Whatever could it be……
Madoka Pic of the Day, No 4
Iroha 02….A Tale of Rubbish and Breakfasts
NINJA GARDEN 101: GARDEN MOAR
So we get some more background on our spunky girl Ohana, learning her mom is indeed a Dark Lord of the Sith and told her to STRIKE THEM DOWN WITH ALL OF YOUR HATRED. Ahem, so yes, bad parenting led to the formation of a stubbornly independent streak, but over the course of this episode she realizes it’s counter-productive to continue doing this in an alien environment, so she resolves to form her tripod support network by first force-feeding her 2 co-workers with prison grub. Excellently cooked prison grub. Supposedly.
There’s also a small main plot regarding her throwing away the supposed masterpiece of the inn’s resident wordsmith guest, but it serves mainly as a backdrop for Ohana to resolve her personality issues and win Die-girl and Shrinking Violet over to her yuri campus, so it wafts in and out of the episode discreetly when it’s not needed, until the last few minutes. When our wordsmith is hilariously exposed, figuratively. Though judging by his awesome verbiage, probably literally too in private. The show continues to deliver its “humorous growing-up pangs” drama quotient, and the art is still gorgeous, so I have zero complaint so far.
Dog Days – Truth in Advertising
I was already regretting my decision to give this show any time at all before the OP sequence was over which is probably something of a record. The show itself did nothing to change my mind.
So, this show is about a mixed race Japanese school kid who gets summoned by the dog princess to be her champion in the battle against the cat people. The battlefield looks like an obstacle course which is perfect since our hero is a gymnastics otaku. The “fighting” results in no casualties, losers just turn into stupid looking spheres.
This is a dog of a show. Avoid.
Words fail me
TIN STOMPâ„¢!
Gawds, what an effin’ terrible show. For a moment I thought the “girl falling from the sky” scene in the beginning was a parody, turns out they were serious in the end. Avoid avoid avoid, and one more black mark in Teh Rie’s body of work.
Madoka Pic of the Day, No 5
C is ++
<Tim>LET’S MAKE MAGIIIIIIIC!</Burton> So what exactly is C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control (a more pompous anime name is hard to recall)? Judging from the first episode, this seems to be a mad medley of Yugi-Oh, Boogiepop, Eden of the East and MEGUCA IS SUFFERING. What C does have in spades is an amazing sense of style, which makes it a more probable successor show to take over from the Star Driver timeslot rather than Ao no Exorcist. Even if nothing delivers on every other front for this show, I can see that visual asthetic take it to cult status, just like it did for all things Kiraboshi. That being said, this show is far more surreal than Star Driver ever was and is clearly meant for an older crowd with its noitaminA slot, and given the way the plot plays out in the first 20min the watcher is unsure what the general direction of this show will be. Again, there are parallels with Star Driver, which never did mesh well its action and school slice-of-life halves. My verdict is cautiously optimistic, and we’re VERY unlikely to see a 1st ep this season that’s more attention-grabbing. P.S: The E.o.t.East similarity fascinates me, because whatever that show was trying to do, it never raised itself over its major failing of trying to stretch its cellophane-thin plot over the credibility rack without using fantasy elements. C clearly isn’t going to redo that doomed experiment, because we can see the supernatural is afoot here. In my opinion, this already makes it easier for the watcher to swallow whatever nonsensical plot twists (and in this type of show, there are bound to be at least a few) arrive down the road.
Gintama – I Love This World, Warts and All
AND THEN SHINPACHI WAS A ZOMBIE.
So Gintama is back, and it’s like it never left. Even better, the intro arc probably makes zero sense to a newbie, but then that was never the point, was it? Welcome back, godking of non sequitur shows.
P.S: Real slacker is SLACK.
Madoka Pic of the Day, No 6
Since we have Madoka ending its run on the 21st, Pic of the Day will be hijacked for a nice countdown for this bright, cheerful series on upbeat little girls defeating fluffy creatures in showers of pink confetti.
“All covers SUCK!”
I don’t want to know who applies the oil
Not written by Kishi? So it’s actually slightly less stupid and infinitely funnier, tsk tsk.