strive for. Sai allowing Hikaru to play was a nice call from the spirit as well, which really endeared me to him. He wants to perfect the godhand trough Hikaru but to that he realises he has to let Hikaru bloom but also fall. He has to show Hikaru how much he still has to grow.. so Hikaru himself can improve. He really feels like a man with a mission and the way Hikaru seeing that golden spot was depicted on the camera, with a little beam of light brought back memories of episode 6.. the beautiful duel which still is my favourite episode. This simple visual showed us how Hikaru is beginning to blossom as a player. Akiri crying for the loss of her team members was kind of beautiful to. She saw them shake and struggle and can’t help but feel for them. She is just such a trooper and I am really glad she is there. She makes it so that this is not only about personal pride but also about their little clique! This episode is super important for the future of the show and that much is made clear. There is very much a weight to this all.  I can easily see people really liking this episode. Unfortunately it all came crumbling down for me due to a very simple situation.

At one point Hikaru can be heard thinking to himself that 11-8 would be the perfect next move to  make while Sai has to think. Until now Sai has always been able to understand Hikaru when he had thoughts like this.. but this one he misses.. because he is thinking?!  That already feels a bit weird but when Hikaru makes an interesting move ..instead of complimenting Hikaru he also does not communicate with him. Hikaru wants to see how well he stacks up with Akira.. but he knows exactly where his strength lies. He is not able to defeat Tsutsui.. he says this several times.. so measuring this gap.. seems odd. Instead I think it would have made more sense to let them play a hybrid match. Where Hikaru made that move and Sai could show him how stones flowed afterwards. Instead without communicating he just lets Hikaru suddenly take the loss. At least establish this with a small conversation.. or give him some advice.. 

I do really get  Hikaru wants to play and that seeing how far he is away from Akira is something he’d want to know.  Yet a minute before he SAYS Akira is totally out of reach.. so it really feels Akira had to take the win here for the story to continue. There were better ways.. Have Hikaru play a few bad moves and and let him realise is out of reach but when he wants to resign Akira resigns instead.. saying if he won’t give him the match he wants.. he won’t take the win either.  Having Akira take the in here feels extremely detrimental.  Sai not hearing Hikaru’s move and playing off it and making it more interesting also feels against the rules we know so far. I really disliked it. With just a SMIDGE of communication this could have been so much more interesting and much more a lesson than it was now!


While the episode in theory is very well written for the sake of the story, I felt it was written throughout. Where in the past few episodes these characters felt like real people in this viewing to me they were anime characters throughout.  Maybe I know little of honour and pride in games..but in no way the events of this battle felt natural to me.. it felt like they needed to happen but with what characters said, how their “bond “ works and what characters know about their own strength, this felt did not feel like part of the same story for me. Stuff happens because it had to happen.. it did that but I can’t give it more than just an okay for doing so.

With that the week is done again! All in all I had a nice view but the extremely high quality of the last two weeks  made me a bit spoiled for what was to come today! The 40 degrees out there might not contribute to enjoyment either so do take this review with a grain of salt as I am somewhat uncomfortable. I also had an annoying little wound on my foot so I had a bit less chill than before!

On a personal level not a lot happened!  A few days break did me some good and all sort of good stuff happened when I got back.  I have been playing a lot of Divinity Original Sin 2  now nearing the end and been I’ve also wrapping up my playthrough of Pokémon Sweet 2th, that’s not a great pokemon game.  I went swimming for the first time in a long while last Friday and got a Chinese soup fondue at the end it felt nice to be out for a bit.  I struggled for a bit with mental stuff but this week would be very much in the theme of recovery! I had a great week even if it was uneventful. Little by little we are crafting happiness!  Next week we should see Kuro’s first post and maybe even the introduction of another staff member! I am quite a happy camper! A half melted happy camper but a happy camper non the less!

If you per chance would like to prevent me from melting further! Please consider supporting my Kofi so I can buy a fan and some ice-cubes! If you do not have money to spare, a like or a blog follow will also do! I have to put myself back together again for my fans so don’t feel free to just leave a comment or anything positive! I hope you had an amazing weak and will have a even better next one!


Pinkie’s Saturday Adventure 13

Hello Island Guests! Now that my anniversary week is already a week in the past it is time for yet another Saturday Morning Adventure! I had to pick a new show for BNA and I wanted to either go for Re Zero Season 2 or the 2020 Digimon Reboot.  In the spirit of Saturday Mornings though.. I chose Digimon 2020! Re Zero might be something I can watch witch friends soon! It is also something I might not enjoy as much as most! Which scares me!

I did not know what to expect when picking this series up? Would it tell the same tale in a modern way? Would it be something all new?  Well it turns out to be the latter and it was unexpectedly awesome. 

Digimon Adventures follows the adventures of the original cast but now living as kids in 2020. Taichi seems to go on summer camp.. which is the trigger for him being booted in the original. However this time when he is home alone the doorbell rings and we see Koshiro standing in front of the door. The two seem rather unfamiliar with each other showing already how different this show will be.  Koshiro , to us westerners oftenly better know as Izzy , notices he is in the same summer camp group as Taichi and went over their to discuss some things when suddenly crisis strikes Tokyo. All sort of electronics go haywire.. including the train Taichi’s mother and sister are on. The two decide to look into this further now that Taichi’s family is in danger. When things go even more dire and their live is put on the line Taichi jumps the fences of the closed train station and his telephone shows the crest of courage. He becomes Digitised and travels to a strange world.. much more cyber like.. than the old digital world. Here he encounters a wounded Koromon, who upon partnering up evolves into Agumon. Not fighting Kuwagamon as the first enemy for once.. the pair decimates some virus digimon but they have to Evolve into Greymon to finish the fight!
A mysterious young man..we know as Matt.. or Yamamoto stares down at the pair as Koshiro tells them about A digimon attack in America!

This was a nice first episode! Much better than I expected it to be. The action really shined!
The orginal Digimon was much more static, here we get beam struggles, melee attacks, even Taichi helping in the attack and as a result the actual Digimon part feels much more dynamic. The Digivolution also does not happen in this static magical girl like fashion but it happens during combat. While this will also appear in my negatives section it just keeps the action flowing. This digital world also seems much more connected to ours than that of the original series.  Elements in the digital world correlate with  that of the real world. Such as a railway plan being a bunch of data in the sky in the digital world on top of a tower. My favourite scene is when Taichi is brought into the digital world.. Seeing that crest appear on his phone plays heavily into the nostalgia but it looks so much cooler this time. When he is floating among the digital objects he also uses these to his advantage. Again showing how much more “fluent” this show is. The approach of slowly introducing all character one by one also seems like  a great idea, we have seen hints at many of them but it is great imagining how they will fit in. I can only assume that mentioning america will help with the introduction of Mimi.. but maybe cool boy Yamamoto  will have a way to access it.  I am looking forward to more. 

My negatives are mostly nitpicks based on the first episode. I miss Butterfly as an opening theme and would have rather seen a remix of it than a completely new song… but there is still an homage made to the original opening with Taichi falling through some digital letters.
In Fairness Butterfly has really been overused lately but the new song can not hold a candle against that greatness. Having Evolutions (they are just called evolutions  in the sub) without Braveheart takes some getting use to as well. Other than that I have no negatives so far!
This is what I expected it to be plus a fair deal better. I kind of expected Marvel’s Disk Wars of kid pandering but it wasn’t that bad.

Great first episode, I felt blissfully Nostalgic and I liked the new Digivice design. It left me wanting for more. Obviously this type of show is something I as a collectible  creature aficionada can appreciate. Up until Xros Wars I have always found Digimon the superior anime of the two and this first episode makes me think I will keep thinking that. Pinkie is pleased with her pick for this so far!

So last episode this show took an unexpected twist by introducing monsters and it seems they stuck around! So it seems it is all real.. I still think Masayoshi fell into some drugs and is hallucinating all this.. because suddenly his career does super great as well and everything goes his way… but we will find out! Please do not spoil.

The episode opens up with Samurai Flamenco ,aided by the Flamenco girls and even Goto, taking out a Bird Monster named after a kite. It shouts Viva Torture and explodes. We then look back a few days in time and see the aftermath of Guillotine Gorilla. The Funeral of the cops  that got guillotined to death..Goto is worried about what is going on but when a new monster named Boiling Rhino..which is a Rhino in a soup cauldron attacks a bus that holds Masayoshi agents. Samurai and the Flamenco girls get to the bus and fight the monster and the ..gimp suit minions. In rollercoaster like speeds we see the group take down four monsters, all revealing something about the groups new abilities and their limitations.  They are held alive by their tech but they clearly do not possess the ability to have superhuman abilities. Masayoshi seems to be very happy how is life is now ..even with these risks which Worries Goto.. Masayoshi has changed ..when will he push to far. The show ends with him being on the cover of every magazine and the guest of some show… I still think this might all be a dream or something..because of how well things are going.. but I also really worry about Sapphire!  I do not want to see her get hurt this episode she almost did.

The fight against the horse monster was my favourite scene.  Not only did it make me feel worried about the Flamenco girls, it also made me laugh. Samurai Flamenco tells he has a new gadget and it turns out it is just very sticky double sided tape. I love how silly these office supplies gadgets of him are. So great. This scene seamlessly combined a threat.. towards Moe with lighthearted comedy and sentai tropes. I loved it! The opening scene was great as well..everyone working as a team really felt amazing. I even liked Mari’s pettiness again. She wants to deal the finishing blow! Now that is pettiness I can believe from her.  I can see her going rogue for a bit or someone getting hurt because she wants the spotlight and it being a big point of development. I loved this episode!  The BIC shield instead of the Big shield really hit home for me!  It’s funny how this show manages to mix high tension with comedy so well.  Normally comedical shows like One Punch Man, or heck even Slime have very low stakes because the main character is very overpowered. These are normal people and the show makes a point of out it to show it.. yet still is funny! Great!

The ending of the episode was a bit of a whimper for me.. coming of last week’s episode  with such an epic bombshell Goto texting with his girlfriend that Masayoshi changed attitude scares them felt a bit forced. It was already established that this was a thing.. why do it twice and with a lackluster medium like texting.. I still don’t get it. I bet if I could read Kanji I might ..but meh.  I think next episode someone will get hurt! Let’s hope it is not Moe.  As much as I like the gadgets their inventor Jun I can find a tad annoying at times. Not all that much but in this episode he had a few lines of dialogue that not really stick with me. Like at one point Samurai Flamenco tells Yun he is worried his gadgets might get knock offs and he says “we can’t have that’ and that is the end of it.. it doesn’t go anywhere. Huh?! Nitpicks though!

Amazing! AMAZING Episode! I have so many theories! For example I think that Akira guy Might be King Torture! Not sure why I think that but it’s just me telling! That guy is totally king Torture! He wanted to see Masayoshi unmasked.. met the agent just before she got in trouble ..or just after she escaped….not sure.. and he keeps showing up.. he might just be a cute romance for her though. I would ship them if he is not King Torture. That text only thing has to come back as well. This episode made me think, laugh, worry and wish I knew of this series earlier! Highest score one again!

My Oh my  this episode sure was different. There were some very dark moments in there! Not a lot of comedy either, still it felt like an episode of slime and like almost every episode so far I enjoyed this watch.

The episode begins with a flashback on Shizu’s or Shizue’s past.  She is summoned by a demon lord and possessed by the Ifirit , we saw that last episode but this week we saw how it took her over and she evaporated a friend and her pet against her will… the screams of that girl were quite haunting and the pet monster was really cute! It just growled at the man who clearly has a demon in himself or is a demon!  That was enough for the Ifrit to trigger and turn the very cute pet and the cute girl into a very dead pet! We then go back to the village where Shizu is leaving trying to fight the control of the Ifrit but just as she is about to head out she fails. The Ifrit comes out and destroys the goblin Village. The human adventuring Party wants to help Rimuru defeat this beast because Shizu is one of them and they want to help her in her time of need. Even if they now know that Shizu is the legendary hero of old. Rimuru finds himself overpowered. His water blade evaporating and having no effect. Yet when Elen the group’s mage girl manages to hit some summoned dragons or wyrms with ice Rimuru asks her to shoot him.. as he eats the ice he develops a new technique called Ice shotgun that is used to defeat the Dragons. Elen’s party however gets taken down and is majorly hurt by a self destructing enemy and Rimuru has to face the Ifrit by himself.. luckily he finds out he is immune to fire and after a short scuffle the Ifrit is devoured and faces Veldora.. the look on his face shows us he knows he is fricked!

This  episode brought us great payoff to everything that has been set up by the last episode. Last week I really disliked Elen and her group and this week I was worried sick about them.  Please be okay! They are such good guys I thought! That moment that the dragon self destructed in front of them might have been my favourite moment of the episode. Genuine concern and an actually fun fight despite the fact that Rimuru is so powerful.Pacing wise I needed an episode with stakes as well and  this episode sure provided. This was exactly what I needed from this show at the right time..and that seems to be one of it’s biggest strengths. It doesn’t go above and beyond, to blow you away.. it gives you what you want .. it gives you what you need. I was thoroughly entertained and I even cussed at my screen when the Ifrit faced Veldora.. I was like.. oooh boy you ..(bad word)  now! If I talk to the screen.. you made a good episode! I think I did talk to my screen twice this episode at least. And mumbled a few other times! I liked the flashback of Shizu as well though I wished the cute monster did not have to die for it! It was powerful enough for me though.

That being said.. the Puppy and the girl evaporating was my least favourite moment of the episode I watched this Saturday.. not that it’s bad and I don’t even think it is poorly paced because If I knew her any better I might have been actually upset over such a minor character, it just wasn’t  fun. Not always has to be fun though. The reason though why I put a disliked scene and not a bad scene in here is because there is very little negative about this episode. People not included were excluded for a reason and characters I disliked before totally redeemed themselves today for me. If I HAVE to give this episode a negative it would have to be that no one wondered what a Shotgun was when Rimuru first used his spell.  I know I better drop it for that right?!

No this is another highest rank episode for me this week! It is in a very different light  than good episodes of Hikaru no Go are for example…but within the confines for what this show is it’s a near perfect episode and just a tremendous amount of fun.Nothing we haven’t seen before…but that is not what this show aims for …so a perfect score for you!

I am so confused. What the heck just happened!  Gone is the cute world and the bitey bitey bunny stuff! No this week it’s Mad Max meets magical girls! I do not know what is going on and I love it that I don’t.

At first this episode barely seems to connect to episode 2. After finishing it I am still not sure that does. Papika can be seen walking through a desert and collapsing from thirst and fatigue looking for Cocona. She is rescued by some Jawa like folks that treat her as an enemy. A pink one however  gives her water  and lets her recover. Papika being her usual somewhat selfish self wants more and travels to the well to see these villagers are struggling to exist.. so she sucks a slightly poisonous cactus instead when suddenly raiders attack. These raiders smash up the village and pour the water all over their genitals and waste it. When Papika speaks up a giant raider tries to beat her up which she beats with the flick of a finger. A metal faced school girl shows up called lady Cocona.. not believing it is Cocona Papika fights here while a hooded stranger looks from afar. This fight is totally Dragon Ball Z esque including the sound effects. Finally Papika realises this is Cocona but the helmet controls her. So she knocks herself out with a headbutt breaking the helmet. Cocona is immediately regretful but can not be for long. Papika tells she loves loves loves loves LOVES Cocona.. but there is also evil afoot.

It turns out the Pink jawa like thing is actually a sort of succubus like creature with an army of female gimp like creatures that put the helmet on Cocona to make them fight..and fight them just because she is bored. By eating a giant purple potato Cocona and Papika get the power to transform into magical girls that can summon a giant gun.. that helps them defeat the witch/succubus with the last of their strength…but it turns out that the creature is still alive. Facing defeat the two girls get saved by three other girls belonging to a different organisations.. one of them is Cocona’s classmate Yayaka who seems to work for some kind of weird cult.  They take a pink orb from the creature and return to their base where they feed it to a black spiral thing as the cultist leader person says they are close to their goal.
Our two heroines return to the real world where Dr Salt is being very mysterious.

So yeah that was a WEIRD plot summary lots of stuff happening.. and without a doubt in my heart my favourite moment is their magical girl transformation. My oh my I liked that transformation sequence.. the Pure Barrier and Pure Blade alter egos seem very Pretty Cure like.. where characters are called Cure (Whatever their handle is) . I also loved the weird loading mechanic of their ultimate weapon.. a cannon that is loaded by energy that is just stuffed trough some weird holes in the back of the gun. It was so insane and out there that  I was constantly amazed.  It seems that the desert reflects Cocona’s persona this time.. her issue is that she is bland..she lacks a will of her own as told by the monster of the week. So it makes sense this world looks barren.  The fact that there is another organisation except from Flip Flap really came as a surprise. When I orginally saw the hooded girl I thought.. oh that is the real Cocona..she will show up to help her friend in a bit.. then stuff happend and I forgot and it turns out it was Yayaka.. did not expect but I love it.. this show has me so excited and gleeful when I watch it … It feels like this is my candy and i am the baby.

I will be honest this episode was so weird and that magical girl transformation came out of nowhere.. while I loved that it came out of nowhere  on three separate occasions I checked if I was watching the correct episode. First if I was on the right episode number secondly if they might not have uploaded a wrong episode as episode 3 and thirdly if there wasn’t another episode in this form of Pure Illusion.. I loved that feeling of disorientation and awe but I can easily imagine it will not be for everyone.. this is so much my jam though that only gripe this week is that I don’t think I like dr salt. He feels to obviously traitor vibes to me… but hey.. I did not get what I expected last time at all! So I might very well be wrong! No spoilers!

Best thing I watched today! And I watched an incredible amount of good stuff today!  In fact this week has 4 perfect scores for me! So this for me is my baby Jesus of anime. Before I thought this might end up in my top 10 favourite anime of all time.. the way things are going it might end up in my top 3. This is so much my thing I can’t even bring it to words!

The fourth and final perfect score of the day does so on completely different terms as the other episodes. This didn’t keep me as entertained as the others did but I am amazed with how strong of a set up this episode was.  Where it fumbled in the earlier set up episodes the last ones have been really strong and this is probably the best written one so far.

In terms of a summary I can be a lot more brief than I was with Flip Flappers. The Go Tournament is about to start and after some provocation and Disdain from Touya’s team Haze Jr High’s team is more motivated than ever to win!  Meanwhile Touya just stares at Hikaru intensively! After a player disrespects Hikaru he suddenly gets very serious and manages to secure his first official win in a tournament making Haze Jr High the flawless victors of round 1. Touya asks his teacher how Hikaru played but he doesn’t tell him he played bad .. wanting to teach him a lesson or something?! So instead Touya stares at Hikaru with great intensity. During lunch Hikaru doesn’t feel hungry and he refuses Akiri’s lunch and instead walks out a Touya that stares at him intensely.. for a breath of fresh air.  Hikaru really wants to play himself and he plans to so .. knowing he will be defeated and disappoint Touya.. but this match is important for him too. He overhears Touya’s first board team member talk with that girl who helped him out when he was bullied once and realises how much Akira gave up to face Sai in a match. So with heavy heart Hikaru wants to help the boy and grant him the match he so desires that he has endured so much for it. Akiri shows up and talks to Hikaru for a bit and later can be seen supporting TsuTsui and Mitani as well.. the girl is such a champ in her own right!  The episode ends with Touya taking place across Hikaru and staring at him intensely.

Jokes aside.. this episode was quite heavy! There is so much things that come into play! My favourite moment was Mitania watching Kaio‘s (Touya’s School) ‘First Board match. The disrespect he gets makes him want to beat this guy fair and square. He tells this to TsuTsui as the two’s bond gradually but fastly increases in this episode. It didn’t feel out of the blue either, it felt so real. Where I can’t help but think these people take Go way to seriously the motivations of.. “I am not going to be looked down upon like that”  is something I can totally understand. This isn’t about the poetics and the beauty of Go.. this week’s episode makes crystal clear that everyone is playing for themselves.. not for sport..not for beauty.. everyone has their own realistic goal. It also makes it very clear that not all of these goals can align.. something’s got to give. Sai being completely neutral in his talk against Hikaru I found amazingly strong. The guy knows he shares a body with Hikaru and knows Hikaru has to grow.. he also wants to play Akira himself very much but he perfectly understands Hikaru as well as a player.. thus he leaves the choice to Hikaru making Hikaru’s choice all the more impactful.


This act is also my main negative from the other perspective . Hikaru is shown as a very sympathetic person and his reasons to face Touya are sound.. his reasons  to let Sai play Touya are noble.. but he doesn’t consider Sai’s feelings all that much it could help him get out of his depression knowing that he can let his partner play.. I get why he doesn’t don’t get me wrong but Hikari gets sooo much support from everyone and he is depicted as a kindhearted person so I find it a tad weird he does not consider Sai at all in this. Perhaps if I ever become possessed by my checkerboard I can more clearly tell where his mind is at.. but for someone who is depicted as so selfless he is often really selfish which does make me feel like.. “wait but that isn’t what you are showing me right now”

This though is no major strike against the episode, I really get where he is coming from and why he is sad.. I am happy he is flawed like that even but I would like it if the show doesn’t depict Hikaru as two different persons.  I could easily scale this down to a Berry good.. but I’ll be honest this is one of the more powerful set up episodes in terms of development I have seen..I can really read what people are thinking here.. When I say this is one of the best set up episodes I seen I do not mean that exclusively to this series and that I think justifies my highest grade.

And with that it is time for my weekly personal update! In which I promised to reveal the winner of my giveaways!
– DuckTales has been won by Winst0lf Portal who invented me a great new Cocktail for my Birthday! The Pinkie-Co-Lada .. I think it comes served in a cheap russian car!
– The Elders Scroll Online With all the deluxe expansions has been won by The Holy Mailman who thought my new tagline should be A Daily Dose of Happiness! Which is a great tagline! I am not going to use it as it requires me to write daily even if I would not feel like it! But a great tagline nonetheless! Both of you have fun with your prizes!

There was no doubt in my mind that these two should be the winners of their respective competitions!

Besides that, I had to step down as a DM for my group, at least while we have to do this campaign online.  I noticed the shy roleplayers not getting a turn anymore because we now lack the visual aid to see when someone is about to speak, people walk off for snacks or play a game when I cant check up and as a result nobody really is following the same stories..everyone works with half hooks. Voice chat lag only made this worse and I can’t do voices or motions and I can’t read my audience and adjust to it.. as a result the players constantly were doing each others work in order to shine themselves not realising another player had an actual hook. It became an energy drain rather than an energy boost so I had to let it go for now. One player kinda hurt me in this and as a result I have had a lot of somatic stress which caused me to be physically sick again. So I have been falling behind with my writing now! Only two days ahead now! But it is not all bad! We had a nice family birthday with a sushi dinner which was fun so there was a good day as well. I am also getting closer to a few of my blog goals so I am excited for that! Let’s make next week amazing!

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!

Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 10

Hello Island Guests, the week is all over again! So I watched some anime again!
This week I had a few issues that prevented me from watching Saki in the evening so I did not make any progress with that! Yet for Saturday I finally have gotten myself some Unicorn Fruit Loops and I poured myself a cold bowl of milk and I watched five anime!

I actually really liked this episode of BNA , the past two were so so with an increasing fear of things going south at the end.  While this episode made me worry even more about the future I actually had some fun with this.

As we slowly so the plot begin to unravel  we see that Allan Silvasta is trying to create a cure to turn beast man into humans, which upsets Shirou because he does not feel he is something that needs to be cured. Alan however tells him that part of the Beast Man Genetic code has a defunct that turns them wild and feral when they live amongst other species of  beastman. This is called Nirvasyl Syndrome named after the city where Shirou once lived. Where the event actually happend. The humans attacking the beast man city where also lead by a Sylvasta causing the god wolf to go feral and attack Alan and his cure development production line. Michiru stops him and he goes renegade. The mayor also finds herself in a lot of trouble after the minister of Japan betrays here.. who also has contact with Alan. Shirou seems to team up with flip, Michiru with Nazuna and  who knows what happens to the Mayor.. in the end we know little as we move towards the finale of this series.

This episode to me succeeded quite well in building up tension, it also put the last two episodes a bit in place. We needed those elements  because they all play a critical role in whatever deception Alan is up too. Even now I am not fully sure what he is up to.. or if he is even that evil. It fits that cyberpunk dystopian undertone that had been in this show without the actual cyberpunk element. This was enforced by the synthwave music during the explanation, the apparel of all the medical droids and tech devices that stopped Shirou. My favorite scene was in fact that synth wave supported exposition scene. I am not sure he is that evil because he did not mistreat Michiru in any way either, would she be something in the way he could have easily dealt with her there… so this is a strength that can later turn into a massive weakness if it turns out her is like , evil-evil.  I do think I can understand his motivations though and I do think that is what a show like this needs. It is on that political side of the spectrum.. that should deal with grey areas and not make it very black and white. I do fear this a fake out but for now.. I do like this set up.

What I liked less about this episode is the fact that it once more is almost entirely a single set episode. The last episode was the room where Nazuna was being scanned the episode before it was only the terrace where Michiru had a talk with mamma Melissa and episode 6 mostly took place on the square.  BNA can feel very static at times. Almost theater like which is a problem if you are trying to show how people in the city are slowly going crazy. We see this in episode 1 until 4 that is true but after that we have mostly been having very tiny self contained stories where these elements drift to the background a bit. Alan’s talk is so convincing his betrayal of the major seemed odd. It seems as if the show could be resolved without action but trough smarts and that it might be a battle of health versus basic rights which could be very interesting to see people struggle with that.. but it also feels like they are going to backpedal out of that idea. Like watching a circus actor do a really interesting stunt but there is a safety line and a net and they drew a target on the net for them to drop in as well.  It takes away the tension.. so the way the Major was framed or seems to be framed had to be my least favorite moment of the show it felt confusing to me.  Could you just not stall her out bureaucracy is a thing and she knows it so you could have played that string.

All in all I had a sweet time with BNA Episode 10. It wasn’t amazing and the episode themselves really begin to creak with the building pressure of the approaching end. It doesn’t do much wrong other than suffer under a to strict countdown. I do still quite like this show but I think it will be a solid 7 out of 10 and maybe a 6 or even a 5 if they really fumble ending for in the long run. This show is like a taco,  but in some bites there is to much lettuce, in some bites we only taste shell… but this bite was pretty well mixed.. however those last two bites are bound to be overstuffed. I am happy I had a good bite .. but I am at the point where I can enjoy it less, because it is such a sloppy overall experience.

Episode Score

I really enjoy this series and this episode was no different. Samurai Flamenco and Slime is what get me out of bed on Saturday! Super excited to watch another episode! They consistently make my day!

We see a very natural continuation of the Samurai Flamenco and Flamenco Girl dynamic as it slowly reaches it rupturing point. Maya wants to be in the spotlight so much that she pushes Masayoshi away using her cruel and harsh techniques. She is a hero for fame while he is a hero for justice. It makes the two non compatible and doesn’t  adhere to Masayoshi’s code.  When he is cast as an extra on a Sentai Show and he can finally make it big in that industry he also begins to see the darkside and the hypocrisy of that world.. he begins to see what he does is fake. Meanwhile Goto is given a “fake” job as well forming some project that deals with the Flamenco fighters in a PR stunt like thing.  Even as a blogger I have dealt with that.. why am I doing this struggle, I think most of who ever pursued anything ungraspable can relate to this struggle. A postumes gift from his grandpa on his 20th birthday offers us some origins of the Samurai Flamenco concept and on Masayoshi’s values as we see him return to his ways with new found confidence and making sure he follows HIS path! Kudos!

I think I had one of my favorite moments in the series when Masayoshi got that gift from his grandpa. It shows so much goodness. It basically validates that Samurai Flamenco should exist.. because Masayoshi believes.. he is a symbol for justice because that is the value Masayoshi pursues.  While he loves Sentai shows.. he always to an extend knew they are fake and he has to find his own way in the real world that is real.. while he can be inspired by them he isn’t a 1 on 1 copy of them. Most of all he won’t have his treasured values be corrupted by someone who looks at it from a different angle. The separation of Girl and Samurai was also very strong in my opinion! Both value their dream to much to give it up for the other, even though one seems more noble than the other I am very happy they did not make Maya flip like that.. No one should ever have to comprise on their dream! Placing Goto in a similar situation as Masayoshi made this episode even more relatable, the two seem to reflect of each other. Both are unhappy and struggle with their job, both have partner issues and question if what they do now is the real thing.. it gives the episode a strong sense of theming throughout.. they mirror each other with some different choices. 

My biggest gripe was this episode was the exact same as I had with the previous episode. Goto’s girlfriend who only exists in text messages. I can’t read Kanji and the subtitles are a bit slow to follow it all because they only appear after a whole message is being typed and since we have never seen her it lacks any form of impact. Sure he stares at her umbrella with that cute octopus a lot which shows he cares for her but it is still pretty hard to care for a character you have never seen.  Maya crushing on Goto gave me a good chuckle when she rolled around with her Dakimakura of a uniformed man saying she needed more but again her relationship with Goto is from afar with him being unaware of it.  So as far as the “romantic” subplots go  I do still feel rather un-engaged.  I am not sure if I should be engaged by it but these moments are fairly frequently present so perhaps I am.. I am not sure! I would prefer this to be a bit more minor or at least be told through dialogue with Goto telling Masayoshi his girlfriend blew him off again or something. It would impact me just that bit more, I could “hear” in his voice that he is hurt… in text not so much.

While not as strong as the last two episodes this one still was very good from throughout it’s entire runtime.  It deals with a lot of stuff that needed to be resolved in a very human way. The writer seems to really understand what drives these people and Goto Maya and Masayoshi all seem quite real to me. Representing something like the Realist, The Dreamer and the Idealist yet all pursuing the same keyword “justice”.  It really dig how this episode highlighted that to us and how  we can be different while being the same and it doesn’t mean blindly having to support others if it endangers your own desires!  Being able to understand the mindset of characters is super important in a show that is THIS character driven. This episode nails that brief yet again and provides some good entertainment to boot.

Episode Score

My least favorite episode of Slime so far that still was a very enjoyable experience to me. If this is going to be my “low point” Slime might even become a personal favorite of mine.

In this episode Rimuru, Rigur, Gobta Ranga and some other goblins and tempest wolves have reached the dwarven city in order to trade for knowledge in craftsmanship. However when some Ruffians at the door give Rimuru a hard time an act of self defence and trying to scare them off results in a small disaster with people massively losing their minds and soiling themselves in fear leading to the slime and Gobta being imprisoned. After helping the security forces of the dwarves with potions and saving their lives in combat with some underground monster, whose name I forgot on the account that it is fought of screen. Rimuru stays behind in jail but is released after the potions helped them in the battle and he is to meet a great blacksmith, using his devour and copy skills he makes him a few magic weapons and earns his gratitude and a trip to an elf host club where he is hugged and held as pet under some blobs these woman carry themselves.. as a mysterious figure approaches the club. 

This episode was a bit “simpler” in nature than the other three episodes, less is set up and it’s mostly enjoyable on a comedy level that just feels satisfying and cute.  My favorite scene is where Rimuru goes out and makes swords for the master blacksmith, from the way he talks to the showmanship on display it just felt great. You can really see this former salaryman starting to love his new life as a slime and finally getting some respect. The fact that Rimuru’s power comes from something other than sheer combat force and more so on a reliance in strength pays off once more!  It really endears me to this character a bit more. As a 33 year old myself I find traits in him of a person who has seen and experienced the other side a bit..that insignificance that a teen doesn’t quite get.. so yes I really loved that.  I also really enjoyed the innocent of Rimuru in jail, not breaking out as well as getting in trouble for performing to well in a certain situation. It reminded me off classical D&D adventures.. this stuff happens a lot there! So I really liked the jail bit as well, especially since there was no way to hold Rimuru properly since jails and slimes don’t combine. But yes that just felt so right to me.

Kicking in an open door, the scene I did like the least was the scenes where Rimuru was lewding the elves. I get it to a certain extend.. he is a predator after all and he likes the concept of boobs and all that since he never experienced any so to a point I could get behind this. Still I have some questions.. for example it does seem that Rimuru is really prone to share slime biology so I would imagine that it doesn’t have that high of a libido in the physical sense. A lot of girls think the slime is cute and hug it like a pet underneath their breasts but I sure as heck would not cover myself or my breasts in slime..let alone sentient slime. I guess they were paid but even then.. why would the dwarves think a slime is interested in elfen women? It doesn’t really seem like the first thing you think of when you see a slime. Most of the goblins and all the wolves stayed behind so Gobta and Rimuru could visit the village, why did they come in the first place then? Clearly Rimuru is strong enough  to hold his own ? Maybe because they want to follow him? I do not know but I lacked the sharpness  from before, like how comedy is more set up for comedy’s sake again.. which isn’t bad.. just not as awesome as some stuff it did before! 

I had another blast with Slime so while I can point out a few flaws ..it’s all more in the “less awesome than” category than the actual flaw category. I just like the world building of this show a lot , while the humans seem like total jack-asses this show puts a light on the other races still. I just liked the goblins a bit more than the dwarves and well .. the elves felt a bit to Twi’lek like for my generally Gray-Sexual like tastes.  It’s was still perfectly enjoyable and I laughed and got excited. I felt good and cheered up while watching and want to watch more of it. So that’s always a good sign.. a very good sign!

Episode Score

I did not like Tower of God Episode 3 a lot, I felt the plot droned on, had poor pacing and little interesting character development. It felt very colour by numbers to me, not surprising me and just feeling like a bootleg Hunter X Hunter. 

I planned to give this a chance untill episode 6 but after today’s episode I think I am going to call it quits right here. While this episode definitely was better than the last one.. I felt overwhelmed by not giving caring about anything and I still think the writing is extremely lazily! Given that the big cliffhanger on episode 3 basically is the same cliffhanger as the one we got in episode 4 as it had no pay off before. When I started Saturday Morning Adventures I decided to follow very strict rules to make it feel like a Saturday Morning show line up .. I had to put a bit of effort in my shows and give each show at least 6 episodes to win me over. However I found myself so painfully uninterested in this show that I am pretty sure 0% of those watching Pinkie’s Saturday Morning Channel is having a good time with this show..because I am the only one I am doing this for! So why waste more time writing about it after todays episode? It’s just not for me!

While I take you to this episode I will explain my feelings as to why I will drop it. We continue to crown trial in this episode and Anaak has to defend her crown from a few assailants. Including that sleeping guy whose name I forgot.  We see the two bladed samurai guy take out a lot of people while the little lizard girl uses her special weapon to defeat the sleeping guy who turns out to be  powerful mage . While it’s nicely brought visually it lacked any impact for me, we already knew she had a blade similar to Bang’s because the same logo has been shown several times.. so that was not much of a reveal. The sleeping guy being a mage did nothing for me either..mostly because the only trait the guy had so far was that he sleeps a lot. Obviously he must be powerful… but the fact that he is a mage.. well that is nice but it didn’t do anything for me, he had no build up yet so he could do anything and I would believe it, it doesn’t tie neatly in the sleep theme either so it doesn’t feel rewarding.. for example say if he woke up super grumpy and turned into a barbarian like rage.. THAT I would have found rewarding.. here it felt like just a power to give him a thing. I know liking a character theme to their powers can feel a bit forced, but at least I would have felt something. It felt like he was really meant to be impressive.. but he did not actually hit anything nor was it show how powerful his magic could be..its just there. Anaak’s whip is nice but it felt like something that would be in Bleach.. and now this show had two shows  I saw heavy influences off and both are better than this show (for the most part).

Bam’s sword begins to react to Anaak’s sword and she wants to kill him because those blades belong to the princesses of Jahad, of which there are 13 named after the months.. +1 I guess. His blade representing March and hers April. Okay.. that’s neat I guess?! A bit boring flavoring to be fair. Leaving the throne to eye up Bam gets Anaak disqualified though so her group can leave the arena without being killed, just as the group with the sleeping guy  retreated seeing Anaaks weapon. Conveniently this happens to all the important characters. Once more contributing to me how forced this plot feels. Everyone has to make it out alive Due to the animation style you can sort of tell which characters are important as well, though I cant tell extactly what.. but side characters seem to get al lot less love and attention. After big Deus Ex Machina 1 and 2, Bam’s group participates in the game. When Khun uses his magical bag to beat all 6 opponents with a knife and wind skills.. making him feel even more like Killua to me.. both are air elementals as well. Unlike HunterXHunter his powers aren’t really explained.. he just absorbs a huge spell attack with his bag, can clone items in that bag and he can conjure up Tornado’s from Arceus knows where. When a guy EXACTLY  dressed like Zorro from One Piece showed up..next to a shadowy guy who proclaims his powers were that of a rubber body I completely tuned out. Thats 3 shows it mimics now that are better than this.

Every fight so far felt completely inconsequential to me and stakes extremely low.  Obviously Anaak is important so she can not get hurt so BOOM , disqualified, obviously sleeping guy was build up so he could not stay and fight to the death even if he wanted to, and obviously Rachel isn’t going to kill anyone who matters in this next trial so that set up of her character will not pay off at all. To me this show is the equivalent to someone setting up a line of domino’s and then live streaming topping them over, some creations are creative and look nice but we can still tell what is going to happen with very standard type characters that just seem to be  taken from random shonen shows and put together again.  While this show isn’t particularly bad I just find it very VERY uninteresting.  Like a german car! It goes vroom, it is fuel efficient and it does what it needs to do.. but it will never surprise you. It can go fast enough to keep you somewhat entertained but to me it lacks any form of own personality..it just took what works well from others and makes something that is okay.

I feel if this show had focused on one battle at a time and let us learn more about a characters abilities as we go on I might be more into it.. now it’s basically Deus Ex Machina solving problem one, into the fortunate event solving the second. It’s a show where the characters are powered up by the plot to drive the story fourth because the story needs to be move forward. I feel  like the characters are completely interchangeable with each other Anaak could be on Bam’s team instead of Rak and nothing would really change! Khun could be replaced with the sleeping guy.. and instead of the magic bag he would just dream up chocobars for Rak..it doesn’t matter. I can’t help but feel like I am watching an okay fan fiction turned into an actual anime when I watch this. The visual style feels to layered to me with characters being on a different layer than the world making me feel even more disengaged.
No need for an episode score for this one because Tower of God’s status is:

Today i saw Aa nice set-up episode with some minor flaws that most likely will be among the lesser memorable episodes in the series for me. Yet also an episode that tells me that the guys responsible for this really know their cinematography and storytelling. 

We return to Hikaru after two episodes of Akira just to be introduced to another addition to the cast.  Mitani is a guy from Hikaru’s school who solved their Go puzzle poster which was seen by Akiri .. who apparently was not a part of the Go club despite constantly being their. Surprising even the captain. After eating some Ramen when Akiri runs away angry again Hikaru finds out there is another Go Lounge nearby where he conveniently meets this Mitani guy, quite a promising Go player who plays matches for money! Yet what makes him different is that he cheats! After beating Tsutsui in a match by once again cheating he runs off again not interested in the Go club! Hikaru chases after him to challenge him to a match and change his mind and his ways.

I love the introduction of the new character Mitani , while arguably seeing him in the Go Café felt a bit to convenient I love what he brings to the table and how his motivations to play are so different from the rest. Mitani is a poor guy who plays Go for money because he wants to buy stuff he can not afford otherwise.  Since he is poor and can not afford to lose money  he also resorts to cheating, something Hikaru did not have to deal with before.  Something that makes him truly unique. Go isn’t a passion for him, neither in the good way nor the bad, it is just a thing he happens to be good at and can make a buck with. He is also a pace disruptor and manipulator, in his duel with Tsutsui he eggs the guy on to make moves faster and faster.. in order to force him to to think of his move in Mitani’s turn instead of his own, by calling him slow. This results him to not pay as much attention the cheaters move who then tricks Tsutsui into making another move, disqualifying himself. I also like how Sai finally speaks up about not having been able to play for a while that was what started this whole thing in the first place so I am glad it was at least acknowledged.. the show really answered the questions I had as a viewer..why isn’t that a thing? I also feel that facing a cheater could be both interesting to Sai and Hikaru as an opponent due to the unpredictability of it all.

Akiri gets completely duped again though. Hikari makes her angry again and she leaves upset and no one chases after her, despite how much time and effort she has put into helping this Go Club and how much she provides. By now I would even expect Tsutsui to follower her and given how important this club is to Hikaru I would have loved so see at least some decency towards his lady friend who supports him so loyally. I really feel for the poor girl  and as a result I do think less of the two boys so that is a bit  that  could be improved upon.  The pacing of the go matches this week also felt a bit off, they did not feel exicting or tense they just happend.  That cinematography though.. how the camera angels in to see Tsu locked in though.. in order to also distract the viewers attention of the board as if we are watching trough his eyes.  The way the camera does a frog perspective shot from the Go board in the go parlor to show what part of the field Mitani’s opponent is counting.. showing what is in his sight form a reverse angle to emphasise that this is all he sees. I really loved that. 

I was impressed by this episode of Hikaru no Go but from a much more clinical perspective. What impressed me is more on a technical level than the actual episode itself.  The writing the cinematography, the way stuff is set up smartly. For the actual events in this episode I feel less excitement it, I wasn’t bored exactly but like I said I doubt I will remember this episode for to long, it just feels a bit irrelevant.. considering what’s about to happen next. The whole Sai committed suicide over being tricked into “cheating” and all raises the tension for next week’s episode for me! Meaning I will probably only remember that part of the encounter in the end. It’s too good to be just mediocre though so this week we are happy with the new review system and will use one of the new rankings to the maximum effect! 

Episode Score

Another Week’s worth of anime done! Real life me had a bit of difficulty coping with humanity as it is right now, spread across all factions ideologies and belief I see so much mean spirited behaviour as each other. I considered getting of Twitter but I opted out of that for now. I had a family event Thursday and my father really shunned me a bit which..always was the case but after not having him seen him for almost six months this time it hurt a bit extra. Which resulted in a bit of Somatic Stress Disorder Nausea that still lingers a bit. While I love the summer, the heat in this case did not help. So if I was more silent to you this week or missed a post.. I have in a bit of hide away mode this past week.

In more positive news! My blog Aniversary is coming up and I am looking for ways to celebrate! If you have a good idea please leave it in the comment or poke me on twitter…while the profile lasts of course! I hope you had a great week though and I wish you all an amazing next one as well!

Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 8

Hello my sweet lovely island guests!  Today I am back for you with more anime episode reviews.. mostly of stuff that isn’t relevant any longer but I have fun doing this so I will keep going on! Where last week we had a rather disappointing experience this week blew my socks off! In the good sense. The weird thing wasn’t I wasn’t even wearing any socks!

Would you look at that, BNA did an amazing episode again. While the last episode was definitely a stinker for me this episode brought what I had so longed for  in this series. Another format to bring about a change of events. A connection to the actual plot and some background into characters that are not Michiru or Nazuna. This week is focussed all around Shirou and his amazing secret. I will be discussing this secret in the next paragraph so spoiler warning for that.  It was the change of pace I needed what made it more believable.. rather than having path cross on accident , both Shirou and Michiru have reasons to be involved in the incident that is centralised in this episode.  It leads in a natural progression for Michiru, a logical development between her and Nazuna and a whole lot of character development for Shirou. The stuff unfolding has been set up for quite a while now and finally we begin to say some pay off.  No deus ex machina needed but story I could get deeply invested into! The fight scene was pretty amazing as well! It’s nice to see my main girl step up as well!

Now.. this fight leads to a BIG reveal.. one that is about as surprising as water coming out of my faucet after turning it open.  Last chance to avoid spoilers! You know this already though!
Anyway so it turns out Shirou is Ginrou the beast god!?! OMG I never would have suspected it! .. We get some back story about a miracle that made him into the wolf god thing he is .. and that looked amazing. I loved those visuals!  Shirou’s story was my favorite part of this episode. It even was a pretty generic and not even that rivettingly told story ..so that says how good it was for me!  I loved it despite the generic plot!  I am a sucker for odd visuals though!  The whole story book like visuals were great!  It also explains Shirou’s character quite well.  Throughout this story we also see a few parts beginning to move! I got reaffirmation that Boris is connected to the human Alan! I am not sure how yet.. but he seems to be working for them ..testing a new drug thing! There really were a lot of great moments here! I could pick quite a few. 

The moment I liked least was when Barbara began to tell she was trapped in a concentration camp in Germany during the second world war. It makes sense in the narrative of that world but it kind of felt like a drag by the hair analogy! We already know beast man are being oppressed and discriminated against.. you do not have to tell us it happened in the past because you just did!  Also the crow was also in that concentration camp, it has been genetically altered to live longer, which I feel was a bit of a throwaway reveal.  While I do love the episode.. the plot moved too slowly in the sense for the  series. We are introduced to yet another plot thing.. being a drug that turns you into a wild growing Kaiju and while gears begin to connect there is to much left to be resolved in four episodes.. unless they are going to completely throw the series feeling for pacing overboard. We moved forward but the emphasis was on backstory so not a whole lot happened. While I loved that about the episode I now am certain it will hurt the series in the end for me. Still as an episode it was excellent.

Episode Score:

While I disliked  episode 2 for being uneventful , this episode is completely different. Perhaps even less happened… but I loved it! I loved this episode so much! It and Slime are about tied for the best watch of the week! In the second episode of the show we saw Samurai Flamenco being picked up by social media and this week Masayoshi has to deal with the fallout of that. People suspect he might be  Samurai Flamenco based on a poll.. and as a result he is invited to some sort of talk show. When the REAL Samurai Flamenco reveals himself there.. and it’s Masayoshi’s  favorite Sentai actor, he is faced with a deep dilemma!  Not only does he have to keep his identity secret, now he might just have to take his alter ego’s identity away from the man who inspired him to be like this in the first place! It’s such a tiny plot but it is filled full of character building moments.

My favorite moment is during the talk show Masayoshi is one. When the fake Samurai is revealed. We first get a misdirect that they have found out it’s actually our protagonist that is the real life sentai, but if you payed attention to the episode title you already know a faker shows up! The fake ranger is actually a common trope in the actual sentai genre so it is funny to see it done this early with such a fledgling hero! It also makes perfect sense. The way the scene itself unfolds is perfect as well. So much becomes clear in this one scene. We can see the character of Jouji Kaname being established in this very cool seen, we see Maya watching from afar, noticing it’s another character, we see Masayoshi’s agent make a connection between her client this man and the axe toy she found in papers she picked up at his place.. and more than likely making the connection to his hidden identity! Within a few seconds so many plotlines open  up and that will even lead into more interesting plotlines such as Gotou realing digging dressing up as the Samurai character.  I am looking forward to it all. 

The actual showdown between Samurai Flamenco and the Fake feels a bit off to me though.  While I do get what trope the series is going for.. with the heartfelt speech awakening the  “evil ranger” to the path of good again the way Joiji acts kind of  ruined the punchline of that trope for me. He “acts” as if he was just giving the boy a trial.. while he should actually be emotionally touched this is never really shown .. we do not know what parts are an act and what not. As a result I found the reveal to be more annoying than epical!  The seen thereafter made things up.. with Red Axe saying Samurai Flamenco is his apprentice.. if this becomes an actual plot line that could be very interesting.. if this is a throwaway line I might like it less.

Time will tell, I have high hopes but the showdown was less than stellar. Our model boy is just a tad to helpless and when someone acts over the heartfelt message it kinda ruins the message. Still fun to see and the final shot where Gotou is dressed up as the Samurai is amazing as well. To confuse the agent Masayoshi lets him play a body double so he can walk into her office, throwing off her suspicion for now. Yet that isn’t the biggest HECK YES! When Gotou stands there on the rooftops as a superhero he feels awesome! HECK YES! Again a single line that opens so much options for this show in the future! I like it!

Episode Score:

I loved this! The episode was weird, cute, had trippy visuals, unlikely events and proper setup for the future! While normally I think second episodes tend to be the weakest of the early five , this episode completely trumped the first episode for me, and I already really liked that one! The slime gets a name of Rimuru by the storm dragon Veldora, who in return gets a family name it shares with the slime! Oh my Arceus that is so cute! With his new name the slime devours the prison that keeps Veldora in.. and Veldora as well as they begin an adventure to set the dragon free. A search that leads the slime to obtaining very powerful water based skills and encountering a cute goblin village.. as well as some adventurers.
The goblins are in trouble because since their god, assumingly Veldora , disappeared from the world dire wolves have been running amuck and killing their villagers including their local hero.  Since Rimuru has such a powerful aura they offer him their loyalty in return for his aid against the wolves. A two tier episode that really shined for me!  I got what I wanted and just a bit more!

My favorite scene is definitely the bromance seen between a slime and  the dragon resulting in the dragon being absorbed, prison and all by the slime!  I really like their interaction together and  can’t help myself but to be thoroughly amused by the odd pairing.  The pairing feels so right! Like Tom and Jerry being a cat and a mouse.. for some weird reason a slime eating a dragon feels just as right. I’d almost ship them if I would not just want them to be wholesome buddies! Such a cute moment! I squeeed with joy! The scene in the goblin village was pretty good as well. I love how suddenly the show shifted from comical and light to actual hardship and suffering for them with a legit emotional moment! FOR GOBLINS!.. If you are a DnD player you know that is an extreme rarity! That brief moment when the Goblins told about their strife it reminded me of the writing style of Eiichiro Oda , the creator of One Piece and I do not think I need to give it a bigger compliment than that. The new spells Rimuru learns seem great and thematical enough and it has that same .. experiment vibe I loved so much with Maple in Bofuri as well. Earning something by playing around is just something that makes me really excited!

I don’t really have a big negative moment in this episode, but since I try to use a format of, episode summary, positives, negatives now,  I guess I will use this bit to pick for two tiny nitpicks.  The first is the weird cutaway we had when our jolly slime ate the dragon. We cut to two humans talking.  I assume these will be the bad guys based on the intro ..which is lovely by the way but shows a lot of enemies and allies,  but I could not read a vibe from them at all. I am also not sure what to think about their design. A bit generic humans whose voice was a bit lost to me. I could have done without the scene and just found out it was a thing later. This mostly just raised questions to me.  The second nitpick I have is that the monsters are maybe depicted just a tinsey tiny bit to cutesie! Based on the intro Rimuru will hang out with monsters for the most part, like oni and goblins, as a result though the goblins look a bit to “sweet” to still be called goblins, I do like the visual style but if this is going in the direction I suspect I could have liked it if allies are ugly for once.   Still that is such a minor thing I can happily live without it.. I just would have liked it even more if the goblins were fugly beyond anything. Amazing Episode!

Episode Score:

My least favorite view of the lot! That doesn’t mean it’s bad , in fact this epsiode was still quite good! It just was the least impressive.. but impressive still. In this episode Bam still has to survive until 200 regulars are murdered but he gets help from a blue haired kid with a bag filled with power ars and a knife named Khun. He is being hunted by a giant crocodile named Rak for having such a powerful weapon. Due to a turn of events they suddenly find themselves being forced to team up  and they have to trick him into doing that!  After which they are transported to a break room! A game host like fellow shows up and thinks to many succeeded the test and summons a barrier they have to break through! If a team member  doesn’t make it through the entire team is eliminated. Bam is not affected by the barrier and gets a chance to ask some questions about this strange game. Once more this really reminded me of Hunter x Hunter even more so this episode Bam is due to his amnesia quite a lot like Gon, he has abilities he is very much aware of. Khun is a lot like Killua.. a white haired boy with assassin skills and who allegedly is a bit evil! That game guy who showed up even reminded me a bit of Hisoka! Not sure who Rak would be in that analogy though!

My favorite moment would definitely be the way Bam enforces Rak to team up with him. Using his code of honor against him not to attack an unarmed opponent he creates a stalemate that pushes the three towards a time limit and making Rak an ally. Khun convincing him to fight Bam when he is stronger helped with that and I am happy we see a show where brain does seem to  outclass brawn for now.  Which seems to be a theme in the episode. During the barrier trial everyone who tried to force their way in had trouble.. only the strongest could press trough  while those becoming calm and collect  did it with relative ease! Yet it also doesn’t completely work like that as we see a character confidently walking into the barrier and starting to bleed. We get introduced to a mysterious green skinned girl with a tail and a two katana samurai who faced her before.. as some of the most promising candidates to climb the tower. They don’t say a lot and fight each other for a bit using tricks and wits. Not just skill!  If this direction is kept I am happy.

While the barrier trial was done fairly well, the fact that Bam was unaffected by it kinda irked me off as well. He already has a legendary blade, an ability to see things others can’t he is from another world and everyone seems to sense talent in him.  Is it really needed to give him this as well?! I guess it is is because the matter that made up the barrier seems an important element in the tower but still  it was a bit of a Gary Stue moment enforced by how serious the other characters all seem to take it. No jaw drops, no NANI!!  The game guy knows more and only whispers.. “so a monster has appeared” while I really do like that line I could not help but feel like any sense of tension was taken away from me as the other two cleary state they can walk through it without problems.

I do not care that much about the rest yet that it adds stuff for me. I am also still unsure about the visuals! I do like the green girl and Rak but Bam’s design I find kind of bland, Khum has something visually that makes me go meh as well. I notice it’s different and I do not love it but I am not sure yet I hate it either. It keeps me from losing myself in the episode enough to be a negative though. Still  A very decent episode that just had to compete with four better ones. I forgot to mention! I found the opening very boring and unappealing!

Episode Score:

Last week’s episode was rather terrible I had little good to say about that and this week’s episode really made that up for me again. It seems the even episodes are quite good while the odd episodes impress me way less. We take a break from Hikaru which is something I needed to be honest after how he treated Akiri! It is even brought up he acted like a piece of posterior droppings.  In the few moments we see Hikaru we still seem him not care about Akiri and saying Go is not for girls and not for her.. but Sai schools him! Thankfully someone steps up! That’s all I wanted! The rest of the episode is focused on Akira Touya and how he is integrating in the Go Club! His amazing brain and skill make him a treat to the tournament third Seed and made hm rather unpopular amongst the club. This leads to the third seat challenging Touya for a match but him being beaten as he realises he might have to give up on his dream!  It’s a sad scene but it also depicts Akira as a strong character, he knows what he does is a bit shitty but in order to grow as  player to achieve what he wants he must join that club and defeat Hikaru. As he makes his way in.. resent against him grows.

My favorite moment episode is Akira’s duel against the third Seed.. the match was so silent and just some music as stones click on the board. These two both have reasons why they can not lose and why they have to win and that is seen on their faces.. when Touya inevitable wins we also see his opponent break something that surely also would have happened the other way around. These people really care much about Go!.Sai stepping up for Akiri was great as well, telling about how everyone  played Go in his age.  We also see Hikaru set up some growth behind the screens by buying some Go study materials.  I think it  the perspective change is a really clever way to keep the focus where the most interesting things are unfolding rather than just showing us nothing .. like what happened in the episode before. The episode also does a great job to depict that Ivory Tower feeling Touya must be experiencing. He can’t be beaten by these people he never could the only challenge he had was Hikaru. Well at least in his mind. This episode really made me warm up to him a bit instead of depicting him as a crybaby.

The finale of this episode however was a fairly big weak point! I had a major gripe with it that pushed the episode from amazing to just very good for me.  The school team Touya works for wants to embarrass him! Teach him humility! Previously it was established how important winning was and that now is withdrawn in favor of old teammates.. that feels a bit off to me but sure I can buy it.. what I can’t buy however is that some of them seem to be willing to break his arms and let his assistant play for him and then beating him in his weakened and pained state just so they can claim they won. That in their eyes would embarrass him so much he would have to leave them alone. If he loses with a 40 degrees fever because they trick him .. it would make him less of a player?!

  I honestly do not get why breaking his arm and challenging him to a match would discredit him.. also why would you hate the guy so much you want to to that?! While I get it sucks for one guy to lose a spot on the team it would mean your team  has much bigger chances of losing..  and you also care about winning.. so  yeah the way his antagonists are set up is not something I completely buy yet! Just a tad to evil! Still a great episode with just the last two minutes putting a shark in the water. They did not jump it yet.. but they sure as well are building a ramp to do so! I still try to imagine this here.. the checker club breaking a exchange students arms to beat him in checkers seems a bit excessive.

Episode Score:

And with that we close the book on yet another Saturday Morning! I skipped breakfast this time I haven’t been feeling that hungry lately, this afternoon about when this post goes up I will be making Pita Bread Hamburgers though! I am working hard on a blog restyle which should drop 20 days before my blogs anniversary! That way I can prepare something special! Working on that too!
My muscles are giving me some trouble lately sometimes I walk like Gregory House with that my update is done! From now on I will put some of my events here! I hope your next week will be awesome!

Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 7

It is time to discuss anime I watched again! Week 7 of bringing back Saturday morning cartoons was a bit different, I allowed myself a break to make some delicious Omelette Au Fromage, with cubed bacon and spinach filling. It was a really nice way to celebrate two new shows adding to the line up. Welcome “That Time I reincarnated as a Slime” and “Tower of God” to my lineup! I was happy with both my rule-break as well as my new additions because..those were the best part of my Saturday morning

An albatross flies over japanese skies and is threatened to be shot down for not having the right documentation.. he claims he can’t help it because of instincts.. but because of being awarded human rights  he needs passports and proper regulations. He goes to land in Anima city..but he crashes due to a storm coming up.. and what do you know.. he crashes straight onto Michiru’s bed. It’s been a dream of Michiru to fly so seeing her first flying type beast man fascinates her. Quickly bonding as he invites her for a flight… at that time we see the Mayor asking Shirou to look into some flying beast man terrorists… jeez.. I am so surprised! BNA is SO lazily written at times. The colliding plot lines thing happens in EVERY single episode. It invalidates so much of Michuru’s life for me.. I don’t believe that this would happen EVERY single time we see the tanuki discover something about herself. This really annoyed me! 

Good! This series used to be like that too my guy!

The lesson in this episode also doesn’t land for me at all. Basically it says beastman are annoyed that they now that they are seen as equals in human society have to follow their rules while it sometimes goes against their instincts. They are other life forms that should be held to other rules. I strongly disagree. I mean yes I get that birds should be allowed to be migratory..but if you have the power to look human, this is nothing but mere safety precautions. If I go to a muslim country I can’t expect them to allow atheist to break some of their religious  laws simply because I do not believe in Allah! If I go to India I do not go and eat a cow.. simply because I have a doctors note that says I should eat more red meat. No a country determines the rules. Those rules can be crooked and may require change.. but  this really pales to issues real people are having here! The Albatross can even freely fly across the country.. he just has to go to the ground and fill in some paperwork to do so.. to get a tourist visa.  So his reason to become a terrorist and threaten the Major of Anima City to bury his people who got shot while ignoring a 3 minute paperwork job really did not land.
It really made the world building seem flimsy and poorly thought off. I get someone has needs.. but because of the entire plot of the episode they proof this rule is valid!

Shirou by now also just exist to punch guys Michiru hangs out with

Of course the whole encounter is deeply tied in with the church as well.. who most likely hired a terrorist to kill the human financer of the city.. The blond bad guy who owns the chemical comany.. just so they can save him.. in order to be granted asylum. We get the obvious fake out, like really obvious, and Michiru learns how to make wings and fly.  Nazuna can turn into a better more shiny bird though and the Priestess Death Rube.. as Nazuna is also known as is now the hero of the city. Like always.. the life and development of Michiru is given some love and attention.. this feels like her and sprouting wings seems fitting and in line with her nature. It’s as if someone created a really amazing character and loved it very much..but then threw a very cheap world around her.  The episode was watchable, the new character design was pretty sleak.. but it also feels super obvious. I’d say this is about as enjoyable as riding one of those really cheap fair. .haunted house rides. It looks really cool from the outside but inside it’s filled with plastic spiders and easy to predict moments that completly kill any immersion you could have had. BAD Episode.

I suspected they might be the same person..clearly I was wrong

Score:

This one is a bit of a mixed bag for me. In general a second episode of anime I always find rather underwhelming. Episode 1 usually is an amuse bouche of what is to come and in episode 2 you often have to do so much ground work in a setting that it oftenly is not very action packed.  This episode felt like that at least for the first two thirds. The third act was very strong. The first act mostly depicts how Masayoshi struggles  being a hero and while I had a lot of fun with seeing it , not a lot happens. He scares a guy by sneaking up on him and scolding him for littering and he prevents a woman from putting her trash outside forty minutes early.  Which she did because she wanted to sleep in.  While it is fun.. we do not see a payoff to this directly, it comes back in the third act. Which in hindsight makes this a lot better.. but while viewing it I couldn’t help but frown. At this time we suddenly feel very distant from Masayoshi. Goto hears some complaints and just sighs and we see them bonding as bro’s for a bit until we move to the second act. It isn’t a bad act..but due to the way the obnoxious hook is let go.. it felt kinda unrewarding (about 8 minutes in)

You should not have such faboulous hair in the rain either!

While hanging out Masayoshi’s agent shows up. Ishihara has a new gig for Masayoshi being an extra for some idol girl group.. which based on the opening credits and what happens next will gain some importance later on.  We see the his tale that he feels uncomfortable being a model being validated here when he has a hard time to contain his nerves. Which is a nice way to establish his character.The episode really does do a great job in setting up Masayoshi as a character… it just doesn’t do a whole lot of anything else. We are introduced to the idol girl Maya who admittedly is quite cute and I can see here becoming very important to Masayoshi! To calm his nerves we see him sing/mumble a sentai song which she does seem to recognise. Singing about an axe, I am not  sure if it’s an actual sentai show .. but the axe comes back in all three the acts. Unfortunately  Maya’s fascination with our protagonist is kinda brushed off and glossed over. I am sure it will come back but now about 15 minutes in I have yet to see anything happen yet. 

An accurate depiction of how wild this epssode is so far!

The third act makes up for this with a very cute resolution of the first act. Goto invites his new friend for sushi to talk about the complaints concerning Samurai Flamenco asking him to shelve the idea for a bit. Which obviously Masayoshi doesn’t want to do. Goto asks him about why he wants to stop these petty crimes and again I see a call back to Tarantino like dialogue when they begin to talk about Umbrella theft.. which is very common in Japan. You just take an umbrella for the rain. Masayoshi never uses one.. because he once stole an Umbrella of a young boy who got the flu from walking through the cold. This made him vilianise himself so hard he can not let go of any petty crime. Rules exist for a reason and he wants to keep them all. There is a beautiful pureness to this. Goto got drunk from their outing and on their way out.. he notices his umbrella is gone.

Awww shucks I bet this would make great Yaoi

However there is a cute strap of his girlfriend on that Umbrella which makes it worth more to him. We see our boy play the noble hero getting Goto his umbrella back. It brings the two closer together. It’s beautiful and funny to see how the hero will not even run a single red light and his justice is done within the complete confines of the rules. ..except for vigilantism I guess..but he doesn’t really move on the turf of law enforcers either.. he just gives offenders a stern talking too.  It was a beautiful way to wrap up this episode and gave it the kick of action that it needed. I kinda wish the first act and the second act were swapped as I think that would have been even more beautiful and a bit less fragmented. All in all a quite enjoyable episode.. that suffers from having to much to set up. 

I got nothing.. can you think of a funny for this one?!
Too invested in the last part to screen cap!

Score:

Foovay recommended this one to me and I must say , this was my favorite watch of the day. It was also the weirdest. There were so many tones and voices in this episode. We begin with the death of the main character. I mean .. that is not a spoiler .. you need to die to be reincarnated. This actually happens rather vicious and bloody.  Thirty Seven Year old virgin Satoru is having an outing with a coworker and his new girlfriend when a random assailant charges at them with a knife. Satoru jumps in front of his colleague and saves his life.. at the cost of his own. As he lays there dying he wishes he would not feel pain.. complains about heat and cold and worries about the safety off his hard drive and electronic devices. This all registers with a voice in his head who grants him these wishes for the next time he is reborn.
He shall have a body that feels no pain, heat or cold and one that will be a predator! This all leads him into being born as a slime! I really felt for the guy that stab looked so painful and not comedic at all! I was really surprised. 

You are on Pinkie’s Paradise! Rejoice..also do my dishes!

Through a lot of surreal visuals we see him move into another world and discover some of his skills , talking more to the voice in his head which sounds an awful lot like a computer  voice.  I love these types of visuals, it really made me question what was going on.. and that is a sentiment that I really like to feel. The revelation that he is a slime is always not very dragged out.  Which is nice, the title spoils that to us already so it’s kinda good that it doesn’t linger. This moves into some Bofuri-like cute moments of the slime dissolving a flower just because it’s the only fun there is to be had and slowly discovering it’s abilities. This would be my favorite moment of the episode. There is just something about characters experimenting with their new bodies or powers that really charm me. The slime also emotes wonderfully well a lot better than i expected though it is nowhere nearly as cute as the Dragon Quest slimes. Based on the opening  which we find at the ending of the episode this time, he will later transform into a boyish girl person thing akin to Kirito in Gun gale. I might be wrong though. I am pretty sure a slime would be genderfluid.

I know right.. that last joke was funny!

The final part of the episode we have the little blob learn how to see using magical perception.. having eating some magical rocks he can learn that ability I would assume. The Dragon Veldora gives him this skill if he promises not to be scared of him… which is a very nice moment and my second favorite moment. The dragon has been so lonely and is very happy to have someone for company for a bit. It seems that the slime will be on the “bad guy” side.. but  it doesn’t (yet at least) depict the dragon as evil. He might lie.. but he could just have been put here for being a monster. He destroyed a town sure.. but he had been sealed away with a lot of force.  I see a lot of promise in this format. I do like the visuals and the designs so far as well. Our main character being of a somewhat older age makes him credible to some life experiences and gives him much more proper motivation to try a different lifestyle than say.. a 14 year old who got hit by a truck. The way skills are used might be very fun.. it looks to be and I can not wait to see more! This could be a very interesting show to me with the right amount of cute, intrigue and magic and trippy visuals! Next week I will find out more.

That’s a dragon who breathes air! Beware!

Score:

I thought this would be a Isekai.. but it seems it is closer to a magical fantasy action show.  Bam and his dear friend Rachel are from ..the other side of some gate.. but the semantics aren’t fully clear to me yet. They do seem to live in a world without a sky. Rachel who dreams to see the stars one day therefor wishes to climb the legendary tower of god.. on top there is basically god  but also  whatever you seek.  However to climb this tower you must face some tough challenges in many life or death situations. Bam gets a magic sword that is into him.. or something and so he must explore and prove his worth! His friend went ahead and now he works hard to catch up.

For lots and lots of love! Or money..whatever I find first..

This at least seems to me to be the plot of the show and it feels very different from what I have seen so far. Both designwise as storywise the story seems to follow a few different beats as your run of the mill anime! Probably due to it’s Korean influences.  We see a skeletal bunny be some sort of trial master. In honesty he could be a character from Hollow Knight.. he looks exactly like that.. just larger or with more human dimensions. Ban is given a trial that people even on the 20th level have issues against so it seems he is being treated unfair. This draws the attention of some princess.  This whole scene fascinated me.. I think her name was Jahad but that might be a title .. I am not sure yet. She objects to him doing the trial but to Ban, Rachel is his entire world.. so she decides to give him a royal blade. Without thinking a moment longer he walks into the trial! He will see Rachel again. So far I like Ban, he is more silent than your usual main character nowadays.. we really get a great sense of his determination in this first episode.

I am pretty sure that is NOT an Eel

My favorite moment is when Ban is trying to break some orb in the area a giant steel eel lives.. or at leats thats what it’s called. We do not see his strikes persé.. we see why he strikes. We see the reason of his strength, which I found a lovely poetic scene. We also see his cries call out the eel thing again.. signifying we see a man with a deep passion here a deep care for the woman he is after and he will not easily be stopped! Yet his cause will also put him into danger. Jahad and her navigator.. see things going awry so in a burst of desperation to ask the sword for help.. he does so and she answers. Hugging him unleashing her powers.

Where is that shadow coming from, she is litteraly bathing in light!

For now it seems like she accepted him simply for being pretty! I do hope this remains true! I would love for an all powerful sword to be so petty! With the sword unlocked he clears the trial and is immediatly booted in the next trial! A surival game where half of the trialist have to be eliminated. This begins to introduce us to some characters I saw in other peoples screenshots and the opening credits so I bet episode 2 will be important! I am at least hungry for more even though I am not the biggest fan of the character designs yet. Except for the sword lady!

Well at least it will be easier to walk on then!

Score:


This episode was never going to be as great as episode 6, that episode was so amazing so this one was bound to let me down a bit but boy…. this was a rough one to finish. While it does a great job a setting up Hikaru’s desire to stand on his own two feet and not be depended on Sai as much I feel like that was already established in the previous episode. So this episode just really focuses on validating that. In a way where nothing happens. They start to found a Go club in their own school and somehow Akiri is in it but the club is not official yet and they need new members so they make a poster.. which people remove which angers Hikaru. While it seems in line with his character to get into these tantrums.. he himself did not care about Go before at all  so I’d imagine he could at least relate to others a bit more. Hikaru was the worst thing in this episode if I am honest.

Okay , the poster wasn’t very good either!

We see him lash out at Akiri for no reasons as all and it comes at the cost of his drive to learn the game. He is improving but he overshouts that emotion  all the time. When Akiri asks to be thought to play the game he goes ape-shit at her when she makes an illegal move.  I felt so bad for the girl, his unwillingness to teach her seems to clash with what this episode is about .. making new people enthused about Go. I know this is a bit the way their established relation goes but if that is true why would Tsutsui teach Akiri instead. See her get into this.We cut away to a while later and you’d expect her to be upset.  Instead she just takes Hikaru’s verbal rage  and makes a nice colourful poster which is cute and I am happy to see more Akiri but it all felt so inconsequential. 

I have known these rules for a week! You are Trash Akiri! Ignorant Trash! A WEEK!

Akira meanwhile notices that Hikaru doesn’t come to the Go “café”  anymore  so he decides to join his school club in order to face Hikaru in tournaments. Reason is that Hikaru blows him off for a duel as he wants to meet him on his own strength. Which is the best thing this episode does.. but doesn’t Sai have a problem with this?  He wants to perfect the divine move and the strongest opponent he can currently face says he has gotten a lot stronger. Last episode we see Sai beg to play and now without him mentioning a single thing we see him stick by Hikaru’s  call to do everything himself . I really would have liked a more 50/50 divide here.

That outfit doesn’t look very becoming on Akrii

Hikaru was told to learn from how Sai plays to better and that synergy made the last episode so beautiful he could begin to see the flow of the stones..so why is that suddenly turned to 0 so hard. The whole Akira’s Go club not accepting him because he is to good and taking their spot makes sense and I think the whole difference between those who play with passion and those who play for credit can offer interesting plotlines in the future.. but that thing relegated to be a voice over while he walks through a hall and we see trophies. It just didn’t land.. nothing really did in this episode for me. I am glad Hikaru is coming into his own but for me he took a step back from where he was last week. This week some of Hikaru definitely lost some Moku. At least I think that is the term!  Not awful just very meh!

His best weapon is his Blue Eyes…wait wrong anime?! Huh!?

Score:

A bit of a disappointing week. Now before people go all defensive, the episode of Hikaru and Samurai Flamenco can still end up being amazing in the bigger picture, they just did not offer me much as stand alone episodes. I still really like their respective series and their potential.
BNA.. however is really showing it’s cracks. I just can’t get over the same trope being used each week. It’s weird how these last two episodes took such a nose dive for me. Michiru is still an amazing character and I would love to see more about her life, I just don’t think this world is clever enough let alone the main story thread. Maybe next week I will be proven wrong though.

Such a nice Screenshot from Slime to cap things off with!


Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventures (Week 4)

Hello everyone, it’s sunday again which means Pinkie watched anime! In my saturday morning program I have slotted 5 shows in time slots including commercial breaks! Today I review the episodes of my fourth week! Check the anime tab on my homepage to track down the originals!

BNA
Episode 4

At 9:00 I was ready for some more Brand New Animal. Studio Trigger’s show that I so far quite liked and this episode was certainly no exception. It spotlights Michiru even more than before taking Shirou out of the equation for a bit as the Tanuki girl gets a brand new phone..from her mink “friend” to get access to human internet.  This leads her to discovering a girl named Nina, living in anima city. She is streaming on Facelook as she desires to be part of the human world and.. while Michiru approaches her she gets knocked out and captured. My least favorite moment of this episode as I thought we would be in for another one of Shirou’s heroic  moments, but luckily this was quickly subverted.

Once Michiru wakes up she finds out Nina is the daughter of the gang leader of “The Family” lead by Flip.. which is a last name but he is referred to as Flip and he looks like a Flip to me. Flip in Dutch was a fairly common name for people of the Silent generation and before. Flipje is the mascot of the city Tiel and it’s jam factory and he is like a raspberry man so it sounds like a first name to me..This also results in me thinking Flip will turn into a raspberry but it looks like he is actually some kind of whale. As I get side tracked we move back to our story by saying that by being honest to Nina about her preferences  of the human world, she is able to take on her human shape. The two then decide to visit a party they saw on Facelook together. 

I am happy they are giving Michiru a friend and I do hope the character stays that as well.  It felt nice and needed for her character as well. I dislike  that the first friend she made is connected to the Family.. it feels so convenient again. The Major also has made some discoveries about Michiru’s condition which conveniently allows for some exposition on Beastman lore. While kinda cool to know the conversation is kind of nonsensical. “Michiru if A Tiger Beastman loves A Lion Beastwoman very much.. their kids take on the properties of one parent and can not become a liger. It has to do with your spirit and all. “Your cells can morph so it’s completely not like that”.  I mean I know Michiru might not be smartest .. it kinda felt off. 

Shinies?! *Readies her Pokéballs*

What I did liked about the episode is that it shows the other side of racism, people like beast people at the party so when they discover Nina is a beast person they revere her and want to play with her.. however apparently aquatic beastman can not breath under water or at least Nina can because she was tired so they put her in an aquarium and she ends up choking. The whole turn around showing that some people are supportive but not understanding made the show feel nicer. It did not hammer in “humans are racist butterscotchcandy-holes. Yet there is also danger in the unknown a lesson that prompts Michiru to go back to Animacity and learn. That was nicely set up!

I also liked the stand off with Flip and Shirou and how a random guy just got killed by Flip. Shirou did not stop it.. so clearly he knows something we do not know yet. Shirou is also said to be a beastman with an immortal body by the scientisty bad guy person.  So things are feeling like they are heating up! Still we do not get overfed exposition and each episode just offers us some puzzle pieces. All in all this was probably my most enjoyable watch of the day.

Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens
Episode 4

Ugh… Episode 1 was all about Yuga, Episode 2 introduced us more to Rook, Episode 3 was about Romin so that means Gakuto is up next right? Will they colour within the lines?  The first 10 seconds already tell you that you are going to get what you expect and nothing more. A narration of the fourth main character shows us this is his episode. Unoriginal.. but maybe needed.. yet he turns out to be not very well written as this episode crashes before it ever takes flight. 

Gakuto is the studious boy the one who plays by the rules. He arrives each day at school at 6:66:66 which make me think he might be the son of the Goha President or something later on as that is exactly the time they give you to redeem your flaws.The episode for this plot is that the student council president has trouble keeping up with his work now that he hangs out with Yuga and Rook a lot. (I know Rook might be called Luke but my translation says Rook so running with that one)  So obviously to make time for his duties again he decides to ban Rush Duels on School Grounds. Yuga challenges  him to a duel and if he wins there will be no ban on duels but if Gaktuo wins they will promise not to duel in the school.

This already creates a problem, the consequence to this duel is to limiting for the narrative to ever take fruit. In the duels with Rook and Romin , Yuga CAN lose because it would not block the plot, in this setup there is no way the main character can lose because it would not allow the story to continue .. or at least place it under severe restrictions otherwise. This is somewhat resolved by letting Gakuto place his title as council president on the line.. but why would they force their friend to lay down something he loves that much.. that is quite horrible. Of course it could be to give him some free time to join their adventure but that would be super convenient again.

The duel itself is the worst one so far. Gakuto’s ace card SUCKS! By changing mode it can prevent either side to tribute for a 7 or higher level monster on the next turn. The set up he has to do to utilize this is quite large and the pay off blows. You can still special summon a level 7 monster.  Since it’s Yu-gi-oh this is super easy and the boy gets his ass handed to him by Yuga. Sure he learned to enjoy himself a bit more during this duel instead of sticking to ceremonies and traditions, that  was a trait he did not need to have from the get go. His aides never showed up before and now they are everywhere where he goes.

This feels forced and as soon as Gakuto loses his Student President title he gives it up as he promised… then he runs for Student President again in the next election which makes no sense! Why would the school allow these shenanigans, he also gets reelected (in favor of his only competitor Rook) as well. Such a weak choice! This really was a weak episode and the only highlight is that Romin wore a cute new outfit! I really like her more and more.

Bofuri
Episode 7

Ah that is better, a nice dose of Bofuri cuteness. The seventh episode is all about preparation for the third and fourth events. Mostly the guild competition. We see Maple grind a dungeon with Yui and May, the one with the Hydra she ate to get some levels on the two. Because of one Maple’s ridiculous plans to speedrun it the group manages to complete it under two and a half minute which allows them to gain a skill that doubles their attacks. Putting them on a similar track as Maple. Iz makes new hammers for them which they now also are able to dual wield..because of another skill they unlocked. For the most part I think this part of the episode worked quite well as they are a sort of reflection of Maple.  They also finally use a montage without skipping some sweet parts this time it skips grinding! Yay!.. Also I am happy grinding is a thing it makes the game more legit.

The white hammer girl is my favorite! She has pink details!

The second part relies on the guild members doing their jobs, gathering materials helping each other train etc. Kuromu is the only one who died enough times to unlock a secret dungeon from which he gets a pretty edgy armor that seems pretty good. He kind of feels like the Yamcha of the group.  Kasumi goes hunting for wool so Iz can craft robes for the event, which gives the group some bonus event drops. She encounters Maple while doing this who was playing with some sheep and learned the Wooly ability. An ability that allows her to turn into a ball of wool, or a poisonous ball of wool. Shielding her from attacks. It does seem to trap her though which results in some cute wholesome comedy. 

The final act of the episode has Maple wandering in town figuring out how to be useful once more when she encounters a quest.  What actually should be a high level escort quest becomes easy as Maple just flies with Syrup, This entire questline was my favorite part of the episode. The NPC spouts random dialogue based on their location which confuses Maple as she is totally immersed. The npc is startled by npc’s they fly over, the program thinking she is on ground level. I like this a lot, it contributes to the MMO feeling of this game, this episode that that very nicely throughout. The fact that Maple found the item needed as a follow up already and can finish it then and there is something that happened to me in MMOs as well, so that is some relatable writing. 

This ghost encounter…obviously ends up getting skipped…………….

Of course the questline awards maple a skill that breaks her even further, into complete unfair territories. She gains a skill named Loving sacrifice. By giving up a chunk of her HP all her guild members standing in the light share her defence modifier which by now has surpassed the 1000 mark due to her finding modifiers. While it is cute to see her transform into a golden haired angel I dont think this form has much to offer in the form of great moments that I love this show so dearly for. All in all quite a good episode.

Bofuri
Episode 8

An episode that I liked significantly less, than the previous episodes.  I likes Syrup Hyper Beaming a boss into oblivion but this episode to me waaaaaay overdid it in terms of hand me outs to Maple.  Let’s begin at the start though. It’s the day of the third event and the guilds can now hunt ..cows… for medals titled cow. Since these cows are kind of fast. Maple or the guild for that matter is not very geared up for it.  So Maple tries to find spawn spots where no one else can come using Syrup’s flight. Clever enough.. but she falls off and stumbles into a dungeon and a secret boss again. Using Wooly she survives his onslaught of Attacks while Syrup uses its new beam attack. Wiping out the boss first form.. the second form absorbs Maple and would deal her poison damage.. but since she is resistant.. she eats him up from inside. Thus Maple gains a demon form.

Like always we see Maple demonstrate the abilities to her group, who all acknowledge that Maple now officially has transcended into something that is not human anymore, completely leaving her humanity behind. While it sure is another funny, her getting a new form this close after her Angelic form and having it feel almost just as broken feels a bit wrong. Rather unrewarding. I still had some laughs for Maple sounding very ridiculous as a demon so it was still great for laughs it just didn’t feel clever or compelling. Slapstick if you will. Demon voice Maple still is something worth your time so do not mind me nagging on semantics though. 

After the event the third level opens which now is a steampunk , cyberish city which delights Iz for having so many new crafting Materials. As everyone goes explores we go into another montage which includes great things such as the “Do Not Push” button. I love this trope! I am sad yet again we did not see what happend.  By now I begin to notice how far Sally is relegated away in importance in these last two episodes. She barely said a line and even when Maple become an actual demon she was just there in the background. The whole real life thing also has kind of extinguished , which by now I kind of yearn for.. to see Maple normalise just a bit.

The final act involves Maple stumbling upon a questline again, falling of Syrup landing in a dungeon with a new mysterious boss with lasers that seems to knock her back quite a bit.  Trough an item she found during the last event she now manages to unlock a mecha form, with  big lasers and all sorts of guns going off. A well animated fight.. but TWO brokenly OP new forms in ONE episode. I mean I get that is part of the joke .. but the fight is also set up in almost the exact same way?! Again.. unlike Yu-Gi-Oh it wasn’t bad but it just is not memorable at all. I had trouble memorising this 3 hours after I’ve seen it. So Bofuri for me was a bit Meh! I totally want a Syrup though! Since this episode it talks and says Kame Kame.. so I am pretty sure it’s actually a Pokémon as Kame is turtle.

Hikaru no Go
Episode 4

Unfortunately even the fourth episode of Hikaru no Go could not stop this saturday viewing experience from being mediocre. As I feared Hikaru backed out of is fight with mister Touya thinking that placing the stone as epic as he did was because Sai took over his body. Mistrusting the spirit for a bit, this is quickly resolved.  I mostly noted that Sai at one point seemed to address us as the viewers, though it was probably just him thinking to himself, which felt a bit to in your face exposure like. Hikaru is beginning to like go and that is scaring him?! Alright?! Sure. Touya Senior seems intrigued by the boy but has not played him long enough to judge his skill.

He meets up with Akari and she invites him to some sort of fair.  Hikaru refuses not liking those kind of things. This is the scene I disliked the most because Hikaru really is a rASSpberry here. Maybe he is stressed ? Maybe it’s because he is so young? I am not sure. What’s even stranger when he finally decides to do what is right Akari doesn’t show up at all. I mean I would not wait for him either if he said he would not come.. but still it felt like a very clunky setup  Sai hints at possible romance but he gets the typical girls have cooties kind of reaction and both Hikaru and Akari seem to react against the character previously established. Hikaru seems a lot more prickly and Akari  seems much more spiteful towards the boy. She still sees him talking to himself and notices his behavioural changes, if you really like someone I’d say after being hospitalised and claiming to have a voice in your head you can at least give them a few days.

She’d even buy him Takoyaki! I’d travel to Japan for that offer!

Luckily the second half of the episode picks up the slack of the first half.  First we see Hikaru take some interesting puzzles, which remind me of the duel puzzles in Yu-Gi-Oh games, before a guy solves the final problem for him.. with gum! Uh-Oh! It’s a Go bad boy!  He looks like your standard Vagrant and bully and in a way he is. I squirted milk out of my nose laughing when he told his new passion though. This bad boy.. who looks like danger.. or a villain.. now is into SHOGI. He used to be into Igo but now Shogi is the shit, even if he has beaten Akira in a game.  Why is this so funny?! Because it is basically your high school bully, or standard movie bully if you never had one, saying I used to play checkers but that wasn’t bad ass enough so now I play Chess.  The way how menacing they made him sound while saying this was just hilarious to me. 

If Chess club looked like this.. they’d have Cheerleaders!

Obviously the two eventually decide to settle their difference over a game of Go, making some wagers that involve Hikaru jumping into a pool if he lost?! Seriously how uncool is man. Why do they try to make him so cool?! In every other show he would have a bowl cut, a buck tooth and super thick glasses. If he is the cool one.. how uncool is Hikaru?!  Regardless of this brainworm I had to yank out, their showdown is pretty well set up and seems very intense. Sai enjoys playing this boy so he doesn’t give it his all.  Once Hikari gets distracted by Akiri walking by he places a wrong stone allowing mister cool guy to get 5 Moku.. Will Hikaru be able to come back from this?!  Or will he have to .. jump in a pool.. find out next saturday.. I can hardly wait. 

In Closing

Now that last line sounded sarcastic and in a way it was meant like that.. but in a good way.. I find it funny how enthralled I can get by the little stuff in this show.

Overall all episodes where quite okay with BNA being the only one that really sang for me. It makes sense though I have been singing praise on Bofuri for three weeks now, at some point I will not see episodes that top the best. Hikaru fizzled were I think it could have popped and Yu-Gi-Oh.. I might drop that one at the 6 episode mark and first line up change.  Now that all characters are in play it has until Bofuri finishes to impress me or it will be pulled off the pink network!

When Bofuri is done one time slot will go to Tower of the Gods and one to another episode of Hikaru. If you have any good suggestions I could replace Yu-Gi-Oh with?  Let me know in the comments!

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