Category: Ongoing Investigations

Ongoing Investigations: Case #100

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Ongoing Investigations #100 marks a milestone for the blog! To celebrate, this time around we asked Twitter to suggest the titles for us to check out.

Ever since I finished Cross Game, I have been itching for more baseball anime, and truly I find myself more and more engaged in sports series overall. Major is a damn long and famous series that we finally started to explore. Major has a dual story taking place, the next stage of the career of an aging baseball player and his son the growing, passionate young baseball dreamer, Goro. As with other baseball series, death seems to stalk the cast, but you can see it coming, though this doesn’t make me any happier to say good-bye. Since Goro is too young to really be the star yet, we follow the dad as he pursues a new road on his team. This is an excellent way for us to experience Goro as a child while still getting plenty of baseball tension. At this point I am more excited about the dad’s future but Goro is a good a kid and things seem promising. And as a popular title, and currently hitting its 6th season, the animation is quite nice. For me, Major exuded a lot of heart and I fell in love with it easily. Liked this show so much you can expect to see a full review soon.

hisuicon Major was suggested to us in a roundabout way by Ed Chavez. Apparently he was never a big fan of the manga but suggested we sample the series anyways as part of a proper Shonen Sunday education. When Bradley C Meek suggested it on Twitter for our 100th Ongoing Investigation we had to watch it.  I had mostly heard of the show for the fact that it follows the professional career of the main character, Goro Honda,  from his early childhood days when he really gets into the idea of playing professionally to his playing the major leagues. The series starts with it being the story of Goro’s and his potentially career ending injury. Seeing his father’s struggles inspires Goro to aim to be professional ball player himself. So far Narutaki and I have been intrigued by both Goro’s fathers struggles and his romance with Goro’s teacher. Eventually Goro’s dad will have to step out of the spotlight as Goro gets older and the show focuses more on him but we have been enjoying the show so far. The first 3 episodes we watched did not have the opening so the picture of the cracked baseball helmet does not seem encouraging especially since we are getting this bad feeling about Goro’s dad. I am curious to see were the series goes and how Goro grows as a character.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #099

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hisuiconFinishing Dawn of the Golden Witch has just made me anticipate Requiem of the Golden Witch even more than I already did. This seemed like a shorter chapter than most but we got some great scenes so all is forgiven. Battler is now the Golden Sorcerer and running the game with Erika Furudo as his opponent. Beatrice is back but she is clearly not the same Beatrice as before. This chapter really centers around George, Jessica, Shannon, and Kanon. I will say the is a decent amount of evidence for the Shannon equals Kanon theory but I have to hope that it’s all a red herring. Otherwise there are some very unobservant members of the Ushiromiya family. In the end we get another suspended game that ends during the second twilight. I am assuming at this point that if we had all the games go to the end it would be much more obvious who the culprit is. As it stands these game are just supposed to be hints that when pieced together with the first four games give us who is behind all the murders on the island. I still think my final denouement stand the test of the 6th game but we shall see. Part of me wonders if I am like Battler and I am just in denial that one of the 17 could be the murderer. Another part of me feels that many of the themes point to me keeping this seemingly blind faith. We shall see what is revealed in the penultimate and ultimate game soon enough. As a side tangent I now wait for the part in every chapter for a part where Beatrice’s demon hooligans make some trouble for someone. Ryukishi07 has done well in making them lovable characters.

I started watching the TV anime adaption of CLAMP’s X (eps. 1-8). After the first couple of episodes that have plenty of action and foreboding, then we start to learn about each of the stars little by little. Kamui is hard to like at first, but his tortured mind is easy to recognize. Sometimes these episodes can feel a little slow, even though they are interesting, they take away a little from the present circumstances of characters that you haven’t quite gotten attached to yet. Lucky for me, I already have a great love for the cast. However, each moment in the present is exacting, telling, and dramatic pulling you in further and further into this complex and twisted story of destiny.  Continue reading →

Ongoing Investigations: Case #098

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I decided to rewatch Avatar: The Last Airbender S1 which I saw during its original TV run, but through circumstances never was able to catch the rest of the series. Since that was so long ago I thought I would refresh my memory before tackling the rest. I stay impressed by what I remembered from it, there is a good flow in the pacing from episode to episode and the weaving of the story is done thoughtfully. Aang, Katara, and Sokka play off each other using their strengths from natural ability to caution making the journey memorable and deeply felt. I also really enjoyed how they were able to give you backstories within an episode without taking you out of the moment, this happens most notable when Zuko’s uncle tells the story of Zuko’s past to his crew which also cemented him as my favorite, my soft spot for redemption seeking characters continues. Speaking of Uncle, the cast of antagonists are well realized, easily becoming some of the more complex on canvas, creating a large world scope but never forgetting to stay true to the main heroes. The balance of action, danger, mystery, and humor solidifies why this show is addictive. And the ending of the season is magnificent, closing out the first part with enough to feel satisfied but make you desperate to see where it will all lead.

hisuiconThis week is a week of me finishing of some decent length titles. Slayers Evolution- R is really just the 2nd half of Slayer Revolution. This is obvious in the fact that it keeps the alphabetical naming scheme that the last season did. The season begins right were they left of still trying to revive Pokota’s kingdom which requires them to find the Hellmaster’s jar with Rezo’s soul. The first few episodes have them find a woman whose soul is living suit of armor with amnesia named Nama. She is obviously supposed to be Naga the Serpent but they keep up the running gag of never having Naga meet any of the regular Slayers cast. We have the end of Zuuma’s plot line, the resurrection of Rezo, and a rematch between Lina and Ruby Eye Shabranigdu. Overall it kept up the same good will that the last season did. It still was never a good as the first two seasons but I did enjoy myself immensely. I found it interesting that both Revolution and Evolution- R  go back and tweak stories from the novels that the last seasons of Slayers skipped for one reason or another. I wonder how well these two season did because there is still some novels that have yet to be adapted so I would be tickled pink to see some of the later books be adapted into anime as well. Continue reading →