Fate/Zero S2 TV #001: Kobayashi Was A Graduate of the AD Police School of Flight

It is good to be back. I have enjoyed the little break from episode reviews but I am now ready to start writing about Fate/Zero again. Season 1 ended just before we could dive into a grand set piece battle on the river so it is good to be back. Now that we have passed the half way mark all bets are off. The immunity people had is slowly falling away as the number of episodes go down. Someone like Rider or Tokiomi is not going to go down easily but we know they are going to die. So their battles are a bit more tense because you are not sure when they are going to die. In fact Gen Urobuchi eliminates one major character in this episode and has set up some characters in very perilous situations at the end of the episode. People will die when they are killed. The kid gloves are off. Now it is on to the beginning.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #164

When they finally announced a SGFiguarts Sky High from Tiger & Bunny, I was poised and ready for that pre-order; I had been waiting none too patiently. It finally arrived last week.

This is my first Figuarts purchase and I’m very happy with what I see. This looks dead-on like Sky High, I’m a real stickler for that authenticity. The paint job is flawless without a bad seam to be found. Somewhat like a Revoltech you have many hand options and other little details such as jet pack blasts as well as number of points of articulation. The possibility is good, though I did have some trouble getting his shoulder armor to stay on, after I settled on a pose I was really able to keep it. This is also thanks to a sturdy stand.

Even though this figure is on the smaller side for me, the craftsmanship makes me really happy with my choice.

I watched Another with my roommate partially because he likes horror stuff and partially because someone recommended the series as a good mystery. In a way, the series is both a horror anime and a mystery so I can discuss how those parts work individually and together.

As a horror series the plot works much like a Final Destination movie with a classmate dying every episode in some gruesome manner with an absolute bloodbath in he final two episodes. Not everyone dies like a Final Destination movie but the body count is high, the deaths near the end are gruesome, and some serious sacrifices are made. In that regard, the series pretty much gives you what you want.

The mystery is decent. I have a feeling that some people are going to find the identity of the ghostly classmate as brilliant and others are going to pass it off as a bit of a cheat. I think parts of the reveal have clues pointing to them and other parts are pretty much a surprise. The show does not cheat by say making the extra student someone you never saw but it is a bit of a major misdirection. I was glad they brought up and then quickly disapproved most of the super common twists you would have expected about the extra student early on.

My only real complaint is that one person essentially has a ghost detector and does not mention it to anyone until the last possible second.  That was a plot convenient bit of withholding information.

Overall all it was an enjoyable little show. It is very much more a horror show than a mystery. The show revels in its deaths and mostly just plays in the detective aspect. Watch it for a horror show with a mystery element and not the other way around.

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S.W.A.T. Reviews: Spring 2012 Pt. 3

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. Here are three more from the new season:

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Listen – Episode 1 of Folktales from Japan from Tomason with the opening “Hitori no Kimi ga Umareta to sa.” by Shoko Nakagawa and is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Episode 1 of Space Brothers from A-1 Pictures with the opening “Feel so Moon” by UNICORN and is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Listen – Episode 1 of Zetman from TMS Entertainment with a secret song and is streaming on Hulu.