AKB0048 Next Stage - Episode 9

Things certainly took a dramatic turn in last week's AKB0048, with DES and the Zodiac Corporation laying waste to and ultimately taking control of Akibastar, while Yuuko's transcendence into the role of Centre Nova immediately resulted in her disappearance.

With the remaining members of AKB0048 either locked away in hiding in the temple within the depths of Akibastar or on the run from DES in their damaged spacecraft, it's hard to know where the group should turn next - for those who witnessed the entire thing however, the first question they want answering is regarding Mii's involvement in proceedings and why she "sold out" the group and their home planet.  The answer she gives isn't perhaps the most consistent or satisfying - it's hard to reconcile her desire to protect the group's members with her work with the Zodiac Corporation - but it does give us some more insight into the power of the Centre Nova set against Mii's tale of how she stepped back from the brink of disappearing like some of those who went before her.

There isn't all that much time for recriminations or finger-pointing however, as it isn't along before DES are back on the tail of the group's ship after their attempts to contact Akibastar are intercepted.  Low on energy and with some serious damage, it seems as if the craft is all-but a sitting duck - if only they had a top-notch mecha pilot that they could count on to oppose the DES forces....  Needless to say, Mii seeks to redeem herself and prove her willingness to protect the group with her actions, thus saving the day if only for now.  It seems as if our focus will now return to Nagisa, as she vows to become a Centre Nova to both stop the Zodiac Corporation's plans to weaponise the group's abilities and rescue the former missing Centre Novae.

The second half of last week's episode felt, to me, like absolute justification for sticking with this series through thick and thin as everything it had built up to came flooding out in a stupendous ten minutes or so - against that backdrop, this week's instalment has a lot to live up to and understandably doesn't hit quite the same high points, but it nonetheless proves to be a compelling and well-constructed progression of the story that once again cannily brought out its best material to close the episode in suitably spectacular fashion.  It's enough to leave me further pondering whether the series as a whole could have been better paced or whether it genuinely needed the length of build-up it received, but as of right now I don't care too much, as it feels like the show is perfectly placed to offer up a fantastic set of closing episodes if it manages to keep running along these lines.

Minami-ke Tadaima - Episode 9

Love is in the air (even more so than usual) in this week's Minami-ke, and it's all thanks to some soppy romance movie.

More specifically, the issue is with a pair of tickets to see said movie that are given to Haruka, thus kicking off a chain of good, old-fashioned misunderstandings.  Besides Hosoka's dreams of having Haruka wipe his sweat away in a warm cinema, Natsuki experiences the pleasure of being given the tickets by Haruka in the assumption that she's asking him to see the movie with her followed by the pain of realising she's literally just giving the tickets away, before passing that exact same emotional roller-coaster onto Hitomi (who takes a whole lot longer to realise it).  Then again, maybe Hitomi has already found her real soul-mate in none other than Fujioka, with the two of them exhibiting an almost terrifying level of synchronisation.

On the subject of unspoken understanding, Hitomi once again proves to be impressive at reading Natsuki's thoughts just from the expression on his face, although unfortunately her assumption at the target of those thoughts causes even more confusion for all concerned.  Meanwhile, all this talk of romance sees Riko redouble her efforts to capture Fujioka's heart, although you can't help but feel as if these efforts are undermined by her neurotic (but perhaps reasonable when it comes to cooking) insistence in finding out what "just a little" should actually be quantified as.

All of this combines to create another episode which is pretty much classic Minami-ke - lots of comedy based around misunderstandings, which is perhaps fundamentally old-hat but is no less funny because of it on account of the show being so accomplished at what it does.  In other words, this is another fun episode of a fun series, with just enough humour that hits its target to remain well worth watching.

Sasami-san@Ganbaranai - Episode 8

After that run-in with her mother over the last couple of episodes, it's perhaps not all that surprisingly that Sasami wants to lock herself away from the rest of the world.  However, it seems that she has a rather more substantial problem to deal with than even that.

With Tsurugi still missing, it's left to Kagami and Tama to try and deal with the fact that Sasami has used all of Amaterasu's powers to make herself unapproachable - something easier said than done when your friend is hell-bent on using those powers to strip off your clothes and make you into some kind of idol.  Thankfully, Tsurugi makes her grand entrance just in time to assist in fighting the way through to Sasami, revealing the true mass of Sasami's weighty problem.

Rather than lying in the present, or indeed the pizza she ate the previous night, it's to the past we turn to look to resolve Sasami's current problem, introducing us to a younger Sasami long before her mother's death.  As our present day Sasami watches on, her younger self contracts a curse which threatens all and sundry in the area including her mother - but is this really a view into Sasami's past?  Perhaps not, given that she has no recollection of these events...

I suppose I should be used to elements of Sasami-san@Ganbaranai being a little confusing by this juncture, but even against that backdrop this week's episode feels a little too disjointed and messy to be particularly enjoyable - sure, I'm curious to see what it's trying to do so it deserves some credit for that, but there's not really enough to keep the story as it stands tethered to any central premise, an issue which stands out all the more thanks to the relative lack of comedy on show here.

Chihayafuru 2 - Episode 8

It's time for Mizusawa to get their game on, which can mean only one thing - it's national championships time!

To celebrate the occasion, Nishida's sister has even created some new-look t-shirts for the club, although these are quickly jettisoned when it turns out that they aren't quite as complementary as the first seem.  That potential disaster averted, it's on to the first round of matches, and with some members to spare we see just how dedicated the club are to winning this time around, with Tsutomu giving up his place in the team to concentrate on scouting out potentially tricky opponents.

As for those who are playing for Mizusawa, they find themselves facing a decidedly unique proposition in their first round match - a bunch of foreign people.  The horror!  Some casual racism aside, this group from an international high school in Chiba initially throw the more experienced players off their stride thanks to more than just their exotic looks - ultimately though, despite the freedom of play exhibited by this unusual bunch of karuta lovers, there's no discounting the class of our more experienced players as they win the day while still kindling a spirit of friendship over the shared love of the game with their opponents.

For a little while there, I was really worried that this week's Chihayafuru was going to go off at the deep end in its depiction of Mizusawa's opponents (and it almost did in the case of their black player, although it maybe isn't all that inaccurate a summary of some Japanese attitudes towards them), but this series being what it is a shared love of karuta ultimately shone through to make for an episode that, in spite of its predictable ending, still proved to be both entertaining and really funny in places.  It's the occasional comedy angle of Chihayafuru that can often be easy to overlook, but it feels as if this second season has really got a good handle on when to deploy jokes for maximum effect, and in recent weeks its been working superbly to bring another dimension to the overall entertainment value of the series.

Robotics;Notes - Episode 19

Just as Aki looks set to get her big chance to catch up with big sister Misaki, so said sister seems to be in the middle of something nefarious while pursued by a gun-toting, suited man.  This, however, is only the beginning of the insanity.

Before there's so much as time to draw breath Misaki has escaped her gun-wielding foe, hopped aboard the robot she was supposed to be demonstrating at the Expo and almost literally laid waste to the entire exhibition centre as well as all of the robots within it, GunPro-2 included.  With news of an unprecedented and massive solar flare also breaking around the world and the appearance of an obelisk-cum-space elevator that seems to hark back to Gunvarrel's final episode in Tokyo, it almost seems too crazy to be believed.

Perhaps that's because what everyone is seeing is too crazy to be real, with Misaki's pursuer suggesting that the entire thing is an AR-esque work of subterfuge (or which Kai and Aki's childhood ferry incident was a precursor) used to cover up an even greater crime... a crime about to be committed by Misaki, who is believed to be in league with none other than Kimijima Kou.  Exactly what Kou's real plan is and how it can be stopped remain to be seen, but things are looking decidedly more dangerous for our group of robot-building buddies, that's for sure.

After so many weeks of complaints about this show's inability to deliver, all of a sudden we find ourselves staring in the face of an entire series worth of plot points in a single episode.  If anything, this week's instalment goes to the other extreme of providing us with entirely too much content, making it difficult to sift through and keep track of what's going on to create more confusion than I suspect the series was actually aiming for.  On the positive side however, I'm more than a little happy to see the show lay a bunch of its cards on the table, and there are some interesting points worthy of further exploration regarding the human response to what is presented in front of them, be it with their own eyes or via another medium like the Internet.  Messy it might be in places, but the scene is set, so this could finally be Robotics;Notes time to shine.  I've only made such a proclamation around a dozen times with this series now, right?

Vividred Operation - Episode 8

If you thought that fighting the Alone was all friendship and kissing girls in your underwear then think again, as the climax to last week's episode reminded us that there's a more dangerous side to clashing with these mysterious alien invaders.

Such is the extent of the injuries suffered by Akane in spite of her additional powers that we find her heading to intensive care as this latest instalment begins - a fact which shatters the resolve of all involved within fighting the current Alone, which has attached itself to Tokyo's Sky Tree while it regenerates itself before surely putting the Manifestor Engine to the sword.

Without the ability to Dock with Akane and with their trump card out of commission, it seems that there's nothing for it but to leave the defeat of this Alone to conventional military forces, and essentially this means only one thing - effectively nuking Tokyo for the greater good of the planet.  While this decision is being made, it seems that the powers that be have reckoned without the remaining members of the Vivid System's team, as they come up with a risky yet plausible plan to win the day in Akane's name.

Having compared this series to Strike Witches throughout, it's probably going to sound completely bonkers to compare this week's instalment to Evangelion instead, but even if it shares little in terms of its overall tone there are certainly visual and plot elements which bear at least fleeting comparisons with that universe.  That aside, perhaps more important is the fact that this latest story arc allowed Vividred Operation to depart at least somewhat from its "monster of the week" setup, if only in favour of a "monster of the fortnight" one with some darker undertones - it's enough to bring a breath of fresh air to the show though, which is most welcome when coupled with those great action scenes and an episode that, as a whole, "just worked".

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT - Episode 8

No sooner has the dust settled on Kobato's birthday than it's time to prepare for another major event - that's right kids, it's culture festival time!

While the members of the Neighbours Club ponder what their group should attempt for the festival, a visit from Kobato reveals that she's clearly a closet Thespian (I said Thespian, Sena), having been selected to play the lead role in a movie production being made by her class.  Always ready to be inspired (or rather, to rip off whatever good idea comes their way), the Neighbours Club thus decide that they, too, should work on a movie.

After an interesting movie-going experience and a visit to a cat cafe (this whole series should be set in a cat cafe if you ask me), Yozora puts her thinking cap on and writes a magnus opus for the group to produce.... a rather familiar-sounding story, which suggests that Haganai is the kind of thing that only a socially stunted teenager would write, I guess.  Anyhow, I digress - it quickly becomes clear that Yozora has only written her story with a view towards bringing herself and Kodaka closer together; a fact which doesn't go down too well with the others, bringing forth a cycle of rewrites, further arguments and ultimately a major falling out between Sena and Yozora.  Not the best of starts for this project, even if the script is finally ready to go come the end of the episode...

From a series that has often failed to get any laughs out of me, I will admit that this week's Haganai again managed to make me laugh a few times against a backdrop that, cliché though it is, makes good use of the show's characters and dynamic for the most part.  I know I'm asking the nigh-on impossible, but I'd still love to see more movement in the relationship angle of the show rather than continued unheard mutterings and blithe ignorance as it seems like something the series has more than enough scope for, but for now I guess I'll just have to contend myself with the odd giggling fit.  And more cat cafe visits, if you please.