PokeNirvash

Another pseudo-quickie this time. March Comes in Like a Lion #12 - What Lies on the Opposite Shore / Black River

March Comes in Like a Lion 12

Episode 30: I Can't Confess to Her [deep breath] Well, here we are. Oreimo's infamous three-episode home stretch. I can't say I'm enraged by the opening chapter, but I can see why others would be and in some places, I actually feel for them. The greatest feels coming from the first thing Kyosuke does after turning down Ayase: turning down Kuroneko. I'll admit, that whole sequence was inevitable but heartbreaking regardless. Sure, Kuroneko may have ended the relationship between her and Kyosuke first, but it's not like they were gonna stay apart for long. She kept in touch, made a deal of her and Kyosuke still being bound to one another after the breakup more than once, even teased the possibility of getting back with him. So of course she'd be heartbroken when Kyosuke traveled all away to her apartment building just to tell her that his heart belongs to someone else (more on that later) and that they can no longer go out. And let me tell you, that heartbreak was a real roller coaster. At first, I was expecting her to get angry, but was surprised when she brushed it off in her usual otaku personality way. But then she tore up her Destiny Record. And then she started crying. Ohh. To top it all off, she went back to otaku mode, renamed herself the Angel of Vengeance Yamineko, and replaced the "curse" that bound her and Kyosuke together with an even greater one tied to her immediately recent declaration to deny all love in the world. Yeah, not even I can brush something that heavy off with mere indifference. The new-content flashbacks to more cute moments between the two - a visit to the pool and the requisite one-feeding-the-other scene - didn't really help. AAAAAAnyways, a day or two after that little moment of turmoil, Kyosuke proceeds to ask Kirino if they could go out on another Christmas Eve date. Kirino refuses at first, but manages to come around once Kyosuke mentions the possibility of buying Christmas-themed eroge, plus an event at a store in Akiba where couples can get rare and exclusive goods also relating to the holiday. Eventually, they day comes and the date goes well. They go to their event at the Animart store - where they run into Akagi and Sena, the latter of whom Kirino actually knows because of course she does - and follow it up with a stop at a hotel room Kyosuke rented out so Kirino can play her eroge while the day's still young. After a failed attempt to get a bird's-eye view of Tokyo from the Sky Tree, they settle for watching it snow instead, which would be a nice cap-off to this completely innocuous outing. However, Kyosuke has other plans. Plans that Kirino sees coming from a mile away that prompt her to activate the Joestar Kousaka Secret Technique: run the hell away. Kyosuke fails to catch up with her on foot but, thanks to some help from Kuroneko and Saori - who were successfully spying on the Kousaka's date from a Siscalypse-themed itasha driven by Saori's sister (remember her?) - he manages to catch up to her and do the one thing that effectively ruined the series for many expecting something a little more... mundane and reasonable. He confesses his love for Kirino. I'll admit, there's a lot to this scene worth mentioning beyond the question of "what brought these feelings on?" There's the fact that Kyosuke prepared for Kirino to react negatively to it in all possible (non-violent) manners, but went through with it anyways. There's the fact that he realized he fucked up by turning down Ayase and Kuroneko, but decided Kirino was the one he truly loved. There's Kuroneko taking advantage of the stereo system in Saori's car to play a recording she surreptitiously took of Kyosuke confessing his love to Kirino to her, and Kyosuke deciding to roll with it after the initial shock of hearing his own voice. There's the fact that everyone around to hear it can only stand and watch in awe at the scene as it plays out, either nonchalant towards the incest or too distracted by Kyosuke's passionate exclamations to bring it up. And there's Kirino angrily telling Kyosuke he hates him so much, and in the moment she gives Kyosuke the chance to speak again, the clarity her venting granted her making her realize how much Kyosuke cares, and reminding her of how she used to adore him to the point of borderline affection before his laziness and Manami's bitchery brought on her current viewpoint of him. Which is, at least what I believe, the reason why she says "yes" to Kyosuke's passionate, some would say off-the-wall marriage proposal. (By the way, Kuroneko mentioned spotting "that unmistakable brown hair", implying that Manami's somewhere in the vicinity, so I assume that'll be important later.) My prior knowledge of what was going to happen allowed me to suck it up in the face of this sudden reveal, and my tendency to fill plot holes with my own logic that some would (successfully) dispute is nothing more than non-canon allowed me to skip over lapses in logic like Kirino's sudden acceptance, and sudden ass pulls like the speakers blasting Kyosuke's confession in that one poor bystander's ear. I don't hate this episode. I don't even dislike it. But I can see why some would hate or dislike it. And surely, I'll see why they hate or dislike the last two also. To avoid controversy, this episode will not be up for scoring consideration. Besides, there's another rating of greater importance that I must share... RATED: TV-14D WHY? Should be obvious here. The incestuous tone of the whole plot point of Kyosuke confessing that he's love with Kirino pretty much sealed the deal, if Akagi and Sena buying homoge, Kirino mistaking a regular hotel for a love hotel, and the eleven times they said "eroge" weren't enough to justify the D. (There was also Kyosuke worrying that he'd never get to second base with anyone ever, but that came after the fact.) Biggest non-dialogue indicator this episode was some brief nudity on a couple of eroge posters in Akiba - one of which I recognized as Shin Koihime Musou - and Kyosuke saying "dammit" three times in under a minute. SCREENCAPS: For act 1, Kyosuke obtaining the Oreimo blush-face, and for act 2, whoops now he lost it. [check out that foreshadowing]

Oreimo 2 14

Definitely one of their weirder and more experimental episodes, which is saying a lot for Off the Air. The orange puppet video was the best of the bunch, though that's probably because it was the first Off the Air episode to explicitly mention BDSM. [and i'm just getting started]

Kuromukuro 9

I dunno about Hunter (97% retention rate, man), but OP, I'm inclined to agree, if it didn't even make the top 100. Still, if Naruto had to gain from Hunter on any single night, this was it. Killer Bee pushing Sasuke's shit in is always a joy to watch. [and it was my first time watching it]

I don't think that really counts as ASA.

Bleach and maybe Kekkaishi, I'll give you, but Durarara!!, no.

Dude, just call it OKCupid. Whenever you abbreviate it like that, all I can think of is Oklahoma City.

Finale was awesome. April can't come soon enough. [?]

Actually, that was [adult swim] who aired Paranoia Agent. Anime Unleashed aired Gungrave, which is the reason why we got Paranoia Agent as part of the Champloo package deal instead.

Excellent work, Blatch. You deserve this break. As for me, time to jump out of my break with a little something quick. March Comes in Like a Lion #11 - The Old Year / The New Year

I'm certain the end of ASA was the week before Toonami came back, because when else would it have been? Besides the week before [as] banished Code Geass and Moribito to the graveyard slot and made most of the night all-comedy, much to the anger of Bandai and Media Blasters.

Rewatched Kuromukuro 8.

What are your thoughts on civil engineers, be it the students themselves or the subject they study?

Kuromukuro rules, Infinite Stratos drools! [insert "rock on" gesture here]

True, but there's an alternate reality fanfic light novel (or something) called Jorge Joestar. To put it simply, it's weird even by JoJo standards.

It's homophobic because Mochi says it is. Supposedly.

Gotham Season 3, #13

They did. I distinctly remember AgK being real boring with its ratings - TV-MA straight for every episode - and stopped caring about what it was rated that for after the fourth episode or so. Parasyte was much better and more exciting in that regard. Excellent. For as frustrated as I may get at your opinions sometimes, in the end you're a good man, TG. [shakes hand]

Of course, I'm assuming they're all of legal age.

Deadman Wonderland, Hellsing Ultimate, Kill la Kill, and Akame ga KILL! are the only four anime on Toonami (and [as], for that matter) to be rated TV-MA all the way through. All of Attack on Titan was TV-14, while episodes 2, 4, and 23 of Black Lagoon were TV-14 also.

You want my serious answer? Fine. I have Asperger's, and TV content ratings serve as my token "obsession", as one would call it. Happy now?