The premise of these reviews is simple: watch the first episode of a series and then immediately sit down to record a review mini-podcast. The reviews are five- to ten-minutes long and entirely off the cuff. As always we only review new shows (so no sequels or continuations) and try to avoid anything that just looks outright awful. These are the next three of the new season:

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Listen – Episode 1 of Inu x Boku SS from David Production with the opening “Nirvana” by MUCC and is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Episode 1 of Thermae Romae from DLE Inc. with the ending ”Thermae Roman” by Chatmonchy.

Listen – Episode 1 of Deka Kurokawa Suzuki from NTV and is streaming on Crunchyroll.

I thought it appropriate to make Detective Conan: Quarter of Silence (movie 15) my first anime of 2012 and it set the year off right! In this case Conan takes on a bomber looking to destroy a dam but there is a lot more to this mystery in the small snowy town Kitanosawa whose residents have many secrets. The film starts off with a flashback many years in the past of a young boy being chased and falling down the mountain side. We then move to present day where Conan must first stop a threat to the Governor of Tokyo and a train bomb that leads them to Niigata Prefecture. We learn that the town of Kitanosawa was relocated five years prior when the dam building took place and it was not popular with many of the residents. The setting plays a major role in the film as it is small and fairly isolated and we have the added attraction of snow and all the dangers that come with it. We meet a group of childhood friends with a lot of complications between them and that boy on the mountain top, don’t count him out yet. Since there are multiple mysteries going on it keeps you guessing in good form. There isn’t too much romance in this film which is a nice break and I really enjoyed the friendship that The Detective Boys kindred with the injured boy from the mountain. This movie loves to push the limits of Conan’s skateboard from having him go upside down in a tunnel to its transformation into a snowboard which he uses to create an avalanche in the final tense climax. This in a very enjoyable addition to the franchise making me feel as if they are on a roll with the Conan movies!

I finally got to reading Twin Spica six through ten when I borrowed them from Narutaki. As I stated when I made this the manga of the month the story mixes the best of science fictions hopeful dreams of progress with the draw of excellent human drama. And it has not dropped off in the least. Although it is a story about space the main focus is the characters, their interactions, and their growth. We learn that everyone has at least one major secret that they are keeping from everyone. Some are huge, some are bizarre, some are very personal, and one is all three. But no matter how wacky anyone’s secret is Kou Yaginuma makes sure that it has an appropriate emotional gravitas. And so powerful moments are still effective. Marika Ukita’s angry loneliness,  Shu Suzuki’s carefree facade, Kei Oumi’s blitzkrieging energy, and even Asumi Kamogawa’s melancholy earnestness will always carefully play with your heart and mind without ever feeling manipulative. There is at least one story in each book that will make your earnestly well up with emotion while still having a light mood that prevents you from feeling emotionally blogged down. I am glad to see everyone is still growing. Marika Ukita clearly has had the most obvious arc of growth but everyone is moving forward at their own pace. I will say that chapter 10 ended rather unexpectedly for me. I thought something like that might happen but not at that point in the story. With only two books left to go this is a great time to start the series if you have not picked it up.

Seems that since they didn’t throw Heiji into the 15th movie, they decided to have him play prominently in Detective Conan Magic File 5. Sadly this short is rather dull. It concerns a mix-up of souvenirs that Sonoko and the kids brought back from their trip. It pretty much consists of Heiji sitting on the couch and speculating on how it occurred. The end is at least rather amusing as Heiji plays a prank on Conan.

As always I keep reading Zettai Karen Children for while is partially a reprehensible manga it makes up for it by being amazingly entertaining. The latest arc has brought a previously only periphery villain to the forefront and has the death of a major character. While I don’t they are fully dead it explains why they never appear in any flash forwards. Zettai Karen Children has always been moving along but this really feels like a major plot point has occurred even more than the time skip oddly enough. But the worst part is I think I have become a horrible, evil, and somewhat detestable Zettai Karen Children shipper. I have unknowingly begun to ship Shiho Sannomiya and Shuji Sakaki. There is something slightly wrong with the age gap involved but I don’t care. They just work so well together and play off each other in a most entertaining manner. They will probably just end up throwing Shiho together with Tim Toy but I have my dreams as they stand now. (Goodness I feel dirty.)

I happily finished up Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love 1000% (eps. 8-13) and truly the second half is spectacular. Since Haruka essential turns the guys into a boy band with her as the song writer things just get more crazy. The headmaster had a few more challenges in store, but don’t worry they literally rock his world with their songs. Haruka has an identity crisis, she works it out in the end, but not before the guys show up on the hillside near her grandmother’s to sing to her. A few things stood out to me after finishing the show. First, there is very little physical intimacy in the series, seriously it ends with everyone giving high-fives to Haruka. On a similar note, despite being filled with pretty boys there isn’t much fan-service/shirts off/etc. even when they going to an island. Finally, it may be one of the only times I’ve seen a cold, stoic guy actually apologize for his behavior and change. This series need a sequel ASAP!

The problem with being caught up with Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is I now have to wait a month for the next chapter of JojoLion. That is far too long. I love Hirohiko Araki’s work. His story and characters are amazing but that man cannot draw a cute girl to save his life. I know that Daiya Higashikata is supposed to be a cutie. Her bear hoodie is very cute. She is a progressive rock fan (specifically Yes) so you know she is super cool. She is blind so she even has moe points but seems very capable to be a bit anti-moe. But when you look at her character design all you can think is, “I know you are trying so hard but just like Yasuho Hirose you just can’t make your heroines physically attractive can you?” Oh well. Shine on your crazy manga-ka. By the way I wrote this while listening to Heart of the Sunrise as was appropriate.

I am making my way through Twilight of the Golden Witch, the final chapter of Umineko no Naku Koro ni. As I am still not done I will save my final review for the chapter and the series as a whole for a later date but I do think there is one major fact about the game worth mentioning. When this game was first released the reaction was divisive to say the least. Going mostly on spoilers it seems that there was a very vocal community of people who felt that Ryukishi07 shot the pooch with the ending. I may or not be related but it has taken quite awhile for the English patch of the game to come out. Purposefully or not this might be for the best. It has given people (including myself) sometime to distance themselves from that initial reaction and judge the ending on its own merits outside of the initial hype for the ending and then the backlash when the ending was finally revealed. So far I am enjoying it with some time to divorce myself from the initial reactions. A prime example is the Professor Layton style puzzle section is nowhere near as horrible as it first sounded. It has some of the most powerful scenes if you get the puzzles right. It gives a little insight into how everyone in the family was still a human despite the many horrible things they had done. That is thematically important given how I think they are building up this ending. It does not shy away from the terrible things they have done but if you think anyone there is a complete monster than it makes the ending somewhat disingenuous. I look forward to reading the ending and weighing on the series as a whole now. I think I would have been far more brutal if I did not have some time away from the series. This really shows the benefit of some time away from the gut reaction of a community.

After talking about Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love 1000% in my year in review, I decided I’d better watch some more! I watched up through episode 7 which is a good half way point before everyone goes to idol summer camp (oh yes!) and decides on their partners for their final exams. Each episode has focused on one of the guys who through Haruka’s positive attitude helps each feel more confident/find his voice/etc. Of course she isn’t able to melt the frozen heart of Tokiya upon first try but we do learn quite a bit about him and a few secrets are revealed. He gets a lot more attention for the obvious reason that he is the “true path” more than likely in the original game. It continues to be a far-fetched fantasy that knows it. Also the headmaster may appear infrequent but remains entertaining as Norio Wakamoto lends his voice to the bizarre antics. I’m hoping that perhaps they will focus on Haruka’s roommate in an episode but that may be unlikely in a show like this.

I enough people praising Chihayafuru has gotten me to go back and try to catch up with this series. It seems like one of those shows that has a small but vocal fanbase. I watched the first 8 episodes in which we finally get back to the present and watch Chihaya build a karuta team at her school. I have to wonder how much of the extremely Japanese nature of Karuta is responsible for this show’s reputation. It is so steeped in a Japanese game that all but the most dedicated anime fan will avoid the show but everyone else will eat it up. It also has to be well done to earn that fanbase but if it is competent it will get a highly devoted following. Plus since it is about such an obscure sport it can use many sports show story tropes without raising so many flags that it is using such techniques. But overall the show lives and dies on Chihaya’s manic energy. The show only shines if you are drawn into her vibrant personality but fortunately for the show she is a hard character to hate.

Twin Spica vol. 10 has a very sobering effect on a story that is full of youthful exuberance despite its melancholy reflections. As the kids reach another summer break and return to Yuigahama, we as well as them are starting to wonder, to question, who will really see this dream of space through to the very end. The realization that only a few can actually make it into the space program has long hung over the entire series, but this is more the internal conflict, doubts, and truths that all of them must face.

After a long hiatus Liar Game recently started up again. It seems to me that the current arc (chs. 139-144) that is starting up seems like filler to me. No new elements added. Mostly just a new game to show how Nao has grown but also needs to keep growing. It is early enough that I might be wrong but I do have to wonder if the series has just gotten popular enough that Shinobu Kaitani need to pad out what was initially planned to be a shorter series. I don’t really mind. As long as the game are exciting and logical then I will stay along for the ride. The break was also helpful because you do not want these games to be made up on the fly. The only way this series works is with a good deal of plotting out of the games in advance. This all does make me wonder one thing. Is the fact that VIZ never licensed Liar Game’s a great folly or a brilliant move. Was not releasing it just after Death  Note ended foolish because everyone would have picked this up when they were hungry for more Death Note? Did they let that audience slip away? Or would everyone have just unfairly compared it to Death Note never letting it gain its own legs. At this point Death Note will probably always come up whenever Liar Game is discussed but at least enough time has passed that it is a casual talking point and not the focus of all discussions about the manga. At this point what is done is done but it is an interesting thought experiment.

I watched the first four episodes of High Score which is based on an energetic shojo 4-koma. It centers around a bunch of strange individuals, many in relationships, at a high school. The main characters are two cruel narcissists who are also in love with each other which causes endless hilarity. They are surrounded by bizarre friends, enemies, and total nonsense. The jokes and incidents fly by in the 3-minute length which I realize may be the way to get to me enjoy 4-koma anime.

UN-GO is one of the few shows of the season I have finished up. It is a very odd mystery show kind of in the vein of Demon Detective Neuro where the answers come from both deduction and supernatural means making them rather impossible beyond just guessing. It also has a bizarre sense of humor, too. The cases keep getting stranger as the show goes on bringing future technology like AIs into the mix as well further complicating any and all cases. The detective team of Shinjuro and Inga and later Kazamori combine with the tag along Rie make for an eclectic mix of talents and personalities. Shinjuro is a good lead detective that I came to really like, he has the observation skills but does use Inga a bit too much though the reasoning for that is more obvious later on. I like the last two cases a lot but truly they are more about experiencing the atmosphere. In fact, I am incredibly interested in the world surrounding these things like the seemingly militaristic Japan, there is a lot of world to explore but sadly there isn’t much time to do so before the end. Sadly there probably won’t be anymore either with the exception of the 0 episode (which I think will give us Shinjiro’s backstory) since only incredibly popular Noitamina shows get sequels. UN-GO is based on a novel but again sadly I won’t be able to read it either.

I finished UN-GO and I still don’t have a firm grasp on if I liked it or not. I will say that I do not regret watching it. It was unusual enough that it made the experience worthwhile. Sort of like the latest BBC Sherlock the series takes the post WWII mysteries of Ango Sakaguchi and puts them in a future setting. This odd juxtaposition gives the show a unique vibe of old and new. At the same time as I mentioned in my last look at the show it is also a clear example of why Knox wrote his rules of mysteries in the first place. Inga’s powers always make the mysteries feel unusual and sometimes the solutions feel unearned. The episode with the movie set was undoubtedly the most surreal episodes of the series. At times the show felt a bit strange but these episodes take that feeling to an entirely new level. The last three episodes distinctly feel like the end of a season but not the end of a story. There is the movie I have yet to see but that is just a prequel. I have to wonder if they hoped that this would do well enough to get a second season or did they just not want to put a cap on Ango Sakaguchi’s stories even if it is a heavily modified version of those stories. I can’t say everyone will like this show. It can be a very easy show to dislike. But it is worth checking out just to see if you like it as there is little else out there like UN-GO.

I went to see Ocean Waves at the Ghibli Retrospective here in NYC. Seeing these films on the big screen is something special, but this had the added bonus of being one of the lesser seen movies and one of the few I’ve never seen myself. It is more in line with the slow character stories of Whisper of the Heart and Only Yesterday than the adventurous fare we are more used to seeing from Ghibli. We follow the fairly easygoing Taku who gets wrapped up in the life of new transfer student Rikako after lending her some money. Rikako is self-centered and reeling from family from drama pushing Taku to exasperation at her flippant attitude with him and others. Believe me you’ll want to give her a good smack at some point, but luckily even that gets taken care of. What is best about the path of these characters is that it doesn’t really follow a romanticized ideal or go in any set direction realizing the wide possibilities and mistakes of youth. While it does have a neat ending, you still feel like acceptance is the big part as opposed to changing a person.

The fact that I easily finished Shinryaku!? Ika Musume this season is a testament to how easy it is to watch. Due to me marathoning Mass Effect and been busy with work and other projects I fell behind on several shows I had been watching. But I watched Squid Girl every week because it is so light and charming that I could effortlessly watch an episode a week without breaking a sweat. It is much the same as the first season. The jokes don’t change too much. This means that Squid Girl, Eiko, and Chizuru dynamic stays strong but that Sanae sort of remains a one trick pony that can be somewhat bland. I never found her super annoying but I easily could see how you could find her grating after a while. Unlike the last season they don’t really try to go out with a finale. The last episode is more of the same for better or for worse. If they made a third season I would watch it as the episodes as they go down smoothly but if it ends here I would hardly feel cheated. I would like to know the story of the Octopus Girl but I am hardly dying to know what her deal is.

I started back up on watching Ashita no Nadja with episodes 5-6. I am now not so sure that the phantom thief and the noble knight are the same person! We learn quite a bit more about Nadja’s mother in these episodes as she leaves England and heads of France. The diary talks of an artist in Paris so she beings looking for him in hopes of more answers. I was a little annoyed that somehow Nadja hadn’t asked any of the troupe if the could read the entries until this episode, but it is worth overlooking. It continues to be a fun fantasy adventure.

Today I got a horrible bit of news. Apparently starting next year the manga of Hayate the Combat Butler is going on a two month break. I look forward to a new chapter of Hayate every week so this is a depressing bit of news. But considering the life of a weekly manga-ka an occasional rest from time to time is surely a much-needed balm to an otherwise overworked soul. I am sure it is one of the few ways a manga author is able to travel and just relax when they are not in-between series. I look forward to seeing what Kenjiro Hata does when he comes back hopefully a bit rested and renewed.

Best Anime of 2011
(Can Anything Top Utena?)

Fate/Zero by ufotable I don’t think anyone who has been to the site more than twice is super surprised this is here. It has Saber in a suit. It won automatically. Everything else unnecessary but appreciated. I know some people can’t stand the show because it can often have characters explains their motivation, plans, and magical systems in loving detail but that I love about the series. But at the same time when the fights go down they are pretty amazing. Even just that short confrontation between Berserker and Archer will put some hair on your chest. The animation can look OVA quality at points and is usually a visual feast even when it is simple conversation. I know I am pretty prejudiced towards loving the show but Fate/Zero expertly crafted and deserving of the position.

Runner up: Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai by A-1 Pictures There was just something about AnoHana that was gripping. Once I found out that Menma was a ghost I was compelled to discover what had happened that drove these seemingly inseparable friends apart. This could be seen as the anime version of the Big Chill. It was a great mix of comedy and drama that always focused on the characters more than the supernatural conceit.  The ending had some minor flaws but I think it came to an excellent emotional climax.

 Mawaru Penguindrum by Brain’s Base Ikuhara directs anime so infrequently, that alone is reason enough to celebrate. But he has gone further by creating another intriguing, mysterious, and surreal show in tune with his masterpiece Revolutionary Girl Utena. As we explore fate, life and death, sacrifice, society, and human connections it is all done with streamlined style and brilliant design. Penguindrum is a visual treat as much as it is mind-bending. The show never feels concrete and as you go on you feel less and less sure what to believe, it makes for one heck of a journey. The way Ikuhara has constructed the story of Penguindrum makes paying attention to the details key in watching; each episode is intimately connected to everything that has come before it. This also makes the prospects of a marathon rewatch very enticing.

Runner up: Tiger & Bunny by Bandai This was a close second for creating an anime about superheroes that Japan and the rest of us embraced happily. The combination of reality television, down on his luck hero Wild Tiger, and a lively cast and relationships gave it an extra kick while it played its hero tropes to the hilt.

Anime Man of the Year
(Can Anyone be Cooler then Spike Spiegel?)

Kotetsu T. Kaburagi from Tiger & Bunny As Narutaki mentioned Tiger and Bunny was one of the most entertaining shows of the season. At the same time it was the main character that really sold so many people on what otherwise seems like a very silly sounding anime. Wild Tiger is an anomaly in the often youth oriented medium by virtue of being an older character who has a daughter. He is a wonderful mixture of serious and lighthearted. Kotetsu is the classic white knight superhero while at the same time he is also a complete goofball. But when the chips are down he is always reliable and it does not feel like the writers are cheating to let him win. He is just a fun character that is easy to root for.

Daikichi from Bunny Drop Daikichi distinguishes himself in the very first episode, this is a guy you feel for and root for because he has a good heart even if he doesn’t always know what he is doing. As he quickly find himself over his head he is honest about it but also truly find in himself the desire to help give Rin the best life he can. His situations as surrogate father are very simple and normal but his relationship with Rin is what is inspiring thanks to plenty of humor. I realize now writing this that both Hisui and I picked single dads who are good intentioned idiots.

Anime Woman of the Year
(The Part where Hisui Picks Someone other than Saber so it is Slightly Interesting)

Chiharu Harukaze from Hayate no Gotoku! Chiharu Harukaze might seem like an unusual choice but I think she wonderful character. At first she seems a rather bland character. Aika Kasumi and her appear a few times in the first season of Hayate anime but they don’t get many speaking roles.  She seems like a straight-laced almost boring glasses girl. As the series goes on we learn that she moonlights as a maid and is actually a rather hardcore otaku. She is not as extreme as Nagi but she easily keeps up with her friend. I like her friendship Nagi as they play off each other well. If nothing else she is a great female otaku character that I think actual female anime fans can relate to. She has really grown on me as a character as she brings a nice feeling to the series.

 Survival Strategy (aka Princess of the Crystal) from Mawaru Penguindrum From her jaunty cap, to her catchphrase “survival strategy,” to her transformation sequence, to her theme song, to her telling everyone they will amount to nothing this lady is on a mission though she is as cryptic as they come. If nothing else, she makes one heck of a first impression. I, like most others I think, started calling her Survival Strategy since her name remained elusive. She drives the major portions of the plot including finding that mysterious object the “Penguindrum” and she has an even more important place as things unfold. A mascot of the show as much as the penguins, Survival Strategy is utterly unforgettable.

Best Retro Manga Release
(Everything Old is New Again)

Princess Knight by Osamu Tezuka I might have some problems with Tezuka’s storytelling in Princess Knight but overall it a triumph for this manga to be released in English. While it was not the first shojo manga its impact on shaping the genre in undeniable. It has long been this often referenced but hardly seen piece of manga history. It’s influence on The Rose of Versailles and Revolutionary Girl Utena is invariably brought up when those shows are discussed. It also made cross dressing and gender politic an inseparable part of girls comics in Japan. It is great to see this series in an easily accessible format for an English audience. It is a boon to scholars and historians of manga as well as anyone just interested in the origins of manga.

Sailor Moon / Codename: Sailor V by Naoko Takeuchi Sailor Moon was my first experience with manga, having started watching anime the couple years prior. Those TokyoPop editions still sit pretty in my collection, but there isn’t a fan around that hasn’t hoped with all their being for a new translation and release to see the light of day. Even though it was a long time coming, Kondansha picked a good time to bring it back out for English readers following the new editions in Japanese with new art and color pages. If that wasn’t exciting enough, along side came the much coveted Sailor V for the first time in English. These are beautiful books with plenty of nostalgia that makes you excited for more releases from Kodansha.  

Worst Thing I Watched
(Can Anything be Worse than Akikan!?)

Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere by Sunirse By the fact that I have Type-Moon and Toaru Majutsu no Index shows winning awards on this list shows that I have a fairly high tolerance for long stretches of exposition in my entertainment. But Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere actually broke me of all people. The confusing back story of this universe is vomited up constantly by the narrator but none of it sticks. It does not help that none of the back story  makes any sense. The fact that the characters range from goofy, to loathsome, to just plain racist adds insult to injury. The main character is Ataru Moroboshi with everything removed that makes Ataru fun. Even the guy with the Dig-dug hat could not save this series. There were a few painfully boring series this year but Horizon takes the cake by making a fantastical premise completely banal.

Yuruyuri by Dogakobo There are always a few shows that end up on our new season watch list that we are more than likely going to hate, but we give them a chance. So that explains why I even watched this show in the first place, it was a bad plan. Not only is it a boring premise of girls in a club that does nothing, but there is the added editions of horrible personalities, loli fan-service, sibling obsession, and that was just the first episode.

Favorite Opening
(The Best Way to Start an Episode)

Mawaru-Penguindrum Opening 2: “Boys, Come Back to Me” Mawaru Penguindrum is visually stunning series an its opening is no exception. It is just a gorgeously designed opening that is simple but memorable. Both openings are filled with spoilers but they are represented in a way that only makes sense after the series is over. That alone is a testament to the planning that went into the show. At the same time it works as his lively superflat opening that introduces the show and gets you ready for the unique Penguindrum experience. I mostly picked the second opening as the song as it seemed a bit peppier to me. The second opening also builds on the symbology of the first opening which is a nice touch.

Gosick Opening 1: “Destin Histoire” This juxtaposition of a modern song with Mucha-inspired illustration is a straight up winner. The way the animation moves makes it look as if a storybook has come alive. On top of that the flatness of the art gives it a theatrical feel. The opening as hints at things to come so it is fun to look back on it and pick out all the little things.

Favorite Ending
(The Perfect Ending to an Episode)

AnoHana Ending 1: “Secret Base ~The Thing you Gave Me~ (10 years after Ver.)” Endings tend to be the lesser sibling to their big budget older sibling, the opening. The animation is invariably cheaper and sometimes you can almost feel the lack of effort. But the ending of AnoHana perfectly captures the mood of series in a way that few endings do. The song has a mixture of melancholy and joy just like the show and the visuals perfectly accompany this mood while remaining sweet and vibrant. The song’s catchy nature tops off everything perfectly.

Bunny Drop Ending 1: “High High High” Childhood drawings and imagination come to life with this soft pop song. Bright and colorful, naive renderings of dreamscapes and rabbits engulf Rin as she explores. The melody is perfect after an episode full of sweet and melancholy lessons and realizations.

Thing I Wish People Would Stop Talking About
(The Topic that Makes You Instantly Close Twitter)

Ben-to by David Production Ben-to is a small horse that does one maneuver competently but nothing else (aka known as a one trick pony). The problem is I don’t even think it does that one trick is done all that well. But for some reason it seemed to be a show that even some rather cynical anime fans looked forward to each week. I know that certain people can be starved for original ideas in their anime but you must have some meat on that idea for me to be interested. The odd little cult around his show really perplexes me. So when people would tear down other shows to build this one up it was just bizarre and sort of insulting to the shows I liked.

How much everyone would change Gundam AGE Few series get as much flack as anything in this long running franchise. Not only that, everyone also has to play backseat director/producer/writer/etc. on every little thing. But God forbid they stop watching the show, no that would just be stupid.

Series I Unexpectedly Liked
(Cheddar Cheese and Apple Pie)

Croisée in a Foreign Labyrinth by Satelight Moe is such a strange animal. While I do not instinctually hate anything with moe in it I have grown wary whenever I see a show with moe character designs. Yune’s small frame and hyper cute design did make me arch my eyebrow at this show. The slice of life feel of the story did not help. Thankfully Croisée in a Foreign Labyrinth rises about your first impressions. It is a delightful historical piece that has a relaxed feeling while still having enough story and character growth to feel rewarding. It is a mellow show that is vibrant enough to hold my attention. It also avoid being creepy which also could have easily tainted the whole experience. An extremely pleasant surprise.

Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love 1000% by A-1 Pictures This title seemed like a doomed prospect before I watched it, in fact checking out the first episode was just supposed to be a lark and yet it was ridiculously entertaining. Heavy emphasis on ridiculous. Norio Wakamoto voices the headmaster of the idol training school and even sings a little in the first episode, yeah that’s what kind of ridiculous I’m talking about. The romances all center around a girl with the creepiest eyes ever and each one plays out like over the top soap opera storylines. Who knew a reverse harem dating sim could be this much fun.

Best Manga News
(Not the Licensing of Yankee-kun to Megane-chan but Still Pretty Good)

Vertical Saves Shonan Junai-gumi and Picks Up GTO: Shonan 14 Days Who does not love GTO? Only demons and fools. Sadly while Shonan Junai-gumi is filled with hot-blooded yankee action it never got the love in the U.S. that its sequel did. So when Tokyopop went out of business it seemed like we would never see the end of the tale of Onizuka and Danma. Thankfully Vertical swooped in and saved the series. On top of that they also picked up the latest adventures of GTO as well. If the series does well enough they has hinted that they might go back and license rescue anything else TokyoPop translated of Tohru Fujisawa’s works dealing with the great teacher. That would even be more remarkable so you should go out there and buy all the Onizuka you can from Vertical.

Manga Companies Jump Into the Digital Distribution There had been toes dipped in the water previous to 2011, but this year saw a boom of activity that will hopefully set a great pace for what’s to come. This advance is necessary and as titles start to speed up the prospect of coming closer and closer to the release of Japanese books becomes not so impossible a dream.

Best Anime News
(Not the Licensing of Legend of the Galactic Heroes but Still Pretty Good)

A Certain Magical Index Film Green-Lit I know that the U.S. fandom seems to at best have a love/hate relationship with A Certain Magical Index (as in they love to hate it) but I genuinely like the series. If there was any sort of light novel market in the U.S. I would just follow this series via the original books. But unless you are a mega popular franchise like Naruto or Fullmetal Alchemist it seems like you can’t give away most light novels in English. So the only way for me to continue in the strange world of magic and science in Academy City is when they adapt Touma’s adventures in an anime. I am glad to see that they are continuing to adapt the series and hope that the film can help create a third season. I want to see that World War III Arc.

Redline Getting Theatrical U.S. Release Maybe this doesn’t quite make up for waiting for this film since 2009, but it certainly softens the blow. If you’ve seen this movie, and loved it, you know it will look amazing on the big screen; a total immersive experience. It also gives the opportunity that other random people who aren’t anime fans will see Redline and realize its fantastic-ness. And since it is getting a theatrical release, Oscar nomination would be a possibility in 2012.

Funniest Series
(Funny in a Good Way, not a M.D. Geist Way)

Carnival Phantasm by Lerche I will fully admit that Carnival Phantasm is hardly for everyone. It demands a near encyclopedia knowledge of the Type-Moon universe but at the same time the good nature to see the characters involved made out to be very silly. As a fan of Type-Moon and Eri Takenashi this series was a match made in heaven. Some of the jokes are a bit over done but they move quickly enough from joke to joke that I never minded too much. When Taiga makes a reference to the Japanese opening of the 90′s X-men cartoon I knew no other series could go in this spot.

Fireball Charming by Disney This is the prequel to just plain ole Fireball with the same humor but a little less sleek character design for Drossel. She still sports expressive hair and never fully understands the things she learns. Despite being a wierdsville fest of puns and misunderstandings, you can see parts of the story proving it takes place before.

I’ve started playing Professor Layton and the Last Specter which is the start of the prequel arc featuring the first meeting of Layton and Luke. Since this is the case, the game begins with Layton meeting his new assistant Emmy who quickly became a favorite of mine. She is a new addition with her high energy and physical nature. At times she even acts as the audience to the strange happenings making comments like these villagers are so weird and the like. And it is a good thing I fell in love with her quickly, I just started a new chapter where she has broken off from Layton and Luke to go solo in London. So far the story has been in line with previous games which is a positive; I’ve been able to deduce small mysteries but the Specter remains elusive. The town seems more sprawling complete with canals and boat transportation but like the last two games it tends to box you into a path and only lets you explore at its discretion which I always take issue with. Puzzles are Layton puzzles and nothing has stood out though there does seem to be more real math than before. I’m happy to say the car path mini-game is back, but made way better because it is with trains! I haven’t gotten to London Life yet. If you’ve seen the movie Eternal Diva you know a little more about this game, but I’m looking forward to now go back and watch it with a fuller knowledge.

Mass Effect is a series that has a rich back story and world building aspects that can be totally ignored if you wish to play the game as a straight sci-fi action game. I being a Type-Moon fan of course am the sort of person who will pour over all the in-game encyclopedia entries and journals. So that fact alone won the game major bonus points with me. That aside I think the game lives up to all the praise the fans give to the series. It has a solid plot that you can play through fairly quickly if you skip all the side material. But half the fun is all the side missions you can do. The main plot line maybe be the entrée but the side dishes are equally important to the meal in its entirety although you might not want to do all the silly collect all the tchotchkes missions like I did. But the cool thing is so many of your decisions carry over to the next two games be it huge decisions you make in the main plot line or little choices you make in side quests. It gives you a reason to seek out missions just so you can impact the world as opposed to just collecting more money and experience. Knowing that the people you kill or tasks that you accomplish carry over give every decision you make a satisfying weight and consequence. The dialog and charterers are not War and Peace or Citizen Kane levels but you will get attached to most people and the writing is usually pithy. The morality system is one of the best for a modern video game. There are still some kick the dog ridiculously evil choices but most of the time picking the renegade choice is an acceptably gray moral decision. It makes playing the path other than the white knight choices viable to people who don’t just shoot the scientists in Half-Life because it is cool. As for the two biggest complaints I always hear about the game I agree with one and did not really care about the other. The Mako is sort of annoying as everyone says it is. It’s hardly unbearable but it is clunkier than it needs to be. When you are moving along it is fine but when you spend 10 minutes getting from one location of the map to another when is should have taken 30 seconds because of the terrain you quickly understand why people were glad they removed the tank driving from everything but some optional missions in the second game. The other major complain it’s the inventory system. I thought that about 90% of gear you pick up was just vendor trash but I did not find it that hard to deal with even on the 360. I just wish the shops were not just filled with random inventory as opposed to a fixed stock. I almost always had mediocre to poor armor because of this. Those flaws aside Mass Effect was pretty amazing. I beat it in about a week and missed quite a bit of sleep due to it keeping me up. If you any sort of American RPG fan it is worth trying it out.

The Zelda Skyward Sword comic with just five pages looks gorgeous but is really neither here nor there. It just leaves you wanting it to build upon what was done. Maybe once I play the game I’ll feel like it is a nice little intro.

I may be behind on some of my shows due to playing Mass Effect but I have kept up with Kamen Rider Fourze. It is still the goofy  Jojo’s Part 4 Kamen Rider it has always been. They finally have the team all assembled so they had their first real throw down match with a Boss character. Gentaro Kisaragi is still going along being an entertaining moron with a heart of gold. His character really exemplifies the appeal of the show. This is important because when the show goes into serious drama mode the Japanese acting makes the melodrama feel really odd and amateurishly cheesy. When they concentrate on the action or comedy it is sometimes surreal but always entertaining. I was slightly surprised by the big reveal in episode 13. It was a decently well executed reveal for a show that is normally so goofy. It is a fun little show that always manages to put a smile on my face. Worth checking out even if your are not normally a fan of tokusatsu shows. It has a strong charm that just cannot be denied.

I just discovered the Bad Machinery webcomic (sorry I don’t read many webcomics!) and I’ve fallen in love. I began with the current story Murder She Writes which doesn’t require prior knowledge to make you laugh and try to solve the spoof on the classic setup of a group of people stranded in a snowstorm where murders begin happening. Lottie our young sleuth is wonderfully odd and awkward. The artwork adds quirk to its already humorous trappings. What stands out for me is how well this comic does single pages with a beginning, middle, and end but also connects to the overarching story; it feels very satisfying rather than needing the whole thing at once in order to enjoy it.

And as soon as Carnival Phantasm Ex Season was translated I downloaded and watched it. It is the longest episode of Carnival Phantasm so far. It did make me realize one thing. I don’t really know all that much about Bazett and Caren’s actual personalities. Since Fate/Hollow Ataraxia still has not been translated I actually know them much more for their silly doujinshi personalities than who they actually are in-game. I wonder how odd it will be to play Fate/Hollow and see them how they were actually meant to be portrayed after seeing them as nothing but goofballs for so long. Still every time I see Bazett I have to wonder why she does not have more of a fan following. If it were not for Saber I am fairly certain I would be firmly on team Bazett. I am sort of amazed how much mileage they are getting out of this Phantasmoon joke but I think it needs to end here. Even I who have supported the Phantasmoon joke so far am beginning to wonder if they have any idea of when enough is enough. I wonder if I were a bigger Arcueid fan if I would change my tune or not. But to counter that they have a good deal of Robot Chicken style mini skits which work a bit better. Also the more Aozaki Aoko the better. Miss Blue is always wonderful. Now all that is left is to wait for the third season and the new version of Melty Blood for the PC.

The case in question is episode 75 of Urusei Yatsura: “And Then There Were None“

No Case too Small is the ongoing feature of the blog where we look at a mystery based episode of a non-detective related show. Since today is Halloween we decided to do a very thematically appropriate episode of Urusei Yatsura. Usually Urusei Yatsura is a madcap screwball comedy where the most lecherousness young man in Japan is engaged to a beautiful but jealous alien princess with electrical powers. Around this time in the production of the show you can sense that the crew was getting bored with straight adaption of the manga and were pushing the boundaries of what they could get away with in the series. Episode 71 was “Shinobu’s Cinderella Story”  which was a mostly a humorless noir story involving a Shinobu getting involved in a murder over the inheritance of a vast fortune. This episode also takes the crew of the normally goofy series and places them in a terrifying murder mystery with the cast dying one by one in various gruesome ways. While the mood might be in strong contrast to the shows’ normal vibe it is perfect macabre story for today.

Lum is the type of show where you never know what the next episode will be about, it is a rather odd and varied assortment of short comedies running the gamut of success. But you always expect comedy, and maybe the occasional tender moment, so this episode comes off as particularly creepy. And even the few attempts at silly just cement how bizarre the tale is.

Ataru, Lum, Mendo, Shinobu, Cherry, Sakura, Onsen-Mark and the Gang of Four all arrive on a secluded island due to a mysterious invitation. None of them know who invited them but soon after they are dropped off they discover that no one will be back for them for at least a week. Strangely enough it seems that there are only accommodations for 10 guests even though there are 11 of them on the island. As the Tomobiki high school crew try to discover why they were summoned they find Cherry dead in his room. The first murder heralds the untimely demise of everyone from the school as an unknown killer fashions their deaths to invokes the nursery rhyme “Who Killed Cock Robin?” The survivors must discover who is killing and why before time runs out. But what does the mysterious uninvited guest have to do with the murders?

The episode is clearly a mix of two very classic murder mystery formulas. The isolated island onto which 10 guests have been summoned to just to have them die one by one is clearly invoking Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” even if the title did not spell that fact out for you. They also play with the idea of whether or not the killer is an unknown person on the island or one of the people with an invitation just like in the Agatha Christie novel. But unlike “And Then There Were None” instead of the killer using “10 Little Soldier Boys” as his modus operandi this episode uses “Who Killed Cock Robin?” The choice of song is very intentional as “Who Killed Cock Robin?” is a favorite song to be used in murder mysteries throughout the ages. It lets each of the victims have a very visually distinctive but gruesome death. Despite all the classic elements used in the episode the mystery itself could be a bit stronger.

We’ve said before that with Urusei Yatsura you just go for the ride and don’t look too deeply but with this episode one wants to try to figure things out in some fashion. The obvious questions are who summoned them to the island? Who is the uninvited guest? Why are they being targeted? The glaring problems with the mystery kind of make sense once we realize that everyone was trying to pull one over on Ataru; also making it rather impossible for use of logic being UY and all. And more than likely the gaps in the story are actually supposed to be funny. My favorite part being when for no particular reason they essentially say let’s just skip those verses from ”Who Killed Cock Robin?” (because there aren’t enough people on the island)! Still, I think they could have brought a few more people along to make it work. The 11th man scenario doesn’t work because they all already know each other. Also why would any one of the cast not expect Lum to come along on the trip? Where have they been the last 74 episodes? The depictions are so gruesome that it is hard not to take the episode seriously except upon reflection.

I do wonder if they really want to do multiple part story with this episode. As it was mentioned the murders in this episode happen in such a quick succession the plot barely has any time to breath. Two or three episodes could have played with idea that maybe the killer was someone on the island or maybe the murderer was someone hiding in the group. You could have had more accusations and paranoia in general. They try to do that in the episode but everything goes by so fast that you hardly have time for any of those more complex reactions to set in. Perhaps this was scripted out as a longer story but the staff got worried that audience would not stick around for something so different in tone without an explanation by the end of the episode. They were willing to play with the feel of show in single episodes but a drastic change for a multiple episode arc might have been far too risky. While the normal order is restored at the end dragging out that revelation might have been too much. Still it was an interesting episode if for nothing else its an unusual monkey wrench it throws in the normal flow of the series. It is a great episode to watch on Halloween as it is pretty spooky despite all its flaws.

While not a good mystery, this episode of Lum is singularly memorable in every way. The humor inherent in Urusei Yatsura is hard to see in this episode despite possible intention. But it does take being mean to Ataru to a whole new level which UY is well-known for.  And I do have to give it props for not making it a mere dream sequence. On a random note, good lord does this series need a remaster or maybe it has one in Japan. But these AnimEigo releases are really sad-looking. Still one has to be happy we have them at all!

With the success of the S.W.A.T. reviews last season we’re trying it again with the autumn line up. The premise of these reviews is simple: watch the first episode of a series and then immediately sit down to record a review mini-podcast. The reviews are five- to ten-minutes long and entirely off the cuff. As always we only review new shows (so no sequels or continuations) and try to avoid anything that just looks outright awful. These are the last two (for us) of the new season:

Listen – Episode 1 of Guilty Crown from Production I.G with the opening ”My Dearest” by supercell and is streaming on Hulu.

Listen – Episode 1 of UN-GO from BONES with the opening “How to Go” by School Food Punishment and is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Detective Conan movie 9: Strategy Above the Depths takes place on a luxury cruise line, but thanks to today’s technology they aren’t totally cut off from the outside world as the usual police are flown in to investigate. I found this aspect to be slightly disappointing actually, but they want to get in all those favorite faces. There is a lot going on on this ship including conspiracy, murder, and bombs. Since these movies are known for spectacle, these bombs go off creating havoc just as the killer is confronted. While this time around the audience knows the culprit from the beginning, there are still some twists as Conan tries to uncover the clues and motive. Knowing the answer beforehand allows you to follow Conan’s logic, but it takes some of the fun out of trying to deduce the perpetrator. And when most of the people are safely off the ship, an intense show down begins as Conan and Kogoro look for Ran on the fast sinking vessel. This Conan movie lands in the middle for me, not super great fun but certainly not a lame film either.

I got Hayate the Combat Butler volume 15 for my birthday but I never did talk about it. It is nice to go back to a long string of silly stories considering all the drama with Ruka Suirenji and doujin and how serious it has been recently in the manga. We get two really great Nagi chapters with her wandering around the mansion at night and her building RC cars. They are great little stories and the RC storyline has one of my favorite lines of all time, “An Otaku who lacks love and care is just a nerd.” Good Nagi and Hayate moments throughout. This volume also has two Fumi Hibino chapters. I usually think her chapters are funny but she is easily my least favorite Hayate character. It also ends with the beginning of a Hinagiku story which I am sure will make many people happy. But speaking of making people happy there is a Maria story and a little Maria fan service as well. Great volume all in all.

In Kekkaishi vols. 25-26, not only does the conspiracy of the Shadow Organization start to become more clear, it seems to be setting up the final arc of the series. It is obvious now that not only is someone in the group destroying deities, that someone looks to be the head. Of course, with so many people involved as well as recent disappearances and murders, one can’t really take anything at face value. But possibly the most interesting development of all is Yoshimori bonding with Karasumori, as if he can feel and speak to it. Things are just getting more complicated by the volume what with so many conflicting people and information, plus we are seeing more of the elusive Masamori and his plans.

I recently finished the first 6 books of Jojo’s Part 6: Stone Ocean. Hirohiko Araki decides to in yet another unexpected direction by setting part 6 inside a women’s prison. Jolyne Kujo is the first female protagonist of the series and the neglected daughter of part 3′s Jotaro Kujo. She is a punk girl set up for murder in a prison filled with stand users who are being controlled by someone with dastardly plans for the Joestar family. She is an entertaining heroine and a good female character in the Jojo’s tradition. This part is set in Florida so I am surprised the AWO crew has not gotten around to discussing it so can remark on how obviously 100% accurate everything in the series is. I must say that Foo Fighters is one of the strangest characters in a series renowned for strange characters. I won’t ruin it. You just have to meet Foo Fighters for yourself. I am curious to see where this goes as the main antagonist has finally been revealed. A great addition to the series.  If you are not sold then I have a simple pitch: The opening scene of this arc is a discussion of female masturbation. Please at least read the rest of the article before you going search for Stone Ocean.

I finally read Spider-Man: One More Day and, possibly because of all the buzz and craziness it generated when it first came out, I didn’t really find myself on either side of the fence. The dire circumstances of Aunt May slowly dying really unhinges Peter. And in classic fashion, making a deal with the devil has more fine print than anyone imagines. The ending is sad, but kind of fairytale like, at least to me who believes no matter what Mary Jane and Peter will come together again, someday. I don’t really care for Joe Quesada as an artist, he tends to use a lot of line work on people’s faces which makes everyone look very old (even children).

I finished Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes with episodes 8-26. I was glad to see the strong start lead into a great middle and a satisfying conclusion. By hook and by crook Captain America, the Black Panther, and Hawkeye join the Avengers. I find it interesting that Iron Man is the leader when Captain America really seems the commander type. But as they said Cap knows how to be a good solider as much as a good leader. Thankfully all the new Avengers add their own little spin to the crew which I enjoy. The best part of the series is that all the individual story lines flow in and out of each other. While every arc is very distinct there are minor pieces that are setting themselves up or winding down from other arcs in the series.  The last arc does well to tie everything together that has come before as we see that everything has been building up to this. My only real complaint is that the Wasp is so clearly the token woman and the weakest member of the team. She has her moments to shine but she still suffers from weak girl syndrome. A shame really but a clear sign of the attitude towards women that is still in American super hero comics. But that is a minor complaint that will not stop me from watching season 2 in October. Despite all the weirdness going on with American comics recently a show like this shows you there is still an amazing core for stories at the heart of the genre.

The BEST series of the year is shaping up to be Mawaru Penguindrum. So far in the first 6 episodes Kunihiko Ikuhara has proven that Utena was not a fluke. The show has stayed as consistently excellent as the first episode and I look forward to a new episode every week. The animation, imagery, and direction remain high quality and imaginative every week. The Rose of Versailles style fantasy imaginary in episode 4 is just scrumptious. Also the laser guided slingshot is both goofy and bass ass at the same time. The plot remains mysterious but we are always getting enough information that we never feel that the show is spinning its wheels. I get the feeling that Ikuhara is more of an “I got this all planned out” sort of guy so it is more a matter of seeing the tale unfold then see him make it up as he goes along.  Kanba and Shoma’s antics in trying to find the Penguindrum are always amusing but retain a creepy vibe without either feeling hurting the other. That said I need to know what is going on with Kanba’s ultra shady deals. Ringo has that same mixture of very funny and very disturbing. I am curious how popular she is among the American and Japanese fans. Narutaki seems to think she would be insanely popular. I cannot disagree. And I know there is more to Himari than meets the eye. She is too innocent for a Ikuhara anime. There has to be more going to with her than you see on the surface. If you don’t have a moral objection to watching fan-subs then you need to watch Mawaru Penguindrum. Otherwise you should get this the second it gets licensed. Because it will get licensed. Fabulous Max!

The most anticipated arc in recent Detective Conan anime TV series was the London case, the 11th OVA happens concurrently featuring Ai and the detective boys back in Japan. It starts as just a cute mystery involving peanutbutter and jelly, a mistaken starlet, and kick the can. But the kids discover kidnappers in an abandoned building and things turn more dangerous when they themselves become trapped. The real treat for this OVA is seeing Ai’s smarts at the forefront since Conan is a world away. Her use of the cellphones as well as the detective boys badges is nicely done. It combines the kid antics at the beginning and a more tense situation later well. The ending has a couple of surprises in store, though nothing too earth shaking. A fun and nice OVA if not remarkable.

There are certain shows that I find fun but are hardly high entertainment that I am always surprised get such a negative reaction. They are also usually the shows people watch every week to complain about them but don’t stop watching. The show with this cycle of abuse this is season is Sacred Seven. I myself have been reasonably entertained every week. There is usually some well done fight scenes every episode and a fairly entertaining if somewhat cliché plot. I think that Alma and Ruri are cute but I also don’t think that anything with school drama is poison so maybe I just grade on very lenient curve as compared to other people in the Twitter community. If nothing else Alma did something more characters in anime should do in episode eight. He simply said, “I’m not a mind reader. Tell me what is wrong and we can talk it out.” And then they do so. Brilliant! The little conspiracy in the organization is heating up I am looking forward to end of this short but sweet series. It is something I kick back with and enjoy on my lunch break on Fridays. I wonder if that is part of the reason I enjoy it more than other people watching it every week. Oni!

Finally had a chance to read Terry Moore’s run on Runaways (collected in Runaways: Dead Wrong and Rock Zombies), unfortunately I didn’t find this to be a striking piece of the narrative for our teen heroes. Though some of that may have to do with A) art by Humberto Ramos in the first story and B) zombies in the second plot. The emotional resonances seems off thanks to the gaping maws of the art but there are some poignant moments of friendship during the alien pursuit of Karolina for her parents crimes. The ending is striking, but I’m not sure how I feel about it in the long run of the series especially in how it changes the relationships.

After The Greatest Movie Ever podcast talked up The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes I had to go check it out. Right out of the gate they wisely do the one thing everyone has asked for with all the recent super hero movies. They don’t spend any time on origin stories  They know that 90% of the audience is already knows this by heart, can look it up, or just does not care. They give you a little intro to each of the Avenger’s general shtick while having them right in the middle of some action.This all comes together in a massive simultaneous prison break that leads to the creation of the Avengers. The Spiderman movie reboot could have learned from this. The writing is pretty solid being accessible to kids but never forgetting that being mature does not have to exclude younger viewers if you do it correctly. So far I am most interested in Hawkeye’s story. From the second he appears on the screen is seems that it were not for bad luck he would not have any luck at all. The character designs look a little strange to me but they are all functional and after a few minutes I adjusted to them and had a fun time. Everyone is in their classic suits as opposed to their modern looking movie costumes. I think it gives the show a fun feeling as opposed to feeling like just a rote movie tie in. With the main plot just started I am looking forward to see where they go after these first 7 episodes. Avengers Assemble!

I have been continuing with Suite Precure. It has been an up and down ride with some really well done episodes, recently notable were the birth of a new Precure in episodes 20 and 21. There was a lot of tension and a great payoff. Things since have been lackluster thought episode 27 not just because it is after a major event, but because any thought about our characters personalities seems to be have been forgotten. Everyone is friends too easily, Siren has completely fallen off the map in terms of recognizably.

Hisui’s picks:

• Is There a Doctor in the House?
  Chaos Theater looks at the Doctor Who franchise mainly focusing on the 2005 reboot.
• Two New Pixar movies are announced
  The first new movie is about dinosaurs and the second takes place inside the human mind. Hopefully the second is not just a re-envisioning of Herman’s Head.
• Definitely more than friends
  A serious look at the homoerotic themes in No. 6. 
• Make your iPhone a member of Section 9
  Two iOS apps that you can get in the U.S. with Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex themes.
• Flyers you might not want to throw out: Part 1 and Part 2
  A collection of various flyers from Comiket 80. Warning: Suite PreCure♪ spoilers in Part 1.

Narutaki’s picks:

• Rare Recording from Disney’s The Rescuers
  Or should I say Disney’s original concept for The Rescuers which was about bears! Not only did I learn some interesting history, but this song is amazing. It is incredible that a whole soundtrack was made and put away. I look forward to them releasing more songs in the coming months.
• Stop Calling Miles “Black Spider-Man”
  Race has been brought up a lot with a new Ultimate Spider-Man on the way. David discusses the damage of making Miles’s race his defining characteristic. On another related note, there is already Black Spider-Man which is Peter in the black symbiote suit!
• The Wizard of Oz in under 5-minutes
  This short animation is cleverly done with silhouettes and no dialogue.
• Unusual Amateur Detectives
  A great exploration of the variety of detectives outside of police and P.I.s from mostly manga.

There is a metric ton of Japanese Fan art for Dr. Who on Pixiv. This is just a taste:

Hisui’s picks:

• The Opening to Dengeki Stryker
  After catching up on Mike Dent’s Friday Ace podcast I became aware that MangaGamer picked up Dengeki Stryker. While it is a pornographic game it seems to be filled with hot-blooded Tokusatsu action. I mean Masaaki Endoh of Jam Project does the opening.
• Tomopop Reviews Super Robot Chogokin Weissritte
  My birthday is the 21st so the readers can feel free to buy that for me. Or just dress up as Excellen Browning.
• Mawaru Penguindrum Round Up
  A collection of reviews of the first episode of  Mawaru Penguindrum, which just so happens to be my favorite show of the news season via Skull Candies. Kunihiko Ikuhara has created a show layered enough that different reviews will notice different things going on.
• Excel Saga Manga wraps up after 15 years
  From the news desk of things only I care about.

Narutaki’s picks:

• Hitch animated short
  About an Alfred Hitchcock-themed cookbook! At a mere 3-minutes this animated short has a lot of impact and style not to mention nice tongue-in-cheek humor.
• Kaito Kid hijacks Conan’s TV slot! . . .
  . . . for four weeks starting in August. Kid has a huge fan following, myself included, so this bit of fun is much anticipated.
• Frank Miller’s portrayal of Batman as an idea
  This mirrors some of my own thoughts about how Batman affects the average citizen and how Miller shows that. Also some good musings on Batgirl.

Let us introduce the main characters from Mawaru Penguindrum:

Anime 3000 presents The Speakeasy Podcast:
Drink #018: Sherlock Holmes,
On the Trail of Detective Anime Pt. 1

As part of our ongoing initiative to promote detective anime and manga we will be doing a series of Speakeasy podcasts about the wide world of detective works. This first part is a primer to the world of sleuths, gumshoes, private eyes, flatfoots, shamuses, snoops, and spies. We start with the origins of modern detective fiction in Japan and take a very brief look at the development of detective manga. We then offer some tools for the analysis of mystery stories and some titles everyone should know. There is no real schedule to when these episodes will come out but be assured that there will be more episodes like this one in the future. If you have any area of the genre you would like covered just let us know otherwise it will be our whims that dictate the course of this series. Until then . . . the game’s afoot!

(Listen)

And now your helpful bartenders at The Speakeasy present your drink:

Sherlock Holmes

• Ice
• 1 1/2 ounces single-malt Scotch, preferably Laphroaig
• 2 ounces chilled brewed Lapsang souchong tea
• 1 ounce Honey Syrup
• 3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add all of the remaining ingredients and stir well. Double strain into a chilled coupe.

The anime blogging community is always a strange little place. As far as I can tell there are three major camps within it. There are the episodic bloggers, the reviewers, and the editorial bloggers. Some blogs combine two or even three of those styles but most people fall firmly into one categories and perhaps dabble in the other two. From what I can tell the greatest divide is between episodic bloggers and the editorial bloggers with reviewers being in the middle. So as writers who work on a mostly editorial blog we both wanted a little insight into the episodic blogging experience. Naturally, we picked a detective show for our test. Now that this experiment has run its course lets us examine what we thought of Gosick and the experiment as a whole.

I wanted to walk a mile in the shoes of an episodic blogger because I am just that curious. Granted most blogs of this nature follow more than one show, but I just wanted to walk a mile, not set up shop. Not only was Gosick a detective show, but it was a series we were already familiar with. But would the format of our reviews ruin my experience of the show?   

Gosick is definitely a triumph of the end of a series being able to uplift the work as a whole. The early episodes really suffer from the mysteries being poorly adapted. As a whole the emotional cues were often spot on but the mystery cues were ether way too blatant or non-existent. This means that Victorique’s detective work oscillates between stating the completely obvious or sound like some sort mystical prognostication. Thankfully the last few mysteries were stronger than the initial mysteries. The final two arcs also really excel at tying together everything that came before it. The murder of Coco Rose ties all the cases before it into one grand story of the dark side of the seemingly idyllic country of Sauville. It saves the series and lets the last arc be an amazingly emotional roller coaster. Any story that is the battle of the occult vs science always gets extra points in my book. I really wish we could get the rest of the light novels in English. I could distinctly tell there were sections in which explanations were cut or trimmed. In The Jet-Black Train Carries Several Lies where a whole book is condensed into a single episode. Considering the how the print market for otaku goods is I doubt this will happen any time soon but one can always hold out hope. I am grateful to finally see the conclusion of Victorique and Kazuya’s story. It could have been adapted better but the conclusion was strong enough to let me forgive the mishaps along the way.

Gosick was a series where I loved the first novel then felt rather lukewarm about the second and that was my total experience of it so coming in to the anime I had some expectations but considering my feelings about the later work I had read, was open to some interpretation by the studio. The beginning of the anime was slow goings where I struggled with the pacing and the way clues were directed at the audience. Throughout, the setting was great and so were the character interactions, these only continued to build as the story unfolded. Gosick really starts to pay off half way through its run though and the mysteries right themselves for the most part. The case of the Alchemist’s tower, which ends up tying in to the rest of the series’ events, is by far the best executed with a great pay off. And once we start really dealing with Cordelia, Victorique’s mother, everything is elevated. I was hugely, horrifically disappointed that the train mystery was shoehorned into a mere 23-minutes of fast forward however. But it didn’t bring down the good feelings the second part of the story left me with.

I distinctly see why episodic bloggers can burn out more than an other form of anime blogging. With really strong or really weak episodes you will have a lot to say but supporting or filler episodes can be tough to find an interesting thread to ruminate upon. It is the curse of writing about a mediocre show amplified hundred times as you have less to work with. Plus every season usually has one or two good shows to talk about but not every season has five to six shows worth talking about all the time. You could go back and talk about older shows but I know there is a distinct pressure to talk about what is happening right now if you want to be relevant. I am sure being part of a team blog helps but keeping up that energy is surely tough. I will say that it was nice to have Hoshiko comment on every post. A dedicated readership surely helps maintain the writers interest but you have to build and maintain such a following which might require just as much energy. If your interest start to wane you will probably lose commentators which can easily lead to a feedback circle that makes you drop out. A curious conundrum.

While I won’t be heading out to read a ton more episodic blogs, I still have to give you guys props if you don’t burn out after only one season. Sometimes you just don’t want to watch a show right then but that isn’t an option because of how time sensitive the format is. Heck, even us posting on Tuesdays with Gosick releasing episodes on Fridays is considered pretty distant. Also we had a unique problem because when we review a show, we watch it together. When watching a show that you just aren’t in the mood for right then, I found myself just looking for what I would right about sometimes. Almost capturing it in my mind rather than just letting the show wash over me. I definitely didn’t like that feeling. Though this happened far less when the show started to get better.

I am fairly certain that the lesson we learned from this project is that Reverse Thieves is not switching over to being an episodic blog site any time soon. I know that Narutaki had to push herself more and more every episode and that is generally something we try to avoid on the blog. I think we will still dabble in that end of the pool. The Ongoing Investigations will still look at what we are currently watching, we are experimenting with the S.W.A.T. reviews of the first episodes of certain shows this season, and I will probably do solo episodic reviews of Fate/Zero and Phantasm Carnival. I mean it is Saber is a suit. But other than that I think we will leave the rest to the veterans.

While I didn’t think reviewing it in this manner totally ruined my experience, it certainly colored it differently. But overall I enjoyed Gosick and I enjoyed trying this method out if only to say I have done it! Our dabble in episodic blogging, done Reverse Thieves style, was worthwhile I think but don’t imagine I’ll be doing it again any time soon. Though I am having fun doing the S.W.A.T. reviews but that is probably because I’m tired of writing about the first episodes of the new season.

The wind that will separate Victorique and Kazuya is a fierce gust that howls for blood. Albert de Blois‘ fiery death has only thrown Sauville deeper into chaos as the beast that is the Ministry of the Occult still tries to catch Victorique in its death throes. While Victorique is fleeing, Kazuya is trying to survive as a front line solider in the middle of hell. Both of them are together in their hearts but will either of them survive long enough to reunite?

The Case

So much death but also much rebuilding occurs at the end of Gosick. I’m a bit surprised to say that everyone who was dead at the end of episode 23 was really dead, no fake outs or anything! I thought for sure Victorique’s father would have one last hurrah. It was tragic and beautiful to see Brian find Cordelia to lay down and die with her. As for other Brian (really they both have the same name?) we learn the last bit of their story from him and he doesn’t seem as bad as he did at the end of the last episode. The war comes to a close, but I seriously have no idea where Kujo was. We know he was in the military but as for where he was fighting, I am still unsure. The war itself is rather short-lived, I don’t feel we really know what happens in it.

This episode was basically here to tie up all the loose ends. This last chance to explain any loose threads like the back story of Brian Squared and well as see the ramifications of the Monstre Charmant movement even after the death of the  mastermind. I really expected someone to survive the Monstre Charmant massacre but everyone killed on-screen in the last episode stayed dead. That made 23 the true climax of the series. Grevil and the other Brian get a chance to redeem themselves after their actions in the last episode. Grevil gets off a bit lighter but he also did not try to murder the heroine. Victorique’s journey is mostly one piece of heartbreak after another. Not that Kazuya is sipping tropical drinks on the beach at this time. According to the Gosick Wiki Kazuya was shipped off to Northern Japan but that is never made even remotely clear. I thought they shipped him off to Germany until I read the wiki. It is also very unclear where exactly he was fighting. I do wonder if that was any clearer in the books. Maybe they cut those details to avoid bringing up controversial pieces of history in a TV show.

Final Thoughts

After his dream sequence I thought Kujo wouldn’t come back to Victorique a whole man, but that proved untrue happily. It was lovely to see her waiting for him in Japan. Perhaps transforming into wedding dress mode was a little much, but I didn’t care. I found this to be a satisfying and definitive ending.

As I mentioned before the climax was in episode 23. This gives them lots of time for a strong falling action in this episode. We get to see what happen to most of the important cast after the chaos dies down. We get confirmation that people like Avril, Cecile, and Luigi are no longer with the main characters but they are safe and have began to move on. We also see the fall out in the government of Sauville and the fate of Jupiter Roget. I was glad to see what happened to Ambrose. I kept expecting him to pop up again. As a Gray Wolf I assumed he would have been more important. But in the end the most important piece of resolution is what happened to Victorique and Kazuya. They throw you a few harrowing curve balls but in the end they reunite a little older and distinctly worn but still intact. Victorique had silver hair and Kazuya has battle scars but both were  sustained by their bond. I want to believe they continue to solve mysteries and help people after the reunite but this was the perfect place to end what we see of their story.  We have one final Gosick post coming up to sum up our feelings on the show and our feelings on this foray into episode blogging.

Hisui’s picks:

• Return of the Veef
  After a long hiatus Andrew, otherwise known as VF5SS, is back with a new episode of the Veef show. He talks about Fang of the Sun Dougram, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and the failure of Gundam in the US. Glad to see him podcasting again.
• MAHQ’s Chaos Theater looks at Batman: The Animated Series
  Who does not love Batman: The Animated Series? Dale Rausch from MAHQ is a guest as well.
• The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast & AWO talk about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
  I have seen people talking about Bronies on everything from NPR to Fox News. It takes the combined power of Greatest Movie EVER! and Anime World Order to get to the bottom of this mess.
• Otaku Generation talks about AnimeNEXT
  An alternative look at AnimeNEXT 2011. There is also Part 3 of their look at version terminology related to anime and manga. They mention me so my vanity insists I link to the podcast.

Narutaki’s picks:

• David’s Akira posts on 4thletter
  He tackles the visuals and characters in this series of posts which feature scans from the full-color version of the manga.
• Ho-Ling’s thoughts on Detective Conan
  In this series he is looking at themes and connections 10 volumes at a time.
• Defective Detective
  A hilarious short from Cartoon Brew’s Student Animation Festival.
• Trailer for Gackt in Bunraku
  His English debut!
• Burn Notice: A New Day
  A new webcomic that ties into the series bridging S4 and S5. I haven’t read it yet since I’m only on S2 but still thought it was cool and worth noting.
• 10-page excerpt from Laddertop
  This upcoming comic from Orson Scott Card and daughter looks terribly underwhelming. Also I am lame because it annoys the heck out of me that they are calling it a “manga.”

We decided to move the picture of the week here. This week we prove the power of imagination. Someone can make women from Jojo’s look cute:

I am always a bit hesitant to start visual novels. I don’t mind some sex in my story telling and I know that the way the Japanese PC game market works is that the conventional wisdom is that you have to throw in some sex to get people to play. I just want to play something with more story than sex and the sex should not make me throw up in my mouth a little. I was interested in Kara no Shojo because it is a historical murder mystery set is post WWII Japan. The question in my mind was is this murder mystery with some sex thrown in for flavor or a sex game with some murder mystery for an air of legitimacy. So when the demo came out I was curious to test the game out to see how much of an impression I could get.

Reiji Tokisaka is a Private Investigator who is investigating a series of brutal serial killings of young women as a consultant for the police. To crack the case Reiji goes undercover as a teacher at a the Ouba Girls Academy where two of the girls disappeared from. At the same time a student at the school named Kuchiki Toko asks that Reiji to take the puzzling case of finding her true self. Who is killing these girls? Are these murders related to the death of Reiji’s fiance years ago? How does Kuchiki Toko’s missing self tie it all together?

To MangaGamer’s credit they give 5 and a half chapters play so you get a good feel of what it is like. The game is somewhat in the middle of the plot vs sex divide but there is a strong enough narrative that is perfectly acceptable to play this for the plot. For one thing you actually have to play detective. You get a notebook that keeps track of what you have learned about the cases you are working on. You often have to use that information to decide who to talk to, what leads to follow, what to focus on at crime scenes, or what information to research. From what I have read about the game there are many endings some of which depend on making the right investigative decisions during the game. So you can’t be asleep at the wheel to get the good endings or the true ending. The mystery itself seems intriguing and ties in with the Divine Comedy so it seem to have some degree of substance to it as well.

In what I played there was only one sex scene although apparently I could have gotten another one had I hunted around for it. It seemed a bit gratuitous but there was nothing objectionable about the scene and it was consensual. It did seem like the scene could have been removed and flow of the story would have been unharmed so I wonder if they ever had console adaptations in mind with this title. I can clearly see several other girls who you are surely going to sleep with (it is centered around serial killings at a Catholic girl’s school) so there are clearly going to be more sex scenes in the future. So while there is a strong narrative you have to be willing to put up (or conversely just enjoy) with several sex scenes to play this game. On the flip side of the controversy coin the gore is present but much more graphic in the descriptions than in the visual. There are mutilated bodies and some sinister events narrated but while the graphics are bloody they don’t go into any amount of detail I could not handle. The text descriptions are far more gruesome but I am oddly more comfortable with that.

As someone who has mostly played doujin visual novels I have to say that Kara no Shojo has a professional feel. There is a distinctly classy vibe to the audio and the visuals. The graphics are fairly elegant and have a soft warmth to them. Most of the characters have realistic features so almost all the girls have black hair which given the art style can making figuring out who is who a bit of a challenge at first. I got used it quickly and most of the girl stand out due to personality if nothing else. The music  set the mood well and is well composed. It is very atmospheric and gentle. Not as great as the Umineko soundtrack but what is.

A quick note. This game is actually a one story in a series of games by Innocent Grey. As far as I could tell this is a stand alone story and  no previous knowledge of the earlier games in the series was needed to play this game. Shugo and Kazuna from Cartagra are minor characters but they are more there as a nudge and a wink to anyone who played the previous games.

Overall I have to say I was reasonably impressed. It is something I look forward to picking up when it comes out to see if it lives up to my initial expectations. My overall verdict would depend on how well the mystery plays out but that is only something I can judge with the completed game.

It seems that Victorique has done nothing more than simply delay the plans of   her father. Despite her efforts Jupiter Roget is revealed to be a Gray Wolf and chased out of the court, Rupert de Gilet is now in the pocket of the Ministry of the Occult, the Monstre Charmant are mere a tools of the Marquis, and Kazuya has been shipped off to Japan. It seems that war is coming and nothing can stop Albert’s plans. Those who wish to stand up to the Ministry of the Occult can seize one moment of vulnerability but taking advantage of it might come at a great cost.

The Case

Finally, Victorique’s father puts his ambitions in to motion. He confronts the King, the head of the Science Ministry, and even teams up with Germany in the war? What a busy man! His plans also included hiding Victorique away and dressing her as a nun. I’m surprised that Kazuya has ended up in the army though, I’m not sure how this works in to Albert’s machinations. Cordelia’s appearance at the political event was nicely done, had to give a little cheer when she revealed herself. As I’ve been saying “death of Brian” I wasn’t surprised, but it still made me sad! The case isn’t a case, it is just a climactic culmination of events! Though there is a lot of death and destruction in the end of the episode I still can’t predicted where we will ultimately end up.

I don’t think there is any huge mystery in this arc. The murder of Coco Rose might be the last formal mystery of the story. Victorique does do a Sherlockian breakdown of her father’s plan as well as the true nature of the Ministry of the Occult and his homunculi. You your truly know Albert de Blois is evil when he casually allies himself with pre-WWII Germany (if the ritualized rape did not already tip you off). Cordelia and Brain² breaking up the Monstre Charmant rally was flashy but satisfying and surprisingly decisive. I have watched enough fiction to know that no one is truly dead until you see the corpse and that is only a decent but hardly certain indicator. So I expect at least one if not several of the people supposedly killed int this episode to not be as dead as we may suspect.

Final Thoughts

The ending was shocking, not only because of Cordelia’s knife skills, but because of the seeming death of Albert. I knew this had to occur, I just figured it would come together in the final episode. Though to be fair he probably has a bit of life left in him, enough to give us the scary movie jump. I hope the person that helps Victorique is Grevil, I know he can redeem himself!

Everything ends in epic flames and even more epic fights. Everyone who goes down fighting in this episode is pretty darn heroic or villainous. Evil Brian’s betrayal at the end is a little surprising but well foreshadowed. I had assumed that Grevil had been plotting against his father before this point but apparently that was not the case so this episode is his last chance to show what we assumed about him was true. I think that my favorite parts oddly enough were not the actions scenes but the moments showing Victorique and Kazuya’s unbreakable bond despite all the things inbetween them. How they give each other strength over a distance was powerful. I can’t wait to see them being reunited when the everything comes together in the conclusion. Who will live and who will die? What will come of this bloody revolution? Will anyone ever care about Cécile despite never once being useful? Only true sleuths will uncover all the clues next episode.

Victorique circumvented the machinations of the Ministry of the Occult and the Science Academy but she merely escaped a single battle while the war in the shadows rages on. As the campus celebrates Christmas both sides are attempting to use Kazuya as a pawn to control the heart of the petite gray wolf. The legend of the Monstre Charmant, protests in the street, secret agents, kidnappings, deportations, love, and hate are all part of the powder keg of that is Sauville. The only question is when will the match fall to set everything ablaze.

The Case

For some reason they dress up as if it is Halloween during Christmas in Sauville. I don’t think Victorique’s costume really counts, since she looks no different from her usual self. I suppose she skirt is a bit shorter. Kazuya on the other hand with the bejeweled heart on his chest stands out pretty well! But maybe not as much as you would think by the end since an underground resistance group is rising with up and just happen to be wearing bunny heads as well. The case here is really how the final plot of Victorique’s father will play out, it is countdown time!

The dogs of war have not been let loose but you can tell that everything is coming to a head. While we have not seen any obvious declarations of love between the two main characters it is quite obvious to everyone that Victorique and Kazuya are a couple. We get several great scenes that show how much the two of them have come together and how their hearts and minds have grown intertwined. But this bond has also become a tool for those who wish to manipulate them. The Science Academy basically tried to boot Kazuya out of the country to neutralize Victorique as a player but sadly the devotion to his promise to stay by her side has landed them both firmly in the hands of Albert de Blois.

Final Thoughts

A lot of this episode builds on Kazuya and Victorique’s relationship so that when they are pulled apart in the end it is even more difficult to watch. And it was difficult despite the fact they have been pulled apart in the last two arcs previous. Victorque’s anguished cry was powerful. I tend to believe Grevil sees himself as the lesser of two evils by protecting Victorique from the full brunt of their father by playing the evil henchman. I really can’t decide how I think these relationships will turn out in the end, I’m kind of prepared for tragedy.

While things are still slightly calm on the surface we see that the dam clearly bursts in the next episode. Sword fights, raging flames, blood soaked rooms, and more. I expect the cast to be reduced by a few members in the next episode. Jupiter Roget should probably avoid investing his money IRAs and long terms bonds in you know what I am saying. Brian Roscoe (1 or 2)  and Rupert de Gilet probably don’t need to worry about pension plans as well. I think that Jacqueline de Signore would not casually had over Kazuya to Grevil  so they have some sort of plan. The legend of Monstre Charmant is clearly going to be the motif of this last arc. I am pretty sure that at one point Kazuya and Victorique kill fake their own deaths to appear to pass away like the rabbit and the monster in the story. When everyone thinks Kazuya and Victorique are no more they can make their counterattack as both sides throw down. And from what we can see it is going to be an epic throw down starting next episode. I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

Victorique, Kazuya, Grevil go to dig up the grave of Nicole Leroux. Do the final fragments of chaos still exist for Victorique to provide definitive proof of who murdered Coco Rose? What does the alchemist Leviathan have to do with the current mystery even we thought his story was complete. Even if Victorique can solve the murder she is still trapped between the rock and the hard place that is the war between the Ministry of the Occult and the Science Academy. Is there any safe way out?

The Case

So from the last episode we knew there was some type of body switch, but things are a lot more complicated and the answers are the kind only Victorique can come up with. Which is exactly what the mystery needed because the previous episode just made it seem too easy. I was surprised that it was years between the deaths of Coco Rose and Lulu. And it struck me as incredibly odd that they had kept the queen’s body persevered for all those years . . . just in case? I also didn’t suspect the king, probably because of all the Science and Occult academies swirling about the deaths. And I loved the smuggling of the head! Each piece of the puzzle was a nice little surprise. But then I’m not sure how I felt about the double twist in the end, it was a bit too much. However, I did like that in this case Victorique couldn’t really back up her theories with evidence, it was more of a test to see if she could figure it out once again. And the note she uses for a bit of insurance instead.

This episode is mostly the explanation of how Coco Rose and Nicole Leroux we murdered (or not murdered for that matter) with the cat and mouse game of Albert de Blois and Jupiter Roget playing out at the same time. As I stated last week the mystery of how two simultaneous murders took place is not that hard to figure out once the existence of Nicole Leroux is uncovered. The King being a murderer was also fairly easy to discern last episode as well. The real questions were the how and the why. The ultimate reveal that the real Coco Rose was still alive and that two separate woman who looked much like her had been killed was a bit surprising. But not as surprising as the motive for the original murder and then the second more famous murder. I will say that the previous Leviathan story set up the fact that he and Coco Rose had a little something on the side so the reveal of the King’s motivate was not out of the blue. The chance encounter with the real Coco Rose and her son was a huge coincidence but it gave a nice conclusion to the mystery. I was happy to see that I was right in suspecting that a bit of knowledge from all the previous major mysteries was needed to solve the mysteries in this arc.

Final Thoughts

Green. Cordelia, I am green with envy in these last few moments. I really didn’t think there were two Brians! I thought it was merely a magic trick. But to be fair Cordelia has had to suffer a lot. I wonder how much we will learn about these guys, perhaps one Brian will live after all! And speaking of love, the final scene of Victorique and Kazuya walking hand in hand made me smile quite happily.

I think I was the only person who was a little bit shocked that Jupiter Roget and the Science Academy was just as nasty as the Ministry of the Occult and their agents. I suppose that assumption exposes the prejudice within myself that despite my general fascination with the occult I am technocratic enough to automatically think that the Science Academy were the good guys. In retrospect that was a very silly idea as they have done some shady and nasty things. This case was proof positive they are little better than the organization they are up against. Also two Brian Roscoes was a bit surprising to both of us but it does explain a bit of the head scratching scenes involving him in the past. I guess the question now is how many of men we know as Brian Roscoe are going to survive until the end.  Another good story although I have to wonder how this is all going to wrap up in the end. Is Albert de Blois going to frame his son for the murder of Jupiter Roget? How can everything be tied together neatly at the end? These last few stories have been good enough that I have some confidence this last arc will be able to pull off a proper conclusion to the story.

Victorique has been sequestered in a secret underground chamber by her father to solve the infamous murder of Coco Rose. The problem is she has not been given enough evidence to properly solve the case. Will Kazuya be able to step up to the plate and not only be a proper Watson but a gallant protector to the tiny blonde detective?

The Case

That this case involves a mistaken identity becomes very clear early on when we see that Coco Rose happens to be missing her head when murdered. Whoops! The more interesting thing is how the episode, and its previous installment, keep setting up duality to emphasis the point. We have the two actresses playing Coco Rose in the play; Victorique sees a portrait of her mother in her younger days who of course looks like Victorique; and we even have two Brians at the end to round it out. Unfortunately, while this makes it obvious to the audience what has happened, Victorique has yet to figure it out. Because her father is insane and insists she can’t leave the room, which seems kind of random. The purpose eluded me.

Unless there is a major twist it does not seem to difficult to figure out how two people could be murdered in two places at the same time considering we learn that there was an actress who looked exactly like Coco Rose. The Queen was murdered in one location and her double was murdered in the other. The major question is was the King the killer like they have heavily implied or is that a red herring and there was another culprit behind murder. If the King was the killer than how did decapitate the Queen despite having no obvious means of doing so. Surely whatever the answer is the definitive clue is buried in the supposed grave of Nicole Leroux. If nothing else the reason that Albert de Blois seems so keen on solving this case is clear. The Ministry of the Occult is sure they know the killer is and that person is a very important figure. They plan to blackmail the killer once Victorique can find a definitive piece of evidence that makes their accusation more than just finger-pointing. The more interesting question in my mind is who is the 2nd Brian Roscoe. The 2 Brian Roscoes are obviously working together to help Kazuya but the question is who is the 2nd one. There is over a foot difference between Brian and Cordelia therefore she is far too short to pass herself off as him so who is the Brian Roscoe disguise?

Final Thoughts

Kazuya’s commitment to stay by Victorique’s side comes to a dramatic height in this episode. It was good to see him gathering evidence despite not being able to put the clues together. And Victorique is ever more receptive to Kazuya when he appears at the end. The consistent growth between them is very pleasing. The whole ministry fits into their separation again this time but to what ends is unknown. They appear a bunch, do so weird things, and away they go. But also we know they are somehow involved with Coco Rose’s death as well. I am not sure what it has to fully do with Victorique’s fate so I’m ever curious.

It is rather near the end but it was nice to see Kazuya finally settling into his role as an assistant to Victorique more than as just the muscle. He did not mope around when he was separated from Victorique but sprang  into action in gathering the evidence she would need from the outside. It is clear he will never be as great a detective she is but a competent assistant is all you can ask as compared to someone with a Holmes level intellect. Also his attempts to recuse and assist Victorique were extremely heartwarming. I am curious how much Albert de Blois seriously believes in the occult on how much is it just him needing an opposing force to the Science Academy. Most of his supposed magic is clearly just clever tricks but he seemed to honestly think you could create magical homunculi. It is a mostly unimportant question but I can curious to see if they ever answer it.  By the way is Cecile ever actually important or is she just there to have boobs, bottom, and glasses? I am glad to see them continuing with the momentum they have been having these last few arcs. I am curious to see how this arc wraps up and how it leads into the final confrontation.

Taking another item from our Seven Seas review pile I am so glad to be able to recommend one of their books without the qualifier “as long as you into this rather bizarre fetish.”  A Certain Scientific Railgun is a fun spin-off from the main A Certain Magical Index universe. Unsurprisingly Mikoto Misaka turned out to be one of the most popular characters from A Certain Magical Index but what was a little shocking is she got spun off into her own series. The Railgun series revolves around her involvement with the student run police organization called Judgement in the city-wide psychic school known as Academy City. Although she is not officially a member of Judgement Mikoto often gets involved with cases due to her roommate Shirai Kuroko. The first major story arc involves a mad bomber who is targeting members of Judgement but that soon leads to a much bigger mystery of a strange item called the Level Upper. Supposedly the Level Upper can exponentially increase your psychic power but it may have sinister side effects as well.  For better or for worse the Railgun series focuses entirely on the science side of the Index universe. Considering how certain people tend to dislike parts of the magical side this might be a strong selling point for the series. The stories are light and fun with Mikoto infusing any story she is in with her energetic and strong-willed self that made her popular enough to get a spin-off in the first place. Saten Ruiko and Kazari Uiharu are good supporting cast who are colorful enough to be distinct without being too loud even if they occasionally come off as the most interesting refuges from all girls slice of life manga. Shirai Kuroko’s over the top crush on Mikoto Misaka is silly enough to either make you chuckle or groan whenever she is on the page depending on if you enjoy her shtick or not. The series wears is yuri undertones on its sleeve. They are strong enough that they are mistakable but not enough to turn anyone away from the story. If you have watched the anime the stories are pretty similar but the manga is all killer and no filler. We there are some breathers most of the time we jump from plot point to plot point pretty quickly. You can tell that the anime threw in quite a good deal of filler material or extra complications to the story. You still get to know the girls of Railgun but they remove most of the slice of life manga feeling that the anime added. So if you liked the anime but wish they just got on with it then this is the version for you. The art is pleasant and captures the characters and action well. Overall it is a welcome addition to Index universe. It just makes me wish that someone would license the light novels but considering the light novel market in the US I realize that is tantamount to asking a company to go out of business. Such misfortune.

Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society was the obvious next title to watch once I finished 2nd Gig. I didn’t realize it would take place two years after the ending of the second season with the Major (mostly) MIA from Section 9. A conspiracy involving missing children, dying elderly, refugee suicides, and a hacker called The Puppeteer combine with the Major right in the thick of things to once again take us on an intense ride to an unexpected end. Both Battou and Togusa are stepped up a little in this movie, which is only a good thing. The scenes in the hospital with Togusa’s daughter are great. And I gave a big thumbs up to the last moments of the film with Battou and the Major looking out the window together. After finishing this I more than ever want a Stand Alone Complex 3rd Gig.

I took out the first two books in the Code Geass: Knight and Queen series from the library. They are an anthology series of mostly comedic doujinshi that are ostensibly divided into stories for boys in the Queen series and stories for girls in Knight series. I found that while there was a bit of a basis in towards their intended gender there was hints of BL in both series as well as some male friendly service on both sides as well. As I have stated in the past I always enjoy seeing different artists interpretations of the same characters so this series was no different. With any anthology the stories are a mixed bag with some really good stories, some real head scratchers and most everything else falling in between. One story stood on in my head as the most aggressive Lelouch and Euphemia shipping I have ever seen. Most of the jokes revolve around either exaggerated personifications of the characters or popular memes about the charterers. That should let you judge pretty quickly if you are going to like these books. They are fun little books even if they are mostly just illustrated forum topics done in a semiprofessional format.

Brave Police J-Decker continues to entertain on many levels. I’m finding myself enjoying the silly one-offs just as much as the more serious ones as I near the end with just 5 episodes let to go. Episode 22 is so amazingly ridiculous that it is a must see. Yuuta and Dumpson travel to the Dominican Republic undercover to infiltrate a robot fighting ring. Things that factor in include evil lucadors, a man dressed as a dog, boobs, and masked robots. Other great episodes include Deckerd’s dream sequence, ghostly school girls, and cloning technology!

For a little change of pace I decided to talk about a Fate/Stay Night doujinshi I read. Don’t worry it is a clean Fate/Stay Night doujinshi. Magic Gunner Rin is alternate take on the Fate Universe where Rin is a magical gunslinging bounty hunter that has been hired by Archer to protect his step sister Illyasviel from a mafia enforcers lead by Shirou. Most of the cast members of the doujinshi are people from the game appear in new roles like Lancer, Assassin, Berserker, and Souichirou as mob goons whereas Kane and Kaede are Rin’s assistants. The plot is generally generic and Rin is a bit of your standard badarse gun girl who secretly has a heart of gold but the real appeal is to see the author reinterpretations of the characters. It is fun to see evil Shiro menace the cast looking to gain the power of the Illyasviel and the Holy Grail. The art is occasionally inconsistent with some panels looking far better than others but overall the art is acceptable. But so is the case with a lot of doujinshi. There were only 3 of the 4 books translated but it is worth a look just for its unique take on the original and the fact you could read the whole story in one sitting.

I watched the 1st ONA of Detective Conan VS Wooo which uses Conan and crew to advertise this new series of TVs. The episodes are 6-minutes long and feature Conan’s stunning intellect about Wooo TVs which he uses to solve the mystery. In this installment, Kogoro keeps guessing the culprit in a drama they all watch together but Conan knows his secret to success! Fun and cute and at least an entertaining piece of propaganda. Random fact: I got this series added to My Anime List!

The best of the best in Academy City.

The Ministry of the Occult is performing a play about Coco Rose the previous Queen of Sauvill. At the same time Kazuya is shopping in the city for a Christmas/birthday present for Victorique she is being summoned to the theater to solve the countries’ greatest mystery that is presented in the show. While watching from the shadows Cordelia and Brian Roscoe reminiscence about how this has all come to be and what Albert de Blois has taken from the both of them. Will history repeat itself separating Kazuya and Victorique as had been prophesied?

The Case

We kind of and kind of don’t have a case, this is more a setup to a case that will surely be more flushed out in the coming episode. Coco Rose ties into the last big mystery of the alchemist and I like her already. Of course she is long gone and the play is merely setting up her legend for us to relive. Beyond that, this installment features a lot more connecting the dots of Cordelia and Brian’s history. I have to say I am really won over by their relationship, but maybe that is because Victorique’s dad is the evilest evil. The more information we get, the darker and creepy this whole story becomes, much more than I imagined.

The clouds are certainly gathering for the upcoming storm. Brian Roscoe seems rather close to his grand confrontation with Albert de Blois but at the same time Albert seem to be finally starting whatever plan he has centered around Victorique. I am curious how solving the infamous enigma of the royal family ties into Albert’s fiendish scheme. Perhaps he wishes to win the favor of the royal family by solving this old mystery once and for all. I do find it interesting that each of the previous books are feeding into this story. The madness that came out of WWI and the fascination with the occult to prepare for war are introduced in the first book along side the fact that Cordelia meets Julie Guile in the psychiatric facility. The stigma of the Grey Wolves and Brian Roscoe come from the second book. I assume that the Blue Rose in the title of play is the same Blue Rose from the third book. Coco Rose and Leviathan are referenced as a part of this play building on the pop up book from the 4th book. And finally the 5th and 6th books introduced the war between the Ministry of the Occult and the Science Academy plus the memento box of Jupiter Roget. It also explains perhaps why the Gosicks books are a separate line as their mysteries don’t tie into this final grand mystery and confrontation.

Final Thoughts

Both Victorique and Kazuya have tender and sweet moments separately but about each other in this episode. Each is showing more readily that they care, this is especially true for Victorique who goes tearing through the school trying to find Kazuya. In other relationships department, we have wonderful scenes between Brian and Cordelia as well. I still think this poor man is going to bite it, but I hope he gets some vengeance before then. And then we have a nice scene with Grevil when he comes to ask Victorique for her help. Despite the disturbing history of the episode there are touching moments all around.

I joked that the title for the post was how many ways can we say rape without saying rape. If there was any doubt that Albert de Blois was a very bad man than the question is completely thrown out the window now. To find he did not even attempt to court Cordelia but merely kidnapped her and had his way with her until she produced a child takes him to an all time low. We also get to see that definitely Brian Roscoe has always been a good guy if a bit jaded and bitter after his confrontations with the Ministry of the Occult. Other than that I was happy to see Kazuya’s whole segment with buying the pendent. It was a great sign of how much he cares for Victorique and wants to protect her. Although when you sit down and think about it that whole scene is also very ominous and mostly a harbinger of ill omens. That and the scene with the wall of intelligence was fairly amusing as a little levity was need to contrast the grim nature of Cordelia’s back story. Mostly I am ready to see what this grand solved caper is. Victorique has proven herself by solving 2 cold case files so now she can go for a hat trick.

I finished up Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig rather quickly after my mention of starting it last week. Because, yes, it was as stupendous an achievement as I was promised it would be. Almost every episode ties into the main plot so it has a lot of momentum as it unfolds. Since I was watching it quickly, things were able to connect in my head better than it probably would have otherwise. The ending was wonderfully set up and intense and I liked that we didn’t totally know for sure if Kuze was the man we thought he was till that final moment. The scene of Battou digging with that piece of steel that looked like a cross was nice too because while the symbol itself is obvious it made me ponder the idea of the Major being Battou’s cross-to-bear. And the main story ending story ending with the Major doing what she did, very satisfying. I also loved the couple of side stories, especially Saito telling the tale of how he met the Major. And of course the Tachikoma’s rocked it like always! Most people say this is the better season, and I loved it, but the first I still hold as the best.

If anyone remembers we did a little article about the Rough Guide to Anime awhile back so I decided to check out it’s companion piece the Rough Guide to Manga as well. They are clearly in the same line as the format of the books are almost identical. It starts with a brief history of manga, the influence and spread of manga in Asia and America, 50 recommended titles, a look at manga publishers, and books and websites to help you continue your journey, and a glossary. The thing is while both a great introduction to the material, especially for anyone just getting into the hobby, I know I was learning little things I did not know from the manga guide all the time. The history of manhwa and the myths of Osamu Tezuka stood out as particularly interesting.  Apparently the manhwa industry was so strictly regulated in the 60s that men and women could not be depicted in the same panels together. Craziness. The canon section is a fairly good mix. Nothing extremely obscure but that is not the point. A decent mixture of old and new with classics like Lupin III and To Terra along side Peach Girl and Vagabond and of course Akira and Naruto. Paradise Kiss was the only josei tittle but at least they had one although I myself would have wound a way to sneak in Nodame.  But it has Maison Ikkoku so I can’t complain too much. There was no individual manga-ka section but there were some important artists like CLAMP, Leiji Matsumoto, and Rumiko Takahashi mentioned in the canon section. The book it a little outdated especially with the recent shake ups as it still list Dr Master and Aurora Publishing as functioning companies. Still it is a great resource for anyone just getting into manga who needs a guide of where to start digging deeper or where to begin looking in the first place. More experienced fans can give it a look as well as even luminaries like Ed Chavez are occasionally learning something new about the complex world of manga.

Went to see the mostly panned Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, but I found it fun and amusing. Johnny Depp played Jack Sparrow as he should be played and that’s really what we all go to see anyway, don’t we? Some of his better moments include him discussing confusing a convent with a brothel, a great exchange between him and Angelica (Penélope Cruz) about lying by telling the truth, and getting very frustrated with some foliage. Biggest problem for me, and the same goes for the other iterations after the first, is that it was too long. No one cares about the side characters, no really we don’t, so the whole thing with the mermaid was groan-worthy. None of the other stories have lived up to the first film, but that can be said for most franchises. Still had a good time watching and I think I liked it better than the other sequels, but to be fair I don’t remember them too well.

I wanted to clarify when I said last week about [C]. In retrospect I felt that it might have come off as overly critical of the show. So far I have been really enjoying what I have seen of the first 6 episodes. They have had a good mixture of the financial battles in contrast to the charater and world building. The battles that long enough that you get some fights in every episode but not long enough that they dominate over the more thoughtful parts of the show that are far more important. I just have a feeling that the potential for this show to crash and burn horribly are just as likely as it to be a stellar success. Since the show gives you a little bit of how the Midas money works and the true effects of financial battles in real world every episode you never feel like the show is holding back from you. The narrative is always revealing just enough to keep you hooked. The problem is it still has not been enough for me to fully predict the ending so  the final reveals and confrontations could go in too many directions for me to give a thumbs up of thumbs down on this show until I have probably see the last episode. I am predicting that Souichirou Mikuni is Kimimaro Yoga’s father but his son cannot remember him as the cost of losing big in the financial district in the past. But I am pretty sure that is not that super surprising but I figured I would say it anyway. But overall I will hope for the best and plan for the worst with this series which is usually your best bet.

As I’ve been watching Ano Hana, I’ve started to get a funny feeling. Especially after episode 6 there are hints of a secret in Menma’s past with the mention of her calling everyone to get advice the day she died, a passing comment that her dad was mean, and finally Menma’s mom saying her father wanted her stuff packed away. And I’m growing more and more afraid this secret is abuse from her father or something equally disturbing and tragic. I didn’t really expect it to come to this, I thought and still hope this is a story about growing and moving on, not about more darkness heaped on. I want to be wrong. Maybe I’ve just read too many detective novels!

I wanted to discuss the first 6 episodes Blue Exorcist as apparently Narutaki and Mike Dent had the exact same reaction. The first episode makes you think that this series is going to be different with the teenage protagonist working for a living while fighting demons despite being the son of Satan at the same time. But the second episode ends up with Rin heading towards the True Cross Academy which means that this story looks like it will mostly revolve around school drama. That is sort of a shame because the setting of the first episode really felt different that most of your modern shonen fighting shows so when they go to school it loses a bit of vibrancy. Still the show feels like early Bleach with energy and emphasis on character development and the building of the mythology of the setting rather than monster of the week fighting. I do wonder how long this will last. I feel that they are working really hard in the beginning on all of this but they are going to inevitably fall into a fight of the week formula. My hope is that while they will surely increase the number of straight fighting episodes that they keep this level of  introspection in the characters and the world. When Bleach moved away from that it really began to lose its edge. I will comment that everyone so far has the super saddest past ever. I’m not saying everyone’s origin has to be rainbows and happy cakes but it is saying something that everyone has back stories that would make the cast of One Piece feel bad for them. And we have that impression from only 6 episodes.

Of course.

Kazuya and Victorique are out of the frying pan and into the fire. They escaped the chaos that was the Phantasmagoria festival only to wind up in a car filled with suspicious strangers. They are caught in the middle to a deadly game of cat and mouse that has spilled over from the events at Beelzebub’s Skull. Victorique must discover everyone’s agenda as the people quickly begin to remove all obstacles in between them and their missions. Including Kazuya and Victorique.

The Case

Finally a train mystery! Kinda. So even though Victorique and Kazuya escaped an impending flood, there were still questions that needed to be answered. The method for our murder from last episode is revealed rather quickly but the why doesn’t really make sense till later (though it is never explicitly stated). The agenda of each character in this episode makes for a complicated story. But if flies by so quickly, and with many players, so you don’t truly get a sense for them. And we even hear about a recently missing princess, and it also plays a role here. This episode does have a lot of exciting action and classic scenes like racing across the top of a moving train. Also, flaming raisins!

Right out of the gate we learn how Simon Hunt was killed using a slip knot. I was a little disappointed the answer to this murder was so simple. I’m fairly certain that means that Simon was an agent of the Science Academy who recovered the memento box and gave it to the Orphan in the crowd but I can’t be completely sure about that. If that is correct the Ministry of the Occult killed him in an attempt to get the memento box but it had already left his possession. With that mystery solved Kazuya and Victorique begin to relax a bit when they get on the train they soon realize they in the middle of a very tense stand-off. As soon as the Knight kills the Scarecrow things turn deadly. There are not that many mysteries per say but there is a good deal of suspense and intrigue. The poison in the ice cubes trick the Woodcutter uses is a classic of the mystery genre. It lets the poisoner remove suspicion from himself by drinking first but still kills the target. In fact I remember this trick being used on an episode of Monk recently. While this episode was not exactly the train mystery Narutaki was hoping for the action more than made up for it.

Final Thoughts

The pacing of this episode felt all wrong with people and moments coming much too fast to really enjoy, deduct, or digest what was happening. Even though this part of the story picks up from the previous, it still needed another episode to make it worthwhile. The reveal at the end was another interesting tidbit leading up to the grand finale so that was positive. And Victorique and Kazuya shooting from the front of the train was super cool!

We get some great deaths in this episode which is always a good thing. The Scarecrow’s death is pretty quick but her body being thrown from the train is a nice bit of flourish. The Knights death is the most iconic way to die during a train fight so you could not ask for anything more unless the Rail Tracer was involved. The Orphan’s death was a bit tragic and bittersweet. I wonder if we will ever learn anything else about her or did her story die with her. When all is said and done the big reveal of the arc that the memento box is that of Jupiter Roget and that he is a gray wolf. Apparently if that information was revealed it would destroy the Science Academy. But being able intercept the box lets Kazuya and Victorique finally get an upper hand while still letting the Scarecrow have the rest of the box to save his sister. I will say for someone who attempted to poison everyone at the table they let him go without so much as a slap on the wrist. I am curious how this new-found information about Jupiter Roget and the ring Victorique got from her mother is going to be used in these last few episodes. Clearly the little cold war between the Science Academy and the Ministry of the Occult had warmed up considerably so it is a matter of how Kazuya and Victorique will find a way to navigate the upcoming conflicts together.

Seven Seas Entertainment seems to like to go after supernatural manga and manga that carters to certain fetishes. Blood Alone hits both of those categories while adding the popular vampire angle to the mix. The story revolves around Kuroe Kurose, a writer with the ability to see and be unaffected by the supernatural, and Misaki Minato, a preteen girl who was made into a vampire.  They run a detective agency together while Kuroe peruses a career as a writer on the side. The detective agency takes mostly mundane cases like finding lost relatives and pets but they also help the police and private clients with supernatural cases. The book distinctly has two very different tones. Some chapters are serious business with cases like a body jumping serial killer or vampire assassin. These are very story driven and have a distinctly standard panel layout and usually have some information about the overall story of Kurose’s search for his missing sister. There are also slice of life stories about Kurose and Minato going to the pool or the amusement park. Sometimes Masayuki Takano will throw out the conventional panel layout and have everything flow in an almost dreamlike fashion. This is especially evident in the 6th chapter. Unlike Gunslinger Girl where it was a bit hard for me to tell how much they were playing to a lolicon crowd there is no mistaking what they are doing here. Thankfully there are not panty shots or overly gratuitous sexualization of Misaki but the manga unmistakably knows that it is doing. At first I was wondering how much they were going to tease this relationship. It did not seem that bad until we learn that  Misaki and Kuroe sleep in the same bed together every night. The series constantly mentions that NOTHING HAPPENS but the fact that keeps coming up as a joke says volumes in of itself.  The fact that Kuroe comes home one drunk night and gives Misaki and hickey was clearly the straw that broke the camel’s back. This series could be worse. Much worse. Anyone who enjoys the story of a young girl trapped in time by a curse and her relationship with an older man will enjoy this series. There is more story to the series that just the fetish aspect. But everyone else should not let their Blood Alone loving friends to trick them into reading this series with that fact. This is a fetish manga and it has a hard time working for anyone who is not into that fetish despite the story built around it.

I have finally started watching Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig, I know it’s been a long time coming. The series throws you right back into the thick of things in the opening episode with a hostage situation already well under way. And it has an incredibly happy surprise at the end that had me grinning from ear to ear. But I felt the next three episodes were a bit weaker. Nevertheless “weak” SAC episodes are still very high-caliber overall. It also took me a while, and a conversation with someone else, to really grasp the refugee plotline that dominates the season. In the first 12 episodes we’ve already had two Togusa centric installments which is nice to see. I was also thrilled to actually start learning more about the Major and her past; or that she has this rich past at all! This addition is what has won be over most of all. Or perhaps it was the totally awesome opening. I do wish they would stop mentioning the Laughing Man lest it just make me miss him more. Still the Individual Eleven are interesting and really starting to take form now. I’m sure to finish this series off quickly.

I think I have been enjoying Ano Hana the most out of any show this season. It is like they decided to make an anime version of The Big Chill with all that implies. I know people were worried about the Noitamina block after last season but so far Ano Hana has shown me that those fears were unfounded (I’m not exactly sure how I feel about [C] but that is a conversation for another time). It is a wonderful mix of drama and comedy with a mature approach to the storytelling. I know that the episode with the Pokemon really got to my roommate and completely addicted him to the series. The way it captured the joys and frustrations  of socially playing Pokemon while giving you insights into the characters was brilliant. I have heard some people compare this series to Key games and I could not disagree more as the fundamental story structure is so different.  Key games start with a normal set up and then slowly have the tragedy and supernatural elements grow over the course of the game. My biggest complaint about this method, other than the use of very manipulative drama techniques, is the fact that the games fetishize tragedy. You are supposed to wallow in how bad things have gotten. In Ano Hana the tragedy has already taken place long ago. What we see is how it effected the characters and more importantly how they learn to move on. The focus is on growth and healing which I find a much more satisfying tale. Both series might end up at the light at the end of the tunnel but the key is which part of the jorney is important to the author. While Ano Hana could fall apart at the end, especially if Menma turns out to be a figment of Jintan’s imagination, I have a good deal of confidence that this story knows how to properly conclude. Hopefully this will get some sort of  official English release so more people can see this wonderful series.

I watched the vibrantly animated music video Korekuraide Utau. Fun and thoughtful storytelling guide us through a day for this musician. Being a music video of course sound plays a greater role to great effect with the modern style.

I think most people would agree that Suite Precure has started off as a pretty generic magical girl series. Narutaki was also watching the show on her own and while she was enjoying it was was not particularly impressed. But recently the quality of the episodes has improved. In episode 11 we are introduced to Cure Muse who had only been introduced in the opening but not in the show proper. It seemed like the identity of Curse Muse would be super simple to discover. Hummy and Siren appeared to be mending their friendship and Bassdrum was making a play to be the leader. Siren seemed to be the obvious and only choice for the identity of Curse Muse. But soon you discover that while Hibiki and Kanade are the worst detectives ever (who are not Milky Holmes) it also seems that everyone is wrong about who Cure Muse is. The fact that Cure Muses identity is still unknown is quite unexpected. I did not think they would keep the audience guessing this long. I do like Narutaki’s theory that cure muse is actually Shirabe Ako. She has an interest in music and she might just get aged up by her transformation into a magical girl Fancy Lala style. It would be quite the unexpected twist for the show so I really hope that is the case and it is not something lame like Muse is just a character we have not met yet. Still I am enjoying the show as it proves to me why the Precure franchise has lasted as long as it has.

We’ve started watching Kaleido Star S2 and my goodness what disappointment I feel for the series with these first seven episodes. The new characters are more jerky than ever and so far just aren’t jiving with the cast as they were when we last saw them. Especially May who is younger and less experienced as a rival to Sora. I hope things get better!

Menma Mario and Anaru Luigi:

With Kazuya and Victorique finally reunited, stories are exchanged and snacks are eaten. While escaping the two jail breakers run into Simon Hunt, the clock maker who seems to be up to some clandestine activities at the monastery. To kill time before the departing train arrives, Victorique and Simon pick apart the magic acts in the Phantasmagoria revealing to Kazuya how they performed. But when Simon is called on stage and dismisses the performances he has just seen things quickly start to turn ugly and more than just the illusions on stage begin to fall away.

The Case

While we had one heck of a story on our hands, we hadn’t yet had the obligatory murder yet. But now we have. Still while it is gruesome, it is the least interesting piece of this puzzle what with so much history coming out. We see a bit more of the circus and This episode has a lot of quirks to it, like how easily Kazuya and Victorique wander freely, but by the end it seems like an elaborate test. A perfectly edge-of-your-seat desperate escape scene closes out the story, the best part by far. Even so we are left with more questions than answers.

If the last episode was generally calm despite the kidnapping than this episode made up for it. We get our first big murder of the arc with Simon being stabbed to death on stage while he is in the magic box. I assume the key to his murder is the key to how the trick on stages works. Victorique obviously knew something was up and how it would go down when she begs Kazuya to stop the show. I am fairly certain there was a third person in the cabinet that normally performs the trick and was able to kill Simon. That is if Simon was actually killed and the whole affair was not just another illusion. It was made quite clear that the whole purpose of the event was to have everything go wrong to trick people into spreading the urban legend of a tragic event where real magic was performed. So either Simon was either killed as a bonus or he was shill and they faked his death as part of the plan. Therefore the most important question is not how he was killed but why he was killed. As Willard H. Wright in Umineko said the most important part of any mystery is the heart and the heart of a mystery is the motive.

Final Thoughts

The ending is intense and amazing, but it has a weird quality to it because you feel like it is the finale for the mystery yet the murder isn’t solved! This just goes to show what a character story we are starting see rather than a weekly mystery series. On that note, we get a lot of sweet moments between Kazuya and Victorique. I think we are seeing a wee-bit of maturation there, but maybe I just want to see that! If you ask me, our handsome magician Brian Roscoe is not long for this world but then again I can’t really see what kind of ending is in store.

But all in all the murder was merely a piece of the larger chaos that was unleashed in this episode. We have hallucinogenic gas being unleashed on the audience, opened flood gates, missing hidden treasures, Brian Roscoe scheming in the background, and surprising speeches from some unexpected players.  I was certainly surprised by the appearance of Albert de Blois in a most unusual manner although he is mostly there to be menacing and cryptically sinister things. I thought they were going to save him stepping into the forefront for the next arc. We also get the first solid meeting between Cordelia and Kazuya. She gives Kazuya and Victorique each a touching message and a ring that is the key to the most important puzzle. I am curious to see how much of what when on in this episode is explained in the next. That one girl the camera focused on from the audience is also on the train that Kazuya and Victorique escaped on so I assume she will play a part of whatever goes on during this train ride. The story is getting pretty exciting rather quickly so I am looking forward to what comes next. If nothing else we finally get the train mystery that Narutaki has been asking for.

Victorique has been kidnapped by her father. Is Kazuya a bad enough dude to recuse her? Old Data East references aside when Victorique is forcibly shipped off to a convent it is up to Kazuya to save her. Using the invitation provided to him by Grevil to attend the Phantasmagoria at the intimidatingly named Beelzebub’s Skull, he springs into action. As all the major players in Gosick gather, a storm is certainly beginning to brew.

The Case

The case here is really switched up because Victorique is the case. With big reveals about her father in the last episode and more in this one, the complexity of the relationship between him and the Gray Wolves starts to uncloud. The idea of Victorique as some sort of weapon is interesting. The creepy setting though makes it certain that even darker things will occur so perhaps we are in for a murder yet; maybe even a big character murder. It was pleasing to see Kazuya determined and in more of his physical role again. I feel bad for Kazuya because even we the audience know more about what is going on than him at this point. It really and truly feels as though the curtain has risen on the final act of Gosick.

The is another example where the first episode is all set up and no case. So far we have not had a murder but clearly someone is going to die at the  Phantasmagoria it is just a question of who. We have some suspects and possible victims that Kazuya meets on the train to Beelzebub’s Skull. One of them is a young man who is a clock maker and one of them is an old man going to see his daughter. I wonder if the clock maker ties into Brian Roscoe’s chess playing Turk in the back of the train. For those in the know the Turk was supposedly a famous mechanical device that was smart enough to play chess and often beat famous chess players. It turned out in the end that despite all complicated machinery on display the game was actually played by someone hiding inside the device with a good deal of camouflage to make it look mechanical. That is why the Turk was able to bonk Kazuya on the head. I assume either Cordelia Gallo or Brian Roscoe was hiding in the machine at the time but maybe someone else was hiding in there. I assume the Turk itself will play a greater part in the later mystery when it reveals itself.

Final Thoughts

With all the talk last mystery of alchemy and it continuing into this one, I still think we won’t be dealing with super science in this series; I believe it will all be dispelled by Victorique like everything else thus far. The mixture of history like WWI and taking bits and piece from other parts of Europe is great, though it makes you wonder how it will play out as it draws closer to WWII but hey, it’s fiction. Victorique’s interactions with Kazuya are great at the top of the tower. It was also pleasing to see a softening of Grevil which has been building for a little while. I’m also really glad they decided to start turning their eye towards the mysteries of Victorique so early, giving them ample time to explore and wrap up before episode 24.

Everything is really starting to gear up for the end. We know now that there are preparations being made for the second world war and that Albert de Blois and Brian Roscoe are on opposite sides behind the scenes. Albert seems to represent the forces that support occult research and Brian is on the side of science in this shadow war. It might seem ironic for a magician to be trying to fight against the occult until you realize that the Amazing Randi, a stage magician, is one of the most famous debunkers of occult phenomenon in the world. All of this looks to be coming to ahead with Cordelia and Brian taking a much more active role and Albert seemingly pushing forward time tables. I wonder if Cordelia and Brian are going to make it out of this book alive. They might die here especially if we get their full back stories in order to set up the final confrontation between Victorique and her father. But this story just might end with Victorique being kidnapped again for the final battle. If nothing else I am glad to see more cute interaction between Kazuya and Victorique along side a story that is as entertaining. I am hoping for this series to go out on a high note.

The story starts off without a hint of mystery. The new student council is taking a trip to a beach-side inn to plan for the upcoming school festival alongside the old student council made up of the main characters. They blow through their meeting to get as much fun in the sun as they can and then relax at the inn when night falls. But when they find Izumi has been attacked and is covered in seaweed and fish. After talking to a local hooligan who works at the inn the group discovers they have triggered the wrath of a local sea-god. They barge into the only other occupied room in the inn and find an ominous message that they all shall feel the wrath of the curse. Soon they are being taken out one by one in an equally bizarre manner.  Can Shinagawa discover who or what is behind the attack before they are all subject to the brunt of this fearsome grudge?

At first everyone is a bit panicked. Certain members of the group assume it is a prank while others a quick to believe that something supernatural is afoot. Soon they are taken out whenever they are small groups. Chiba being the smartest of the group is the first to get an inkling of who the culprit is. He suspects it might be Shinagawa as Shinagawa is always the first to discover the victims but after judging his reaction by accusing him off to the side he determines it must be the work of someone outside the group. He then examines one of the suspicious room in the inn and finds damming evidence of the culprit. Sadly he makes the number one horror movie mistake and goes alone when he tries to find the evidence. But Shinagawa quickly determines the culprits by following Chiba’s train of logic and is able to unmask the distinctly mundane perpetrators before they can get him or the girls.

Overall this was not the most serious of mysteries but overall Yankee-kun to Megane-chan is not the most serious of manga series. But it is a 3 episode mystery that is fun while having a surprising amount of detective work for something so short. As you can see they even do the faceless criminal panel that they love to do so much in Detective Conan. It also has a bit of a Higurashi vibe because the only thing the Japanese love more than a good mystery is a good supernatural mystery. Also this gives me a chance to talk about Yankee-kun to Megane-chan again and it is just a series that need more love in general.

P.S. I know the last picture has nothing to do with the mystery but it is my article so I can add what I want!

When Kazuya confronts Bryan Roscoe about his connection to Victorique and the murders it quickly turns to into a fight were he cannot even lay a finger on his opponent. After a few ominous words the red-headed magician disappears in a puff of smoke leaving only the mystery in his absence. This leaves Victorique to put all the pieces of the puzzle together and uncover Leviathan’s identity, the reasons for string of deaths in the clock tower, and the terrible secret of Sauville. But is Victorique actually more involved in this case then she first realizes?

The Case

And so all the pieces of the puzzle come into place. Predictably Victorique was having the engineer look for a hidden room in the alchemy lab. Inside that room is the final resting place of many of the pieces of this tragedy surrounding Leviathan. All the little pieces fit together well but I was a bit saddened that my idea about song being a way to decode the pop up book as was all just in my head. I am a bit miffed as I feel there had to be more to the explanation that they just cut for the anime. There had to be more to how that song played into opening the secret room but they never went into any detail in the regard. It is another time I wish I could read the original novel to see if I was missing anything. The method in which everyone was being poisoned turned out to be the result of a rather mundane booby trap but I can’t still remember if that was also the reason people died in that other story I can’t remember. I am still a little shaking on why Ian was killed other than Leviathan’s rage about his plans crumbling down around him. The mystery itself was decent although I wish a little more explanation could have been given for certain events and how and why they took place. Most importantly there was nothing supernatural going on but it does seem that someone with an interest in the supernatural is playing a big part behind the scenes.

Final Thoughts

As much as they are trying to imply Bryan Roscoe is a bad dude I think it is clear that he is just trying to protect Victorique and Cordelia. The only question is does he distrust Kazuya because the does not come from the Village of the Gray Wolves or is Bryan just testing the boy. The biggest reveal was that while he was not directly involved Albert de Blois was connected to the story and seemed to be trying to get Leviathan to use his supposed supernatural powers to advance his little supernaturally obsessed cabal. They seem to be trying to gather all the weapons they can in preparation for a great storm that is clearly going to be World War II. It is also been foreshadowed that this storm is what  shall separate Kazuya and Victorique. If  this is the case then this could get very grim very quickly. I do wonder if they will ever touch upon the tricky subject that Kazuya comes from a country that will eventually be part of the Axis powers. I think at the end everything will come together on a positive note but our protagonists might really have to work for their happy ending. Well we shall find out soon enough as there are only two major books and one side story book left in the series.