A General Thread for Content Rating Aficionados

PokeNirvash · January 20, 2018

I'll probably go back and do up some of them, but not all at once. But as long as Nakasugi's name is spelled correctly, I'm fine with whatever changes you made, datedness removed or not.

Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor #11

Face-off! The Magic Corps Battle

It all begins with the duel Glenn challenged Leos to last episode: a mock battle between their classes, proctored by none other than Hadley in an attempt to keep his relevance intact. Between Leos's Class 4 using tight and professional three-man attack cells and Glenn's Class 2 opting for the simpler but just as effective two-man cells, no one side readily has a stark advantage over the other - despite the other professors observing the match believing Leos has it in the bag - and it ends in a draw. If I were playing favorites, though, I'd go for Glenn, if only for him trapping several Class 4 students in pre-set booby traps (or as he calls it, "some eco-tourism hipster obstacle course") and gloating about it like a mad scientist. Not even his students' complaining about such an underhanded series of tactics can stop me from enjoying Josh Grelle hamming it up. It's going to be so disappointing, going from hearing him as Glenn to hearing him as the main character (male) of Freezing.

Of course, Leos is none too pleased with the "tie game" outcome and challenges Glenn to a one-on-one duel the next morning; one that will ultimately decide who gets Sistine's hand in marriage. Sistine still isn't pleased about any of this, especially Glenn going through with it just to marry into money. Easy, breezy, beautiful money. But, after meeting with him that night at Rumia's suggestion, she finds out that he also stepped up to the challenge for reasons besides re-entering the wonderful world of unemployment. More direct to the duel with Leos was him stepping in because his demand that Sistine stop her research into the Sky Castle made something within him snap, leading to the initial impulsive duel declaration. The other is Sistine reminding him of Sara, the one ally of Glenn's who pushed for him to stick to his end goal of becoming a mage of justice, even after joining the Imperial Mage Corps made him so, so disillusioned with magic. (And as I predicted, her death was what led Glenn to go AWOL in the first place. Huzzah!) Sistine feels much better about Glenn after their little conversation, though still tsun-tsun towards his less noble aspirations.

And then things get dramatic again when Leos pops up and accuses Glenn of trying to just garner sympathy out of Sistine (even though he wasn't lying a bit), and on top of that tells him to go back to the Imperial Mage Corps Special Forces where he belongs. Glenn, insulted by Leos bringing up his past which he assumed he wouldn't know about, attempts to kick Leos's ass, but gets his own ass kicked in turn with tulpas. (Yes, those tulpas.) After that, Glenn leaves... period. He doesn't show up for the duel, nor does he return to teach. It's like he vanished into thin air...

Though that's not what disturbs Sistine the most after all of that. What's truly disturbing is how different Leos is from how he was when they were younger. This aspect of himself, Sistine sees when he threatens unsavory fates for Rumia and Re-L if she refuses his hand in marriage, all while revealing that he knows that Rumia's royalty and Re-L's a clone. Leave it to FUNi's trump card, Ian Sinclair, to really convey how frightening this whole exchange really is for Sistine. Speaking of Leos's villainous side, a conversation between him and glasses dude reveals that his reason for marrying Sistine - at least, now it is - is so his family can take control of the main clan it's a part of by easily getting rid of the "detestable branch" that is the Fibel family. (That's Sistine's last name, BTW.) And then there's Rumia mentally bringing up the creepy air Leos had about him, that came off as similar to that of the white alchemy research guy in collusion with the Researchers of Divine Wisdom. All of this leads to some interesting questions that I doubt will all see answering in the finale. What caused Leos to pursue such an unsavory goal? Is he really the same Leos that Sistine new when they were younger, or is he just an impostor? And what of glasses dude and his obsession with Glenn?

Oh, and there was some more Angel's Dust stuff too, but who cares about that.

RATED: TV-14

Ultimately, what brought the episode to this rating were two instances where there was a notable amount of blood but no on-screen violence to back it up. The first was the body of an Angel's Dust addict Albert and two of his fellow mages found in an alley, lying in a pool of its own blood. The second was Glenn flashing back to him standing in a much larger pool of blood, surrounded by several enemy mage corpses, as he's giving Sistine a third-person account of his current life story. The fact that the violence this episode was Y7FV at best (the student-on-student spell clashes during the mock battle) and PGV at worst (Leos beating up Glenn with his pet tulpas) only helped keep the blood from being as 14V worthy as it would've been five or ten years ago.

I would like to pay honorable mention to a couple bits of suggestive dialogue that showed up. Namely, Glenn calling a bunch of his male students "boners" in a flashback, and him replying to a "Do you read me?" from Leos with a "Nothin' that's not 18 and up!" over a student's communication wristband. Profanity included two uses of "bastard" (one as the title), one of "bitches", one of both "ass" and "suck", and four of "hell". The maggot count this time was a single plural, and I'm sure Celica would be proud of Glenn for him using that word.

SCREENCAPS: For act 1, Hadley checking out the female student body's risque uniforms, and for act 2, Rumia in need of some cheering up.

NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW RETROSPECTIVE

Next episode previews are always an interesting thing whenever they show. Sometimes they're basic narration. Other times they're dialogue between characters. Still other times they're snippets of lines from the next episode arranged as either teasers (i.e. One Piece, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) or humorous out-of-context combinations (i.e. CLANNAD, High School DxD). And let's not forget the habit of Dengeki Bunko light novel adaptations simply reciting the next episode title (i.e. SAO, Oreimo, Eromanga Sensei). But sometimes they take the Tokyo Ghoul route and go full unrelated omake. Akashic Records takes that last route and gets creative with some of the stuff they do for their next episode previews, typically with no relation to it being a preview at all. Since this was the last one to reasonably have a preview, I'll cover all 11 happenings here, as a(n akashic) record.

Episode 2: Glenn's too lazy to do the next episode preview, and after Celica convinces him to do it, he falsely claims next episode's the finale, much to Sistine's frustration.
Episode 3: Sistine tries to do the preview, but Glenn and Rumia's fanboying/fangirling over the Sky Castle frustrates her so much she defaults into "Whitecat" mode.
Episode 4: Sistine and Rumia ask Glenn what the Akashic Records are. Celica pops in to explain but disappears off-screen before she can. As for Glenn, he just laughs instead of actually explaining it himself.
Episode 5: Celica hosts a speed spell-reciting competition between the main characters. Sistine loses immediately; Rumia does it perfectly; Glenn belts out an unrelated tongue twister that Celica praises him for anyways; and Celica tries to prove she's the master (mistress?) of it but bites her tongue seconds after starting.
Episode 6: Sistine and Rumia find a box of stray cats and decides to find them new owners, but not before alerting Glenn to the guy stalking them in the distance, who turns out to be Albert (who just loves cats).
Episode 7: Sistine and Rumia ask Eleanor what the Researchers of Divine Wisdom even do, and Eleanor "explains" that they're a social group that talks about philosophy while eating sweets. Rumia (and Glenn) want to join, but Sistine doesn't buy it.
Episode 8: Re-L tries to do the next episode preview, but background loudness (i.e. Glenn freaking out about spoilers, Sistine chastising Glenn for it, and Rumia practicing her magic) drives her too crazy to continue.
Episode 9: Sistine does speedy coverage for the next episode, wishing Celica were there to fix the drastic problems at the end of episode 8. She actually does show up, but Glenn (who's only pretending to be near-death here) tells her she doesn't actually show up in the next episode, which legitimately surprises her.
Episode 10: Celica complains that she hasn't been getting a lot of screentime lately; according to Glenn, it's because there'd be no tension if she was always there. But really, she just wanted to play beach volleyball with the others, and declares the next episode an official tournament. The best moment was Celica asking everyone what important thing was missing from the series, with Rumia and Albert answering "Akashic Records" and "real previews", respectively.
Episode 11: Sistine and Sara share complaints about Glenn with one another, but when the latter disappears when Glenn shows up and he thinks Sistine was talking to herself, she starts to wonder if she's going insane.
Episode 12: Sistine stresses out about nobody taking the previews seriously, especially since it's the last week. Glenn gives her a strawberry tart to calm her down, but Re-L swipes it before she can eat it. She manages to steal it back, however, before being interrupted once again.

Ah, "previews". You gotta love 'em.

Edited January 20, 2018 by PokeNirvash

Blatch · January 26, 2018

The iDOLM@STER
Episode 15: "We All Have a Live Broadcast. A Live One!"

⟶ Opening: Civil disobedience!

How about a nice, low-stakes episode? This is one, and it's all about putting on a show. Haruka, Chihaya, and Miki are doing this live program thing on Sunday afternoons, of which Neil Patrick Harris' show was a pale imitation. It has different segments, the first of which is the "Hibiki Challenge" in which she tries to do something very hard and athletic. In this episode, she'll try to run to the studio before they finish airing... from where, exactly? They never say. But at least it's a fun attempt to get kids to exercise. Also occurring is a segment where Yayoi and two-thirds of Ryuuguu Komachi get to visit some kindergarteners. They sing a song, which we never hear, which I think is mean and hilarious at the same time, regarding the show's composition.

⟶ Act break: I'm surprised they're both not chomping on cigars.

Makoto also gets her own spot, which is all about her trying on various outfits. It's actually better than it sounds, at least later on when she crossdresses as a male. Compared to the tepid response to her "southern belle" outfit, the audience can't get enough of her in a shirt and tie, and neither can Yukiho. Then we get to see Ami and Mami do some strange improv comedy. They also do a segment with Takane, as she goes to a ramen restaurant. This is the weakest part of the episode; at least they're making a full-length show with that exact premise right now if you really want to indulge. But the best part comes soon after, when the twins present a movie that all of the 765pro girls are involved in. It has giant robots based after some of the idols, and the other ones pilot them. I won't dare spoil the punchline for the Yukiho mech, because it's awesome. The whole thing has surprisingly good animation, too. Go see Combine Forever: Kisaragi, in theaters this winter, coming in 2011.

So that's pretty much it. Hibiki ends up failing the challenge due to fears of a bear attack and getting caught in a rainstorm, but everyone had a good time. And surprisingly, 961pro didn't try to sabotage the event. There were some minor technical difficulties, but it wasn't anything that couldn't be chalked up to a glitch. Of course, the promo for next week's episode is somewhat melancholy, but only if you pay attention to the footage. There's a vague nod to something in the dialogue, and the title seems ominous. But I've toughed it out through much worse (LOL). Let's meet up again at some point in the next twenty years for another tale from holographic TV screens.

Rating: TV-PGV

Chances at a third G for the series was squashed by the Kisaragi trailer. It contained pretty much everything you'd expect for a giant robot show, as well as slightly low-cut cleavage for Miki and Takane's characters.

PokeNirvash · January 27, 2018

Here marks the end of another era, which went way longer than it probably should have.

Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor #12

Finding One's Own Place

Remember those questions I posed about Leos last week? Well, we didn't get an answer to the whole "why he wants Sistine's family out of power" thing, but we did get some closure as to his sudden personality change. You see, the Leos we saw from the moment he confronted Glenn and Sistine on the roof last episode wasn't Leos at all. Turns out that was glasses dude, who accidentally killed the real Leos in an attempt to have him do his bidding with the power of the Angel's Dust, and took on his form so he could achieve his own goal of fighting Glenn and getting him out of the way so no one could stand in his way of obtaining the still super-mysterious Akashic Records, which can apparently bend the rules of reality, and imposing his skewed version of justice on the world. (Also, he's a former Imperial Mage Corps executioner, which I probably should've mentioned first.) Not to mention he knows that Alzerno was founded with "the evilest of intentions", which I suppose is a hint as to future light novel events that Glenn wants nothing to do with. All that said, one probably has to wonder why he went through with marrying Sistine like Leos planned as opposed to anything else. The answer is, to keep everyone thinking Leos was still alive and not rotting away in a random stagecoach somewhere. Didn't stop Sistine from looking good in that wedding dress, though. (Even if her partially done-up hairstyle startled me a bit...)

I'd say more in relation to the plot, but I'd like to practice focusing more on my personal opinions than an episode play-by-play for when I start Freezing next week. The action scenes were pretty damn hype, which makes me want Toonami to air this, Demarco's fear of fanservice be damned. Also hype was Glenn's last-second wedding crash, which I'm certain is the reason his whole class showed up to the wedding to begin with. (Besides uneasy support of Sistine, that is.) Apparently Jatice (the executionator guy) isn't in league with the Researchers of Divine Wisdom after all, or at least isn't actually part of the group, which is pretty neat. And judging from Eleanor finding what's believed to be the door to the Akashic Records in some dark and dingy basement, I'm guessing either they're competing with Jatice for the Records, or he plans on stealing it from them based on the tangential connections. Overall, nothing about this ending was confusing like Neo Ranga past episode 5, nor was it mean-spirited and unfunny like half of the Infinite Stratos franchise, and it didn't even have obvious blowback from others like I experienced with Eureka seveN AO and Dimension W, so that said, this is an ending I am perfectly okay with. Glenn's still teaching, he's got his class's respect - even glasses guy's - and that's fine by me.

Going into this series, I of course had my doubts, thanks to Anime News Network, but even those initial criticisms were alleviated by word that the dub and future episodes actually made things more bearable. And when I watched it... well, you know my reactions, I've been talking about them these past six months. It's always fun talking about a show you're watching, if only to both remember it and share your thoughts with others, no matter how contentious those opinions may be. On my always-graded-on-a-curve scale of show scoring, I give Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor a 9/10.

RATED: TV-14LV

Glenn fought a lot of drug-addled zombie people this episode, the bloodiest moments there being three slashes with bloody results, and two shots to the head of one of the jumpers. Apparently, it was enough to completely stain the lower half of the dress portion of Sistine's bridal gown. There was also a flashback to Sara getting shanked to death - offscreen, but with a bloody pool present - and Glenn getting grazed by one of Jatice's tulpas. And that goes without mentioning three flashbacks with varying degrees of blood - all involving Glenn - and that haunting shot of Leos's corpse decomposing in that random stagecoach somewhere.

As for profanity, 3 bitches + 2 bastards = coarse enough language for this show's standards.

SCREENCAPS: For act 1, Sistine hanging out on her second-floor open-air patio, and for act 2, Rumia and Re-L not looking pleased at their show ending like this.

The screencap statistics are there on the Imgur album. All I'll say in regards to that is that someone managed to beat out Glenn for the most appearances. Can you guess who?

I'm not sure when I'll start Freezing, exactly, but I'll try to get the first post out by next week, so I'd wait 'til then before hearing anything more from me in relation to it.

Blatch · February 4, 2018

I imagine that Poke's first Freezing post is coming along very soon, so here's my personal pre-game to it.

The iDOLM@STER
Episode 16: "The Feeling of Being Alone"

⟶ Opening: Oh, just a scene from Chihaya's dark and troubled past.

The scene suggests that a car crash happened and her parents started fighting over it. At this point, I think you can piece together everything that happened without the show outright explaining it. Ironically, this is a Hibiki-centric episode, so the only reason for the segment to even be here is sheer convenience.

But anyway, she's filming the newest episode of "Fly! Animal World", co-starring her dog Inumi, female. Because... get it, that's what a dog is called in Japanese. She must not be good at names. What's unfortunate is that she got into a fight with Inumi and he's not going to appear on this episode. Even worse, the conniving Kuroi-san is going to use this incident as a means to hijack the show for Jupiter and have them be the hosts, and apparently ruin Hibiki's career.

⟶ Act break: A dejected Inumi.

When she gets to the set, she's shown the dog that'll be participating in the shoot, called Black Falchion III. He's pretty anguished, trying to eat the microphone, pissing all over the place, and doing his best to be a bad sport. And then Jupiter get called to the shoot as last-minute guests. Some person on the production staff ends up driving the now-disgruntled Hibiki away, and that's where things really start to get bad. She's left on the side of the road, which subsequently cracks and puts her in a place where she can't easily be rescued. But it's okay, because Hamzou is still with Hibiki, and they certainly know what to do! As in, recruit all of her other pets from her own house, as well as the others from 765pro, to help out.

It's a simple episode, and I think Hamzou makes it so endearing. They're more energetic than Hibiki herself, even. The moral of this seems to be "Don't let a petty squabble come between you and your friends", because I guess this could've been avoided if Hibiki had put the incident with her own dog behind her. I think Girl's High practiced the moral better, but it didn't have Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, so I can't really say which is superior. Oh, talk about how far we've come.

Stray observations:

Hey, so I have a new album planned; it'll probably start tomorrow. It's of a show not currently on Crunchyroll, which I've always wanted to do.
I guess Kuroi's plan verged on a lucky coincidence, since he had no idea if Inumi would be able to perform. But what would he have done if they'd showed up as intended? It's kind of horrifying to realize.
Yukipyon isn't afraid of dogs anymore, which is the kind of character development I want to see.
Haruka ended up visiting the shoot because of Hamzou's advice to see things out. There was really no reason for her too, but it was at least nice to see more good people together.

Rating: TV-PG

While this episode had no swearing whatsoever—not even "hell" or "damn"—the implication that someone was seriously hurt or even killed in a car crash (we only saw their shoe, and it was rather small... hint hint) counts for a PG set. And I guess Black Falchion III peeing in front of Hibiki could count for someone else.

PokeNirvash · February 4, 2018

And thus completes my first block of four shows for the MAL 2018 Challenge, at least in regards to starting.

FREEZING
Episode 01: Untouchable Queen

Before I start, allow me to share the look on former CSW blogger faye_worshipper's face when he learned I watched the first episode of Freezing and actually liked it.

That's what you get for telling someone not to watch something and expecting them to listen to you, ya prick!

ACT 1: Showing off my screencaps the old way was getting old, so I thought I'd give Blatch's method a try.

In tune with my promise from previous post about moving away from just spending the whole post recapping the entire episode, I'm just going to sum everything that happened while I give various thoughts.

So it's the future, late 2060s/early 2070s, around the era of Cowboy Bebop/Dimension W. Humanity is under infrequent attack by these RahXephon-looking beings from another dimension called NOVA that live to destroy whatever gets in their way, and as a defense against the NOVA whenever they show up are genetically enhanced females with regeneration and weapon summoning abilities known as Pandoras and their younger male partners known as Limiters, who are together capable of performing sensory links known as "Ereinbar Sets". (Did I mention that this show had a lot of proper nouns?) As for the titular "Freezing", this originates from this ability of the NOVAs that prevents individuals from doing anything to destroy them (*coughevaripoffcough*), which the Pandoras adapted themselves in order to fight with the NOVAs on equal footing.

A good portion of this episode was exposition/worldbuilding on this topic by two individuals from the Military West Genetics Academy where Pandoras and Limiters are taught and trained: teacher and former Pandora Yumi Kim, who is teaching a class of freshmen on the physical workings of Pandoras and, at student request, the 8th NOVA Clash which she participated in; and student council president Chiffon Fairchild, who shares this information, albeit more secondhand in regards to the NOVA clash, with Kazuya Aoi, a new student she was tasked with supervising while on his way to West Genetics. Both Chiffon and Ms. Kim mention how the battle was ultimately won by a powerful Pandora named Kazuha Aoi - Kazuya's older sister - who sacrificed herself to save the other Pandoras the trouble of losing any more limbs to the NOVA. I actually liked this expository worldbuilding session, going back and forth between the two individuals. I'm a sucker for one story told from two perspectives - which, alongside intrinsic regenerative ability, has been a small feature of NIBAI MUGENDAI for as long as it's sat in my brain - and this episode pulled it off quite wonderfully.

And then there was this battle royale between the juniors at West Genetics, which was more for the action junkies that Demarco thinks watch Toonami than us true anime fans who enjoy all parts of the medium equally, if not to greater degrees than others. It's a non-fatal battle royale, in that seemingly mortal blows can be dealt but medics are always on call to treat the wounded just enough so they don't die from the shock of having injuries your average R-NA user can handle. It's there that we first see our main female protagonist, the titular "Untouchable Queen" Satellizer el Bridget, in her element, fighting off no-name Pandoras with great efficiency and ability. Ultimately, it winds up coming down to just her and token twin-tails/subject of my new laptop wallpaper Ganessa Roland (she's the one with Satellizer in that image I posted a while back, if you're wondering what she looks like). They break out of the controlled fighting arena just as Kazuya and Chiffon arrive at the academy, but just before the battle can play out to its end, Kazuya notices how similar Satellizer looks to his dead sister, the swelling of emotions leading him to think that she really is his sister, having avoided vaporization at the last minute by use of Instant Transmission. The surprise of Kazuya embracing her - which is actually quite docile compared to what people normally expect of the Untouchable Queen - takes Satellizer off guard just enough for Ganessa to land a (non-fatal) finishing blow. End of episode.

So yeah. I liked this episode. Enjoyed the structure, enjoyed the description, actually found the animation better than that in the episode of Initial D: Fourth Stage I watched before it (seriously, what the hell did they even do to Itsuki's face?), and dug the music. Masaru Yokoyama might start shaping up to be one of my new favorite composers. Hell, I actually listened to one of his songs for this show before watching it, and it sure sounded like it'd mostly fit in with the rest of Gundam IBO's music.

ACT 2: Chiffon is surprisingly pleasant, and sounds like she'd be voiced by Lara Jill Miller were this dubbed in L.A.

Speaking of which, yes, I'm watching the dub for this series. And as with most dubs - and as to be expected by one of FUNimation's - it was a good listen. Many of the actors in this dub go by their real name, whil others settle for pseudonyms, which is an appropriate mix for a show so obviously ecchi. Both Caitlin Glass and Josh Grelle adapted deeper voices than I expected for Satellizer and Kazuya respectively, but that means I'll be less annoyed by whatever overreactions Kazuya has in the long run. Cherami Leigh (as Ceelee Rose) did a good job channeling Lara Jill Miller in her portrayal of Chiffon, so much so that if this show existed five years before it premiered and got a dub in Los Angeles, Miller would probably have been picked as the voice. Though nowadays, an L.A. dub would cast Marieve Herington as Chiffon, if not sticking with Cherami Leigh to the end. Luci Christian's in this dub too, as Ganessa, so that's pretty cool. I also managed to spot Bill Jenkins - the One Piece narrator - as one of the military officers observing the Battle Royale from inside West Genetics' mission control tower.

But what impressed me most about this dub is how restrained it is. When it comes to ecchi series, FUNimation has a track record of making comedic changes to the dub script, with High School DxD - a dub I haven't seen due to laziness, mostly - serving as a shining example. So color me surprised when the dub actually took itself seriously and avoided any super-obvious strays! It's like FUNimation knew this was an action show first and foremost - assuming ecchi isn't a real genre - and dubbed it as such. I gotta give them props for showing so much restraint.

TOP BILLING: Chiffon.

I'm still not sure if it's a matter of "most lines" or "most words", but I love these things whenever they show up on the credits for FUNimation shows, so I thought I'd get in on the fun by keeping track of who has the most for each episode. Being the main deliverers of exposition this episode, Chiffon and Ms. Kim got first and second place respectively. As for how our main characters compare, Kazuya got fourth place, while Satellizer got sixth. I'm sure the both of them will catch up eventually.

RATED: TV-MAV

Speaking of restraint, only one profanity this episode. One military officer used the phrase "hell of a show", and nothing else even came close.

Sex and violence, on the other hand, was expectedly prevalent. Plenty of blood was shed during the Pandora battle royale, starting out as brief spurts before moving onto in-the-moment torrents that didn't reach as high as you'd expect out of a show with this rating. Hell, even Satellizer slashing one Pandora's throat - an act that helped give Bebop 16 the same rating during its HD rerun - was rather tame in comparison to the big graphic violence set of the episode: the limb loss suffered by some Pandoras during the 8th NOVA Clash. It was one thing for a random Pandora to be crying in pain over losing her leg. It was another entirely for the younger Ms. Kim to have her arm suddenly fall off. There was obvious tearing of skin as it fell, and a brief flash of stump as it hit the ground, and though there was little blood to be seen, that pushed it over appropriately.

Now, after the Toonami run of Kill la Kill, you'd think that I'd be harsher on the series and put an S rating up there to join that V, but when it comes to doling out the S ratings, I have a tendency to show restraint. Nudity by itself is TV-PGS or TV-14S based on how explicit it is. If the nudity occurs more often than not, it's an MA straight. Based on my personal feelings, it only reaches TV-MAS if there's any actual sexual activity going on to accompany that nudity. Some examples from my other MAL Challenge shows: the porn movie Hiro hacked a bunch of TVs in an electronics store to show got a TV-MAS(V) for Inuyashiki 2 because it was clearly porn and let's be honest had several double-handed breast gropes going on at once at different angles, while episode 3 of Evil or Live portrayed Hibiki jacking off for falsified "proof" of having sex with a girl who also doesn't like being touched, yet that got a TV-MA straight because it was a shot from behind coupled with the comedically-played fact that he couldn't get it up no matter how hard he whacked it. (Chinese anime; ain't it a thing.)

Back to Freezing, all the nudity and fanservice was incidental. Sure, you had that flashback of young Kazuya running in on his sister as she was changing, but it didn't fall victim to the cliche of punching the guy who ran in on you (plus Kazuya was clearly distressed about Kazuha going on a suicide mission so it was okay). You also had Ganessa realizing Kazuya was looking at her exposed chest, the result of clothing damage from her offscreen clash with Satellizer, but the most she did was call him a creep. (Again, FUNimation. Such restraint.) And then you had Kazuya's embrace of Satellizer involving him burying his face in her tits and a pantyshot from the cameraman. That was the worst of the nudity and fanservice. Everything else was just there. Satellizer undressing, the clothing damage on random Pandoras, the bare chest of the one that got defibrillated in the 8th NOVA Clash flashback... all out in the open, but all without sexual activity. No groping, no sucking, no penetration... nothing that I feel would warrant a TV-MAS like every episode of Skirt no Naka wa Kedamono Deshita. So that's why, until we get to sexual content on the level of aggressive breast groping, I'm going to keep things restrained for the moment. Who knows? Maybe that restraint will give us a stray TV-14 episode somewhere down the line...

By the way, the next four anime on my backlog for the MAL challenge are Joker Game (tagged military, police and/or space), Blade (tagged demons, horror and/or vampire), Kuroko's Basketball: Tip Off (four or more genre tags), and One Outs (suggested to me via MAL or Anime+), the latter of which will have screencaps posted in the standard Anime Watching thread. So yeah, keep an eye out for baseball with ~~Akagi~~ Hisoka in the usual place.

Edited February 4, 2018 by PokeNirvash

Blatch · February 11, 2018

The iDOLM@STER
Episode 17: "Makoto's True Prince"

This episode is a little wobbly in execution. It does bounce and has a little roll, but it doesn't quite stick the landing.

Basically, it's about Makoto finally wanting to "become a princess" after her father almost tried to raise her as a boy. The problem is that her conception of this involves being an idol, wearing frilly clothes... and not much else.

⟶ Opening: Probably has the most text of any screenshot I've done up to now.

The Producer takes her to some sort of play audition or something involving the role of a handsome prince... and Jupiter is there. But in a shocking change of pace, they're barely in the episode at all. Like, Touma is at the center and he has a good number of lines, but Daichi and Shouta only have one line each, and it's when they're leaving the event. This stuff just happens with no rhyme or reason. The only purpose it seems to have is to show that Jupiter really aren't as caustic as Kuroi-san's demeanor would seem. However, I forgot to say that this was touched upon last episode; as Touma was leaving the Fly! Animal World shoot, he said they would rather usurp 765pro with superior talent.

Then The Producer decides to bring Makoto on a date, where she'll be treated very much like a girl. What follows is a few pretty good minutes at the amusement park, but then Makoto sees a group of street punks about to beat up two teenage girls. They recognize Makoto and start fangirling over her, but this only brings the punks closer. They intend to punch Makoto, but The Producer takes the blow right in the face. From here, Makoto learns that being a prince is to help make peoples' lives better, and the princess is apparently a damsel that needs to be saved. Therefore, she's better off in the former role and should save wearing the pretty dresses for fun.

⟶ Act break: And now she's wearing Mira( as in, not the Space Faerie)'s poofy hat.

I'm not a fan of the central moral; it confuses the literal and figurative. All Makoto wanted was to dress differently, but I guess it was confused with not being submissive like a girly girl. In fact, being in the central role of an idol contradicts that to an extent. The gender politics seem rather dated, too, because it assumes that princes are the ones who do all the action in the world. And to think that this episode came out a little over six years ago. So yeah, it's been a good while for Makoto to get her focus episode (she was the second character shown in the series, even!), and the show bungled it. But it gets points for being pretty comfy, especially during the theme park sequence. Makoto looked like she was having a lot of fun. A lot, a lot.

Stray observations (never using Kinja):

I really, really dig the use of a guitar for 961pro's incidental music. In fact, I feel that way for a lot of what I hear in anime that doesn't involve light synthesizers and/or xylophones.
And speaking of which, Kakegurui definitely fits that bill with its impressive jazz soundtrack. Say, why not check up on my newest album featuring it.
Since the iM@S franchise is a Bandai Namco property, they had to have a scene taking place at an official Namco arcade, complete with a Time Crisis [4] cameo, which is allegedly the game Makoto played (see below). I'm not sure if it has zombies, though. It's always nice when you see that in anime, such as when Bakuon!! used the actual name of Amazon for stray boxes on top of all the official motorcycle company names being used.
And while we're on the subject of referencing past shows, this whole episode had great reaction faces, including a quick resurgence of the Chizuru eyes.
Eh... that's it. I think I've picked out my replacement for this show, but it's going to remain a surprise until the day the first post goes live. I'm not giving out any hints, either.

Rating: TV-14L

What was really out of character for this show was Makoto murdering the zombies in that arcade game. They even had decent blood splatters as they were shot, but with no visible holes in their bodies. For bonus points, the player character (in first-person view) got ran over by a zombie tank followed by a game over screen with blood pouring down from the top. It's even weirder when you consider just what the show has had for violence: Makoto beating up some bad guys in Episode 8 without any blood spilled, and the respectably bloody murder mystery drama in the one immediately after. This incident is squarely between those two, but it's also much shorter. Therefore, it's closer to a 14 set.

But then you have those punks who beat up The Producer saying "bitch" twice. This show has had very little profanity overall (outside of "hell" and "damn"), so I feel more confident in saying those should earn a higher rating. In a way, it's similar to the two-bastard rule.

Personally, I feel like my standards for violence aren't set very well, and I could be more liberal with them. Birdy the Mighty in particular suffered from that, where I'd give an MAV to any episode where an arm was ripped off and there was enough blood coming from it, even if it wasn't as gory as what apparently happened in Freezing. I also feel like my Akame ga Kill! is bad to the point where I should just rub plutonium on it and start over. Basically: Graphic, equals internal organs and/or chunks of flesh being ripped off... most of the time.

Edited February 26, 2018 by Blatch
Now you can *actually* read it.

PokeNirvash · February 14, 2018

FREEZING
Episode 02: Pandora Mode

At least two warnings from Chiffon, and Kazuya still went and touched Satellizer. He doesn't look like the kind who'd be super-dense, not like the other Josh Grelle-voiced protagonist from his anime season, but even if he was, I can chalk up his actions to a few different reasons. The touch was to get her attention. The touch was to her sleeve and not her skin directly. The touch was performed because ~~Rex Griswold~~ Kazuya Aoi just doesn't give a shit. Speaking of topics touched upon in that super-old hbi2k video...

ACT 1: Sister Margaret might not look it, but she's glad she doesn't have to put up with Asta screaming all the damn time, unlike another certain anime nun...

So this is the first episode where we get to see Ganessa - the new #1 2nd year Pandora, the Angel of Binding, Satellizer's eternal rival, the token twin-tails, another Luci Christian paycheck, my wallpaper of the month - in action, and quite literally so. I'm not sure if her chains bring to mind Kurapika more than they do that random mook from the first episode of Black Clover, but they're pretty neat weapons, especially when it's revealed some of them have circular saws on the ends. That's pretty metal.

Still, as far as her personality goes, Ganessa has some issues. Her primary flaw being that she's a little... [inhales] ...trigger-happy. And yes, the fact that I'm using that word in spite of the fact that she doesn't have a single firearm on her is intentional. From stressing her superiority over Satellizer in an unauthorized duel just because she was shooting daggers at her, to going into the titular Pandora Mode just because she lost in regular mode, and doing both with intent to kill, it kind of makes you wonder if she's got some sort of emotional damage-induced superiority complex. Still, at this point I value her over Satellizer, if only because of the latter's initially cold attitude towards Kazuya. Between this and yesterday's Evil or Live, I've had enough of the main girl telling the main guy to never speak to her again for one week. (Besides, we all know that shit ain't gonna last.)

In short, while I don't outright hate Ganessa like I'm sure some would, I'm not gonna proclaim her "best girl" like her surprisingly likeable smooth-talker Limiter Arthur did. At least, not until she gets a little more development, or unless other Pandoras like that sexpot "Limiter Eater" from the end scene wind up being more murderous towards Satellizer than she'd ever think of being. Alas, for all the comments suggesting otherwise, this is a case where the various promotional portrayals of the Ganessa/Satellizer dom-sub relationship are superior to what we get in the actual show.

ACT 2: And here's Satellizer, looking more serious than those promotional images will allow her to be.

There isn't a whole lot to say about the episode itself beyond the fight between the top 2 Pandoras in the school - that is, exactly the same but with the rankings reversed - but there are a few asides that I thought I'd bring up.

From last episode, I forgot to mention that I'm loving that they're pronouncing Aoi like they did in that one English-language trailer for Redline, instead of "owie" like they do in dubs sometimes.
Continuing from last episode, this show's restraint when it comes to using profanity remains commendable. There wasn't a single cuss word this episode!
I feel like DxD spoiled me when it came to lead girls in action shows with fanservice. Satellizer is definitely harder to be endeared to by the second episode than Rias was. (I still can't believe I thought she was gonna be a run-of-the-mill tsundere...)
Satellizer's stay in the school brig must've been a fairly short one, since she went right to showering in her own bathroom later that night without apparent issue. Considering she wasn't the one who started the fight with Ganessa, I wouldn't be surprised if she got out early on good behavior.
Limiter Eater Woman is somehow both kinky and creepy at the same time, and that concerns me.
By the way, Sister Margaret is the principal of West Genetics Academy. In case you were curious what her deal was.

TOP BILLING: Ganessa

Kazuya got 3rd, Satellizer got 5th. Getting up there one step at a time.

RATED: TV-MA

When it comes to completely incidental nudity, like the exposure of both Satellizer and Ganessa's assets during their fight, I tend to be rather inconsistent. Sometimes it counts as "intense sexual situations"; other times a straight-up MA set. Even when the breasts jiggle, I tend to be somewhat picky based on what I get. This time, there was a lot of incidental nudity, with Satellizer's shower scene on top of all that, so I felt all that was too much for a TV-14-level episode. Real shame, too; the bloody violence this episode was more subdued and less graphic in comparison to last time, and Chiffon referencing Kazuya's close encounter with Satellizer's rack - "that pair of breasts you were fondling earlier" and "you... buried your head between her breasts" - were tame enough to just get a 14D, so the chance at a more interesting rating than the standard MA was shot down.

Edited February 14, 2018 by PokeNirvash

Blatch · February 26, 2018

The iDOLM@STER
Episode 18: "A Lot, A Lot"

⟶ Opening: ass

So this is the Ritsuko episode. You can tell because it has Ritsuko featured a little more than usual and also shows off Ritsuko's past as a one-time solo idol.

The plot is that Azusa is somehow sick with the mumps, so Ritsuko has to sub in for her at a secret concert for Ryuuguu Komachi. All that really comes up for problems is that she has stage fright, though it's different from Yukipyon's case because she wasn't an idol for long to begin with. She's cheered on by the resident idol superfan Mini-Bell Peppers, their fan club, and a few encouraging letters. The other idols want her to be a star, including Miki, who in a good piece of character development, actually passes up the opportunity to join Ryuuguu Komachi because she'd rather see Ritsuko do it. And besides, what she did at the concert for all of 765pro was better than that, anyway. I wish the show had her mention it.

Say, do you know where I can listen to some good music? I need it to read the rest of this post under.

⟶ Act break: Yeah, it's personal.

The title of the episode is what Ritsuko's solo song is, which is a bit of symbolism I'm not crazy for, but this show is very much on the side of episode title anarchy, so it's cool. There were also some nice little artistic touches in it that I liked, such as one shot where Ami and Iori were seemingly not well animated, but it was actually their reflections in a mirror before the camera zoomed out. And then there were dancing scenes in a training room that seemed to blur the line between traditional animation and CG, which was cool except pointless.

Rating: TV-PG

Okay, extreme simplicity: just two instances where Ritsuko was described as a "trainer from hell" at the start and end, which bookended the episode.

PokeNirvash · March 3, 2018

FREEZING
Episode 03: Accelerating Turn

This past Wednesday was a momentous occasion. That day, I found a new favorite episode of anime, one I knew was going to receive that designation from the moment I first heard/read about it. That's right. Joining the annals of anime episodes I straight-up love is none other than Inuyashiki episode 10, "People of Tokyo".

Oh, and I also finally got to see Satellizer get sexually bullied. Turned out better than I expected, actually.

ACT 1: Am I the only one who thinks the "GENETICS" font on Kazuya's sleeve is awfully similar to the [adult swim] font? I know I can't be the only one.

When I first made arrangements to watch this episode, I planned on doing it in the style of my old Subwatcher blog, where I watched four episodes from four different shows back-to-back in one sitting, and draw comparisons between the individual episodes to determine which one was better than the other. The shows in question were all MAL challenge series, and the episodes I planned out for last weekend were Pop Team Epic #8 ("Eisai! Haramasukoi!"), Evil or Live #5 (a.k.a. Headmistress Jean is still best girl), Freezing #3 (what I'm talking about right now), and Inuyashiki #10 (watch this show if you haven't already, you lazy bums), in that order.

The first half went according to keikaku. Pop Team Epic was a party as usual - even moreso thanks to the sand art sketch and Bacon Boy - and the high I got off of that made the Evil or Live episode much more tolerable than the show's previous. Though with Hibiki growing a spine, Shin getting strangled, Wudo getting beaten up by everybody, a loli who's somehow older than her tough tomboy companion, and my thoughts of Headmistress Jean being a good inspiration for a future ERP character memeing their way into the show in the form of an on-the-fly S&M session with Shian - not necessarily surprising, but ballsy regardless - this episode was pretty fun already, animation issues notwithstanding. But, of course, real life business cut into what would've been the second half, so I saved Freezing and Inuyashiki for the following Wednesday. In a slipshod attempt to keep the two-hour format relevant, I preceded them both with the dubbed version of Pop Team Epic #6 (OK BRAVO >>> OH YAAAS QUEEN) and my rewatch of Kuroko's Basketball #20.

Inuyashiki, as you can already tell, won the whole shebang. From 9/11 x100 to "This is the reason I was born!", that episode was fucking amazing, even moreso if you've watched the first nine episodes like I have. (By the way, I finished it today, marking one MAL challenge series down. ) As for the Freezing that came before it, all I can say is, it wasn't as dreadful as faye_worshipper thought it was when he gave it the "going in cold" treatment back in 2011. Because even at its most dreadful, anime always has a means of buttering me up. Evil or Live can attest to that.

ACT 2: She may stay so golden solo, but she ain't no number nine, let alone incredible math.

The actual plot of this episode is fairly straightforward. Kazuya officially starts attending West Genetics as a student, befriends class rep Kaho Hiiragi, goes against her and Arthur's advice to keep away from Satellizer by finally apologizing to her for making her lose the Carnival and making good with her, then they get confronted by "Limiter Eater" third year Miyabi Kannazuki who wants to have Kazuya join her male harem, Satellizer gets into a fight with her that starts out conventional but ends in her humiliated, Kazuya activates his latent powers, giving Satellizer the chance to kick Miyabi and her male associates' asses, with said latent powers being the only thing stopping her from wasting them entirely. That's all well and good, but what I want to talk about are the subtle differences between Satellizer's encounter with Ganessa last episode, and her encounter with Miyabi this time around.

As I mentioned last time, contrary to what the promotional materials want you to think, Ganessa is Satellizer's rival moreso than a tormentor in any sexual capacity. What she wants out of Satellizer is for her to recognize that she's the greatest, even if it means killing her as the ultimate show of proof. Even without taking the threat of fatality out of the equation, when you boil it down, Ganessa's actions aren't so much significant in putting down Satellizer than they are petty. Hell, if she really was aiming to kill Satellizer as a trip of ego, she wouldn't have been so content with her getting thrown in the brig once the dust ultimately settled, now would she? In short, Ganessa's no bully. She's simply a brat with a short temper and a dislike of Satellizer that amounts to nothing greater than an extension of her superiority complex.

Miyabi, on the other hand, is more of a bully in that regard, even though her skirmish with the Untouchable Queen too started out simple. Like with Ganessa, she unleashed her Volt Weapon - a group of floating daggers - and used them as part of the fight. To make things interesting, she also threw in the use of "Accelerating Turn", an advanced teleportation technique, which Satellizer was able to counter with her own use of Instant Transmission. But the differences in her battle with Satellizer, compared to Ganessa's, start with the "let's get serious" moment. For Ganessa, it was straight-up defeat that triggered her anger, and as a result, she activated Pandora Mode to use on Satellizer. A simple trigger and a simple response. Miyabi, on the other hand, broke down from a mere slash to her cheek, which prompted her to get revenge with a method less "brute force" and more "make her suffer". A trigger less consequential, and a response with true terror on the mind. Using three Freezing areas at once on Kazuya and Satellizer was just the beginning (and one of her Limiters kicking him in the gut was even simpler than "Pandora Mode, Activate!"), as the real revenge came with the application of the bullying. Namely, taking advantage of the fact that Satellizer dislikes being touched - especially in that way - by groping her, pantsing her, and having pictures taken of her in a humiliating position to ruin her image. Not only is this more intimate than Ganessa striking Satellizer with her chains until she either admitted defeat or experienced loss of life, but also more widespread, the repercussions aimed outside of just Satellizer and the unlucky witnesses. And that is the true subtlety of the difference between Ganessa and Miyabi's means of getting back at Satellizer for screwing them over.

Of course, there's also Satellizer's bounceback. She didn't need any physical outside help to get the one-up on Ganessa; only Kazuya's vocal encouragement, if I remember correctly. With Miyabi, she was practically helpless until Kazuya raged so hard he awakened his inner Freezing powers, giving Satellizer enough time to mentally recover and take revenge. Three knock-outs, three broken flip-phones, the fear of God (and his son's second coming Ichiro Inuyashiki) put in Miyabi's soul, and a killing strike (that wasn't) that not even Miss Yumi and Dr. Elise would have stopped based on how pissed she was. Based on personal response, you can tell that this hit Satellizer much deeper than round two of her fight with Ganessa did. Hence, Miyabi is the real bully here; Ganessa's just a poseur whose revenge methods could be mistaken for bullying by someone who judges character relationships from the non-canon promotional materials.

I actually wasn't expecting Satellizer to get revenge, though, so her actually doing that is an added bonus towards my non-dislike of the show. Now to wait and see if Faye's "this show is watered-down hentai" assessment for episode 4 flips any of my switches... I doubt that it will, though.

STRAY OBSERVATIONS

I had to do a double-take when I saw this image in the OP. I mean, is that acronym what I think it is? Between this, the Helvetica Neue Bold Condensed on the students' sleeves, and Satellizer's "You've got to get out of here!" bringing back memories of the first Reruns speech, I'm more convinced than ever that [as] has to air this show, Standards and Practices be damned. Hell, I might even do up a couple of screenshots in the style of stills from a 2006-era [as] promo, specifically in the vein of this beauty.
I'll confess, kind of disappointed that Kazuya pronounces his own last name as "ow-wee" instead of "ah-oi".
Behold: the face of a man who really likes his steak.
One can only wonder why students would choose fast food you have to pay for over free rich people grub. My theory: Szechuan Sauce. It's always the Szechuan Sauce.
This episode's special eyecatch dedicated to giving info about Miyabi mentioned her weak spot was her "foot fingers". Kind of makes you wonder if the terrible English in this anime is done by accident or on purpose...
"My face! My precious modeling career...!"
With Kazuya being able to activate a Freezing area all his own, I won't blame anyone if they call him a Gary Stu because of that. But like I said with Kirito after Toonami's run of SAO II, it's not that I don't think Kazuya's a Gary Stu; I just don't care.
I find there to be a considerable sense of charm pertaining to Miss Kim and Dr. Elise's friendship, especially with that line implying that the latter has a habit of accessing classified data she has no right looking at.
At what point will Chiffon, Arthur, and Hiiragi give up trying to keep Kazuya away from Satellizer? It's clear that he's not going to listen to them, regardless of what they say or do.
Speaking of which, I had initially assumed that Arthur was gonna be more an antagonist than a protag due to his association with Ganessa, so I'm glad he's leaning more towards the good guy side here. Just goes to further prove that Ganessa's more a rival to Satellizer than a true internal threat.
Now when the two Pandoras at the end say that Satellizer needs their "protection"... I doubt they actually mean legitimate protection. It's probably more bullying.

TOP BILLING: Miyabi

Kazuya got upped to second place, while Satellizer got knocked all the way down to #7. Oh how the mighty have a habit of falling.

RATED: TV-MAS

If you may recall, Blatch mentioned in the Trunks thread that in spite of all the (mostly) uncensored nudity, Outlaw Star episode 23 only got a TV-MA as opposed to a TV-MAS because it lacked any explicit sexual motions. Following that logic, while my pre-watch observation of Miyabi exposing Satellizer's buttocks was enough to get it an MA straight on principle, it was her groping the Untouchable Queen's exposed breasts that pushed it into that ever-so-rare territory. Granted, I've given TV-MA straights to bare breast groping in the past, but with this coming a month or two on the heels of that brief porn snippet in Inuyashiki episode 2 that I spotted, plus a close-up of the hand-motions Miyabi made against Satellizer's assets - no hard squeezing, but circular groping motions and a slight pinch to the underboob - I felt that this was only right. Detail trumps directness, after all.

Profanities this week were two uses of "bitch", and one each of "bastard", "damn", and "hell", almost all of which came from Miyabi.

[just incredible math]

Edited March 3, 2018 by PokeNirvash

Blatch · March 17, 2018

Huh... those offenses don't sound like MA material to be. Maybe you just put them up here considering that the show is already at the level on violence alone.

The iDOLM@STER
Episode 19: "Like the Moon, That Disappears Behind Clouds"

Nobody really seems to know who Shijou Takane is. For one thing, she seems to like ramen (owing to her segment on the live show), as well as food in general, but what else? Well, being a good idol is probably number one (or two?) on her list. In fact, Takane not having any character development so far is seemingly her trademark. The darkness and mysteriousness surrounding her means she's basically a blank page to project all of your wildest idol fantasies onto. Of course, for the more insane and masochistic ones, we have Tokiko Zaizen, but I'm not going to get to her for another couple of months.

⟶ Opening: A bit of a throwback to my Re:Zero album, with scenes taking place in bed.

But this episode focuses on yet another attempt by 961pro to defame the third-rate idols of 765. This time, Kuroi-san hires a photographer to follow Takane wherever she goes. He manages upon a lucky break when she briefly encounters the executive of another record company, and he makes it into a rumor that she apparently is switching agencies. Takane is actually not fazed by this one bit, and continues working and going to her usual jobs. I mean, I was trading my name based on some stupid anime about talking animals that got big big, but I was cannon fodder when the director of it got fired. You wouldn't let that shit get to you, right?

...right?

Like a crazy person would say, RIGHT?

Heh, let 'em have it with the boycotts... but anyway, the other 765pro idols start following Takane around as a means to deflect from any paparazzi that comes around. They end up going to festival, where Chihaya has an unfortunate flashback to her brother after a water balloon explodes on the ground. The rogue photographer, not knowing what to do, instead follows her to her brother's grave. And at some point over there, he got an epiphany and realized he wasn't following the right lede. Uh-oh...

⟶ Act break: You've been corncobbed.

The episode climaxes when Takane is named the honorary police chief of somewhere for a day, and she uses this as a convenient cover for letting that photographer have it. She taunts him with her prop gun that shoots confetti and a magician's tissue, and then she suplexes the guy, but not before he got his own shot in on The Producer. In the end, she realizes that you don't have to dwell upon your personal life. Just be a good person and do a great job for the people you love back home... and then we cut to a magazine with information all about Chihaya's dark and troubled past. At some sort of performance, she finally (finally!) breaks. I hope it wasn't because Momoko was in the audience with an AR-15 pointed right at her. Man, the youth should be pretty good nowadays.

Don't even bother fastening your seatbelts, because we're about to crash straight-on into a brick wall.

Da observations:

This episode could be seen as a cautionary tale about how, if your show has too many main characters, you might not be able to flesh them all out. But you can do so with quite a few of them! This show doesn't make its idols stay as one-note gag characters (who knows if PUCHiM@S is even accepting of that), but it knows that thirteen main characters (plus The Producer and Kotori) is about the upper limit, or maybe it was a lucky coincidence by whoever designed this franchise. I do wish that Haruka's character development would cause her to become less painfully generic as an idol. At least being vague is the point for Takane.
It's fitting that none of the other 765pro girls bar Chihaya got any notable advancement in this episode. For once in our lives, we could forget all about this "character development" crap. On the plus side, there was a cute Yayoi face in here.
This might actually be the first time I've seen Crunchyroll do translation notes for a show. It makes the lack of effort put into their Pop Team Epic subs all the more obvious. And not to mention, the lack of F-bombs.
So I guess I'm okay with these idol characters being the police chief so long as the units they serve aren't just rogue and corrupt heads of the state. Regardless, I really wanted Shuka Saito to try on the Uchicchi costume before doing this.

Rating: TV-PG

There was wrestling violence, but it was only in two isolated moments as opposed to rapid-fire punching and dodging. And Chihaya's brother's death being spelled out on the front page of the magazine is an automatic PG set in itself, and a very simple one.

PokeNirvash · March 17, 2018

Possibly. Tell you what, this may turn out more like my personal rating of Senran Kagura than High School DxD, where I get a little easier on the ratings past episode 4. But at this point, who knows, really?

FREEZING
Episode 04: Tempest Turn

First off, some more news on the MAL 2018 Watching Challenge front. I have the next four selected shows/movies/etc. set. For "movie longer than 90 minutes", I picked the Cowboy Bebop movie. Given that it takes place around the same timeframe as the episodes that recently reran on Toonami (between 22 and 23, to be exact), the timing couldn't have been better. So much for saving it for when I finished rewatching Baccano! for my blog...

Speaking of Baccano!, for "anime from the director behind one of your favorites", I decided to look into Takahiro Omori's catalog beyond Baccano! and DRRR!! and go for something different of his. I'd have done Samurai Flamenco, but it disappeared from Netflix a while back, so I'm doing Koi Kaze instead, making it my first non-Tsukasa Fushimi imouto series and my fourth A.C.G.T. anime (you're looking at #3 right now). For "anime without credited licensor, studio, or producer", I officially logged one of Japan's most memetic music videos: GALO SENGEN! Watch it if you enjoy your anime in the flavor of Bob Epic Team.

Finally, there's the "anime from a studio with between 3 and 30 credits" and the fourth official screencap focus of the year, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online by Studio 3Hz of Dimension W infamy. Considering it's not exactly SAO 3, I'm not expecting [as] to nab it while it's premiering. That and it's been a while since I've seen a CGDCT anime, and this is the closet I'm willing to get right now. Keep an eye out for it come April!

In the meantime, I finally determined my parallel bracket for this year's NCAA March Madness tournament: the strategic selection of the anime to fulfill the "begins with the last letter of your username" criterion, which shouldn't be implemented until summertime. That means all 68 competitors have original titles beginning with the letter H. Ohio State's being represented by Hentai Prince & Stony Cat, which ironically was referenced by the political talk show host that called my high school alma mater the "Gaylords". I may post an official list later, if you're really clamoring for it. (Though over half the teams listed wouldn't even be in there now...) All you need to know there is some obscure anime from the mid-2000s called Happy Seven beat overall #1 Haikyu!! in the first round, so the anime that ends up finishing 1st is anyone's guess.

ACT 1: Sometimes showing the villain of the week in a depressed state isn't the best way to get the audience to root against Satellizer.

Just as I predicted, this episode was more bullying Satellizer, but not really.

It's true that when Ingrid and Attia agreed that Satellizer needed their "protection", they didn't mean protecting Satellizer herself, but the rules and order she was disrupting with all the fights she's been getting into post-Carnival. It's also true that compared to Ganessa, whose battle with Satellizer was spur-of-the-moment, and Miyabi, who only wanted to bring Kazuya into her reverse harem, Ingrid planned on fighting (or as she put it, "punishing") Satellizer from the get-go. But even though this was the closest the conflicts in this show have ever gotten to pre-determined bullying against Satellizer, it still isn't really bullying when you get down to it. Ultimately, it's more misplaced retribution resulting from misunderstanding.

Ingrid's obsession with law and order being upheld stemmed from a moment last year, where an S-Rank NOVA randomly showed up during an off-site Carnival, resulting in several casualties. Ingrid's friend Marin faced off against the NOVA herself and had the first years retreat to safety, as they weren't ready for this type of battle yet. Marin expectedly died as a result of the battle, but what's really unfortunate is that when Ingrid found her, all Marin was able to do before expiring was ask if the "little girls" (the first years) made it out alright. This made Ingrid believe the first years ran out of their own volition, and that anyone who disobeyed orders like she thought they did would abandon their comrades in a true combat situation. And seeing how Satellizer is one of those "screw the rules, I have money" kind of girls, it's not surprising that she'd look down on her for that reason.

ACT 2: Whoever's on the other end of that phone, it sure as hell ain't our lord and savior Inuyashiki. Mostly because his time in the challenge is over now.

But that's not to say Ingrid was completely blind to the truth. The story behind Ingrid's obsession with the RUUUUUUURRRUS was relayed by Ganessa, who was among the first years during that incident, answering Kazuya's question of why Ingrid had that obsession to begin with. She also walked up to Ingrid and told it to her face just before she could finish the battle and kill Satellizer (what is it with all these girls wanting her dead anyways?), which led to a pretty huge "I fucked up" moment on her part. Ganessa claims she didn't do it to save Satellizer's skin, but I like to believe she actually did. She's the Asta to Satellizer's Yuno, after all.

That was basically it, as far as the plot went. The only other things I'd even consider heavily relevant to the plot would be Satellizer ambushing Ingrid before the duel in favor of taking Kazuya on as her Limiter (his idea, BTW, thanks to an eavesdropping Hiiragi), the introduction of "Tempest Turn", an advanced move combining Instant Transmission with the Shadow Clone Jutsu, and the reveal that a Limiter-Pandora Baptism is intimate/dirty because of the sensory sync-up involved. Ah well, that's what happens when you do the write-up five days after watching the episode.

STRAY OBSERVATIONS

The subtitles for the opening theme song lyrics started way too early into the episode, so that was strange.
So fighting Ganessa gets Satellizer a few hours in the brig, while completely curb-stomping Miyabi gets her a whole week. I mean, I can sort of understand, but I still think it's a little rough.
Kazuya walking out of the room on Arthur and Hiiragi is as close a "fuck you guys" as we're gonna get in this show.
Satellizer's bedroom had more plushies than I expected. My favorites were the giant slab of One Piece meat and the bomb disguised as an orange.
Chiffon sleeping through the entirety of Satellizer v. Ingrid while having some sort of sex dream got a chuckle out of me.
Next episode is the debut of the secret best girl and also the place Faye_Worshipper dropped it during the CSW days, so that should be fun. I'll also do up a couple screenshots to reflect how much I want this on [adult swim] ACTN. Not Toonami, ACTN. After that acronym, it'd only be fitting.
MUSIC SUGGESTION OF THE MOMENT: To celebrate finally watching the Bebop movie after way too long, here's a piece of the soundtrack that you might like. Normally I'd go for "Pushing the Sky" or "What Planet is This?", but I'll skew obscure and suggest "Time to Know ~ Be Waltz", which I think is super-underappreciated. Very soothing and fun, I hope you enjoy it as much as I have these past two days.

TOP BILLING: Ingrid

Kazuya's still #2, but Satellizer's now at #4. Progress. It's wonderful, ain't it?

RATED: TV-MA

One important scene I actually skipped over in the main rundown is the one responsible for this rating, and personally, this was more MA set-worthy than Satellizer getting pantsed. Basically, after showing up in Satellizer's room to ask if he can be her Limiter, Kazuya walks right into a hentai situation when she comes out of the shower and trips, exposing her breasts right in front of his face. Nothing really comes of it outside of Satellizer screaming bloody murder and covering herself with her bedsheet, but the close-quarters nature of the scene made it more than a little objectionable for the 14 I'm hoping to achieve in future episodes.

But hey, if Satellizer's tits weren't enough for an MA rating, maybe all the dismembered bodies of dead Pandoras in the flashback to the random NOVA attack will ratchet it up there. The incidental shower nudity, though? It could go either way at this point.

Profanity count are two "hells", one "damn", one "damned", and one "bastard". Dialogue of the moment is Satellizer referring to Miyabi as Ingrid's "slutty friend".

Blatch · March 26, 2018

On 3/17/2018 at 10:14 AM, PokeNirvash said:

and the fourth official screencap focus of the year, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online by Studio 3Hz of Dimension W infamy.

You mean "Flip Flappers fame". Or Princess Principal, if you like your alliteration but don't want it to be overdone.

Oh, and by the way... I do think it's time.

The iDOLM@STER
Episode 20: "Promise"

Finally, we made it. But now's not the time for laughing.

I would fully explain more about Chihaya's backstory, but the show has telegraphed it so well. Here's the complete version: Her brother Yuu got hit by a car, she did nothing to save him, he died, and then her parents got angry and divorced. And now it's all over the papers and gossip rags. She's too despondent to leave her house, only getting a reaction when Haruka asks her how she's doing, and she responds angrily. Meanwhile, the truly reprehensible Kuroi-san is overjoyed that he's finally concocted a plan to halt 765 Production's activities, but Touma and the others at 961pro are none too pleased, all but abandoning their current boss.

At this point, nobody knows if she's going to perform at 765pro's regularly-scheduled concert next month, and some even suggest retirement for her. But this is an idol anime, so any cast member who experiences significant trauma has to get over it at some point, because it's the optimism talking... well, maybe. After all, that Uranohoshi actually was closing even in spite of having a successful idol group was a major selling point of LLS' second season. But let's just pretend that Chihaya will get better by the end of this episode, because it predates that anime by six years.

Haruka tries to get through to her again, by saying that she's written a new song with everyone else in the idol agency, and the intention is for Chihaya to sing it. Also accompanying it is a sketchbook from Yuu that she looks at. Honestly, I have to wonder who thought giving her that was a good idea, because being constantly exposed to stuff about her brother could possibly trigger her and make bad mood even worse, but it seems to get through and help a little. Then time zooms ahead to the concert (which Ryuuguu Komachi is headlining yet again), and everyone gets up in a ring to salute Chihaya, who arrives a few seconds later, very hushed and tired. Everything happens so much.

When it comes time for her solo spot to sing the new song ("Promise", natch)... she actually loses it. This is what the last episode's fast-forward was referring to, actually, which makes it even more surprising. But then, the rest of 765 Production all come around and start singing the song for her. She even imagines the younger Chihaya in the crowd along with a Yuu of her own. And with that... she totally fucking ascends to a higher plane of awesomeness. Holy shit, YES!

I would not deny that this episode was designed to make you shit tears, but man, it was done about as nicely as you'll ever see. The main difference is that this one wasn't dishonest and emotionally manipulative. It told a good story, and was paced almost perfectly; the end result is more emotional than some entire depressing arcs of shows. I probably would have spent more time on Jupiter telling Kuroi-san to fuck off, because that was so satisfying to watch. I hope the prequel episode of Side-M has them quitting and going to a different agency, or maybe we'll even see that before the end of this season. And hey, the idol scenes had no CG yet again. I love this show's dedication to the sakuga craft. Now let's see how Kakegurui's apparently CG-free idol dancing sequence (and yes, it is still a gambling show) stacks up to these.

Overall, it's the rare anime episode that deserves a standing ovation. The last one I watched that I think is worthy of one was Made in Abyss' finale. I pretty much cried at that one, too, while this episode was more good for making one's soul come alive.

Rating: TV-PG

One / Two

PokeNirvash · March 28, 2018

Yes, but I've only seen Dimension W from them, so that's why it's got higher priority than their more positively received works.

FREEZING
Episode 05: She is Rana Linchen

ACT 1: She's hanging in the shadow, that means she's unworthy of learning the awesome power of Hamon.

First, an update regarding my H series bracket tournament I have going parallel to this year's NCAA. The Final Four contenders have been realized. First you have the obligatory 1 seeds: Hajime no Ippo, Madhouse's shounen boxing manga adaptation, and The Devil is a Part-Timer!, a very anime look at what would happen if Satan worked at McDonalds. On the other side of the bracket, you have the 3rd seeded Hellsing, GONZO's original adaptation of the manga which, for all its inferiorities, has a legitimately god tier soundtrack, and the surprise contender, Pierrot's 1997 semi-furry buddy cop comedy, the 11th seeded Hyper Police. If you're looking for me to be honest... I'm hoping Hyper Police wins. I'm doing it for that 98 year-old nun, god bless her.

Moving onto the episode at hand, the events that take place are a classic case of good news, bad news, and weird news. The good news: after much deliberation with herself (because literally no one else wants to talk with her), Satellizer finally agreed to make Kazuya her Limiter, only without the necessary Ereinbar set because the sensitivity is too much for her, and he can make Freezing areas without doing that so it's not like it's necessary in their case. In tune with Pandora-Limiter tradition, she invites Kazuya up to her room later that night for what I would guess is a "getting to know you better" session, only without the sexy stuff you'd normally expect out of such a thing, to which Kazuya agrees.

In spite of having spent the last two episodes trying to convince Kazuya to quit his attempts at socializing with Satellizer, Arthur and Hiiragi appear to have finally decided it's pointless trying to get that through to our Josh Grelle-voiced protagonist - that means he's not exactly the brightest - and are instead just dealing with it, with the occasional warning that he might be getting in a little over his head. That's some decent development for them, and it makes me feel better about them consorting with Kazuya. Friends don't question friends' taste in Pandoras, even when it's someone as dangerous as Satellizer. Also nice about this, is that Satellizer avoids getting bullied the whole episode! After three straight episodes of it, she deserves a break.

Therein lies the bad news. Because while Satellizer wasn't directly bullied this episode, a couple Pandoras decided to get in on the action by targeting Kazuya instead. These three Pandoras - Audrey Duvall, the "Slice and Dice Maiden", "Twin Fang" Tris McKenzie ("Forget my name, and I'll kick your ass."), and Aika "Intoxicating Bondage" Takeuchi - are the three second-year Pandoras taken out by Satellizer before her loss to Ganessa during the Carnival in episode 1. And while they appear to respect Satellizer to a degree, they proceed to attack Kazuya for daring to be her Limiter, and do the same to Arthur and Hiiragi when they try to stop them, even planning on killing them for their insolence.

It's because of these actions that they're the worst enemy Pandoras thus far in this show, and by extension the biggest bullies of all.

ACT 2: Here I was worrying my butt off about Ganessa and Miyabi being mean to Satellizer, and then these bitches showed up and did them one or two worse.

Echoing that sentiment, let's take a look at the various per-episode antagonists we've dealt with before now.

Ganessa only got into the conflict she did with Satellizer because she picked the fight herself in the spur of the moment, both in reaction to the latter's glare and her own desire to prove that she's no longer #1 in the second year. It intensified to the point of being almost to the death, but the fallout wasn't too great. Judging from her stealth-helping Satellizer out last episode, and Arthur being good friends with her Limiter, I think she's in the clear now.
Miyabi didn't have any personal beef with Satellizer when she went to poach Kazuya for her harem of Limiters, and it was only after she got her face slashed that she decided to humiliate Satellizer. Not kill, but humiliate. True bullying, compared to Ganessa's simplified brattiness.
While her confrontation with Satellizer was more a generic fight/beatdown throughout, Ingrid was the only one of the three to actually confront Satellizer with the intention of going against her. And even then, her "punishment" wasn't bullying, but vengeance against an assumed inevitability because of her teammate dying before she could adequately explain herself.

All formidable opponents, all varying degrees of looking down on Satellizer, all calming their tits to some degree once the confrontation's over and done with.

Compare that to the Terrible Trio from the above screencap. They recognize Satellizer's power as being above theirs, but their frustration at losing to her in the Carnival proves that they aren't exactly fond of her. They know they can't beat her, so they go after her Limiter instead. They drag two classmates who have nothing to do with the relationship between Satellizer and Kazuya into it, with intent to kill at one point. (Seriously, what's with all these Pandoras having no problem murdering their own schoolmates?) And even after Kazuya rebels against their roughness with his comrades by using the last of his willpower to activate a strong Freezing area, they don't back off after he unceremoniously passes out. I repeat. These girls are the worst as far as morals go. While I could and probably would forgive Aika based on her nickname and that scene where she chain-binds Arthur and uses the People's Crotch Attack on him, I think things would've been better off for our protags had Satellizer fatally wounded all three in the first episode.

Luckily, that's were the weird news comes in. Just before Audrey can lay the defeating blow on Kazuya, a wild transfer student with a foreignally formal (foreimal?) speaking pattern drops in and kicks all of their asses. This transfer student, the titular Rana Linchen, hails from Tibet, where she was raised by monks and was taught the ways of the Pandora in a very Tibetan way. Her stigmata are referred to as "Kunlun's tears", Kunlun being the goddess that "blessed" her with the powers of the Pandora, and she was sent out to find a young man who would "lead her to her destiny"; that is, her Limiter. Upon seeing Kazuya for the second time (the first, he helped take her to the principal's office for introductory purposes), she decides to make him her Limiter, not knowing of his prior engagement to Satellizer. At least, until she's told otherwise...

But enough about Rana's thirst and my primal need to tap dat ass. With Kazuya knocked out cold from using up all his energy on that Freezing area, and Hiiragi afflicted with a nasty chest wound that likely got infected with shoe-dirt, Rana takes them both to the campus hospital while Arthur, who got off with just a head wound and mild testicular torsion, goes up to inform Satellizer of this turn of events. While she's shocked at the reveal that he got attacked out of the blue by a pack of bitches, she's subtly glad that he went to the point of exhausting himself in order to protect her, even if it was in name as opposed to in body as in the recent past.

In the meantime, a bunch of third-years - one of which is the obligatory Monica Rial character, a pseudo-loli with drill hair - are discussing recent events involving Satellizer and are probably plotting to bully her next. If what they do is nastier than what the Terrible Trio did, I won't even be sad if they all get slaughtered in the finale.

STRAY OBSERVATIONS

As promised, I did a little experimenting with making some [adult swim] bump-style images from screencaps of this show. They aren't perfect, but then again, I ain't Williams Street, so no true imitation can be. Here's a schedule image featuring my personal ratings schedule configuration this specific episode fits into, and here's an image evoking the old 2004 Tokyo bracket bumps from ACTN Saturdays, which is easily the lesser of the two efforts.
By the way, this marks the episode where Faye_Worshipper, the CSW staffer to have put himself through the series, finally ragequit. You can read his rantings here in this archived blog post. FUN FACT: when looking over the tail end of this post, I completely misinterpreted the context of the last screenshot he took. For whatever reason, I thought Aika stepping on Arthur's crotch as a means of dominance over him was Rana stomping on Kazuya's crotch as a result of some comic misunderstanding. Which is only barely better.
Kazuya's instinctive activation of his Freezing area. That's what Operation Unthink is.
"Heard you were talkin' shit like I wouldn't find out."
I assume Arthur comes from a country where the legal drinking age is somewhere in the teens, because why else would he liquor himself up before going to Ganessa's room that one time?
On my ratings schedule, this episode is followed by GITS:SAC 2nd Gig #19. Between Satellizer avoiding the bulli and Motoko actually screwing up a mission, I don't know which instance was more out-of-character. (The answer is, Asta lasting one whole scene without screaming a word.)
MUSIC SUGGESTION OF THE MOMENT: E-X-U-P!
All in all... I really need to get better at being concise with this.

TOP BILLING: Kazuya

Satellizer's still #4.

RATED: TV-14LSV

So I thought I'd follow Blatch's advice and rate things a little more liberally this time. Hopefully I didn't make the wrong decision...

The majority of the intense violence seen this episode was mostly punches and kicks with little on-screen wound formation. We do get some blood, though. Besides a flashback to episode 4 portraying some mild blood on Ingrid, we got Arthur bleeding slightly from the head after his off-screen takedown by Aika, and Hiiragi having a visible gash in her chest after having her top sliced open by Tris, who then steps on her wound so she can really TASTE THE PAIN.

Speaking of nudity, the two times Kaho's top gets torn open to expose her breasts aren't the only bits of nudity we get this episode. The cold open features Rana bathing in a waterfall, though the nudity there isn't very explicit; she's wearing some sort of thong and she's covering her nipples with her arm. More expected of Freezing, though, is one of the third-years lounging and plotting in the school's pool being introduced bare-naked. All in all, they were spread far enough that I thought it was more intense than MA set worthy, let alone explicit like the censored version of Skirt no Naka wa.

PROFANITY TALLY: One use of "bitch", one each of "ass", "damn", and "dammit", and two of "crap" and "hell".

Next week will reveal the winner of the H series bracket and my next four MAL challenge series announcements, as well as the identity of the next series for this thread, which may even start before Freezing finishes.

[steppin' out]

Edited April 25, 2018 by PokeNirvash

Blatch · April 9, 2018

I suppose it's a good thing neither of us have any deadlines set for each post...

The iDOLM@STER
Episode 21: "Like the Blooming Flowers"

⟶ Opening: It's just another day in the city.

Okay, so we're back in happier territory... but things still feel a little wistful. Chihaya is now back to her old self, but there's still some skepticism as to whether or not she can sing on her own. After all, it took the rest of 765 Production joining in unison to get her comeback started. The episode begins at the run up to another concert, the Idol Jam. Here, 765pro will perform on the same stage as Jupiter, which means Kuroi-san is adjacent. He tells the sound crew at the concert to mess with the files used for the former's performances, which means they can't go on stage right away. However, as the group is floating a possible impromptu Live!? on Sundays show, Chihaya volunteers to go out and sing a capella. And wouldn't you know it, but it works flawlessly. She imagines the other idols beside her (plus Yuu and her past self), and the isolated vocal performance is so good that it encourages the sound people to say "ah, fuck it, just put the backing track on". This is an excellent coda to Chihaya's arc, as it shows she can actually wow the crowd again.

Then the story shifts to idol industry politics. It's not as enthralling, but this story arc with the conniving Kuroi-san has to reach a natural climax, right? As it turns out, Jupiter actually got savvy as to what he was doing with 765pro, and at the end of the day, they leave their agency. 961 Production is no more, at least for right now. Meanwhile, the admirable Yoshizawa-san is in the car with The Producer and the idols, and the taxi they're in takes a side trip to this restaurant where politicians and businesspeople like to hang out in. They go in, and Kuroi-san is there, because this trip would otherwise be pointless. Yoshizawa as well as the taxi driver hang out with him, and then the plot starts to melt away. But what better way is there to close out the episode than with an appearance from Kotori? Yes, the other female member of 765pro actually gets her chance to sing. It's not known whether she had a past as an idol, although it's at least implied. She seems to enjoy being a lounge singer because it requires not much of a commitment.

⟶ Act break: Just so you know, it's not the other guy in the foreground saying it.

As the other idols come home from the restaurant, it's almost time for Christmas. It's been one hell of a ride up to this point, between strange weekend variety shows, cooking competitions made lewd, insane arranged marriages, all of the idols getting over their fears, and the occasional attempt to buy a Trump Tower. But there's only four more episodes left, and Kuroi-san is still out there. It's not like he'll do something to prompt yet another dramatic arc for this show... right?

Yeah, by me saying that, you can at least entertain the chance that there will be one more. You don't know if I've actually been spoiled on it, but I won't tell, so please keep any opinions in check until we get to things.

Rating: TV-PG

Just one minor expletive ("damn" from Kuroi-san) ensured that this's at the minimum.

PokeNirvash · April 9, 2018

Time for a couple announcements, then.

The H-series bracket reached completion, and in an admittedly boring way. It was Hellsing v. Hajime no Ippo in the final, with Ippo winning. Of course, it's not like I'm going to watch it right away. Starting in the summer, at the absolute latest. And before you ask anything else, no, it isn't the next show for this thread either.

That honor goes to the anime representing Clemson, a team I had going to the Sweet Sixteen when everyone else was pulling for a New Mexico State upset in the first round. They did just as I predicted, and because of that excellent show, I thought I'd give it a watch regardless. Coming soon to the General Ratings thread, before Freezing even finishes, is Boys Over Flowers.

Satisfying the condition of an anime from my lowest rated studio by weighted score on Anime+ (thanks to the unholy Ani-Monday trifecta of Psychic Wars, Vampire Wars, and Sword for Truth), Boys Over Flowers keeps the whole "main female gets bullied by the student body" theme I have going running, only with a shoujo flavor, much less fanservice, and the distinction of taking place in the '90s. I first heard of it through a couple anime magazines I had subscriptions to in elementary and middle school - from one of them, I used one of the characters' last names as the first name of a character in NIBAI MUGENDAI - so it should be neat going through that. And it'll be dubbed, if only to make certain the episode titles are as accurate as possible. Also, I'll be doubling/tripling up on episodes as I write about them, and in a much more succint manner than I could ever do with Freezing.

Joining BOF on the "recent additions" list for the challenge are Armored Trooper Votoms, to fulfill the '80s condition; the 2004 Black Jack adaptation, to fulfill the 35+ episodes condition (and also because one of the two unit directors for my next episode of Kinky Kunoichi worked in some of the earlier episodes), and the infamous dub of Ghost Stories for that ever-elusive book adaptation anime condition. That'll fill up the pages in my ratings determination log book quickly.

[haveyouacceptedjesusasyourpersonalsaviour?]

Edited April 9, 2018 by PokeNirvash

Blatch · April 14, 2018

Isn't that the show the banned Mr. Osomatsu episode was parodying? Well, some of it, before it all went to hell... like what's going on right now.

The iDOLM@STER
Episode 22: "On the Holy Night"

This episode is all about capturing that crazy Christmas spirit. After all, the end of the year is getting closer, and the girls' last big concert of the year as well as this season is almost close.

⟶ Opening: "Mission accomplished" indeed.

Most of the episode is about Haruka and Chihaya, who I guess are the most famous characters from the show, even if they aren't the ones who've been here the longest (but their VAs are basically the longest-tenured, and they even did a half-episode of Pop Team Epic together). Chihaya's arc is firmly done, but Haruka still has some growth to do. She wants to do a big Christmas party for all the people in 765pro, including the higher staff and The Producer. The problem is, they're all booked for work, since the holidays are a busy time for idols. For one thing, Hibiki is off on a skiing trip (and not even with Hamzou, apparently), while Yayoi is too busy being santa with Iori and giving presents to less privileged kids (re: her siblings). And Ryuuguu Komachi has their own Christmas mini-live going on.

⟶ Act break: Who keeps giving the idols all of these fluffy hats? I want to get one for myself.

At this point, you might think the episode is going to be about all of the idols going trying to bend their schedules around getting back together and having a party at the 765pro office, with all of the chaos that entails. But, in a bizarre twist, nothing crazy happens. Nothing at all! Everyone comes in late at night to party, give presents, and also celebrate Yukiho's birthday (the 24th). The only objectively strange thing is that there are far too many Christmas cakes at the end of the night, with most not even touched, because every single idol bought one. Remember, they're no good after 25. Also, Miki got some sort of award for being a rising star among idols, which is an honor nobody in Ryuuguu Komachi can claim. Aww... I feel so happy for all of them.

There's also a long song montage sequence featuring all of the idols' Christmas jobs in general. Takane goes in a very high building to sing carols close to the heavens, which I find very sweet. Really, this episode takes the human element of being an idol and puts it through the paces. In a way, it's kind of sad to know that these girls don't have many more adventures left.

Stray observations:

I've decided what the next show covered here is going to be, but you'll have to wait a little longer to find out what it is. As for a hint? Well, it's not Cinderella Girls.
On other personal news... at some point, I want to completely reboot my Akame ga Kill! album, because I'm not happy with how the violence was rated. I guess I overcompensated even compared to [adult swim]. Girl's High might get some changed ratings at some point as well. Honestly, you don't know how much I like consistency when rating stuff.
My album for Magus' Bride technically isn't on hiatus. I just wanted to get on Kakegurui and figured I was at a good place in the former show to stop. But yeah, I'll get back to that one real soon. Three albums being updated at once is something I've done before, and don't want to very often. I'd rather not let waffling over how they should be rated get into my objective attempts to enjoy each show. That is not inherently a bad thing, you know.
I don't really have much else to put here, so I'll just leave you with some zen trivia: Did you know that Yukipyon used to have a different voice actor? Yeah... I guess they just couldn't handle the fame and pressure coming with it, not to mention some death threats. But at least it wasn't much of a scandal.

Rating: TV-G

With the only even slightly notable content in this episode being a gravure Miki in a commercial for perfume on top of zero swearing, this one earns the third and what I'm predicting to be final G of the series.

PokeNirvash · April 25, 2018

This probably should've been posted already, but you know how I am about these sorts of things.

FREEZING
Episode 06: Machination

ACT 1: Ah, nothing beats waking up the morning after a three-on-one femdom beatdown you were only partially involved in.

It's amazing how much your stances on characters can change based on future episodes. Now, my headcanon in alignment with actual canon that Ganessa is basically a prone-to-anger brat was already fairly sturdy, but it feels nice to see her P.E. training match with Rana - in which she gets serious in the midst of the fight once she's on the losing end - reaffirm those beliefs, proving that it's not just Satellizer she has a hate-ladyboner for. On the other hand, Arthur and Hiiragi are starting to annoy me now. I had thought they were starting to warm up to the idea of supporting Kazuya's relationship with Satellizer last episode, but nooooooo, they just had to go back to being all "you better stay away from her" like a bunch of shallow pricks who can't make new decisions for themselves. Though I will admit that they're not unjustified in keeping with that stance, if what they say about Satellizer completely ruining this one super-skilled Limiter's chances at following his destiny are true. (How do you injure someone so bad that they can no longer be a Limiter, anyways? Fuck up their back so bad no new stigmata can be inserted? Strange...) Oh well, I'm still sticking with Kazuya on this one. He'll date Satellizer so you won't have to.

Not if Rana has anything to say about it, though. I'm not exactly the biggest on her inclusion making things a love triangle, but if there was any reason for me to want to self-insert as Kazuya, it'd be because of Rana. I was foolish thinking Ganessa would be my waifubait character for this show, but fittingly enough, I had Rana as a back-up, and what a show her various attributes did to convince me that she's the true best girl. Light tan, facial marking, side ponytail with multiple ribbon ties, an ass so nice even the animators are flaunting it as incidentally as they can... Even her affected speaking style and her insistence on having Kazuya not address her as his senior are charming in their own weird way. So while I'm all for shipping Kazuya with Satellizer, if only to stick it to his friends, I don't mind watching Rana come onto him at all, even if it's in that self-inserty way I try so hard to avoid.

ACT 2: If not for that fence, she'd have long since jumped by now.

That said, Rana's turning against Satellizer like every other Pandora on West Genetics' campus doesn't bother me, as it was explicitly the result of manipulation on part of the shady council of Third Year students, specifically Attia. I'm still not sure what plans she, Arnett and Creo have that involve getting rid of Satellizer - surely they have nothing to do with her beating Miyabi and Ingrid earlier, surely - but using Rana as a pawn to further those plans is pretty dastardly, especially since tensions between them are already rough enough as they are. Doesn't change the fact that their fight was honestly an impressive show with more action packed in a few minutes than in half of the current Toonami block. It was so impressive, that Attia - who was watching the fight from afar for merely her own amusement - was taken aback by just how skilled these two ladies were. So much so, that she comes down with her scheming partners to take both of them out directly, such that they avoid the risk of them spoiling their plans any more than they already have (supposedly). And just when Kazuya was about to clear up the misunderstanding, too...

STRAY OBSERVATIONS

Truly these two are the best of frenemies.
I'm embarrassed that I didn't realize sooner that Kazuya/Rana was an early interaction between post-New Issei and Rias.
"Attia Simmons" sounds more like a British name than an Italian one. But I do like that her weakness is headpats. :3
MUSIC SUGGESTION OF THE MOMENT: I've recently been compiling a list of the various Japanese-language songs not associated with existing anime that I enjoy listening to, be it for reasons as simple as nostalgia or as mundane as AC-bu doing the official music video for it. Several of those songs are those by Shakkazombie, a three-man hip-hop outfit whose DJ Tsutchie did music for the first and last anime put out by Manglobe - Samurai Champloo and Gangsta, for those not as in the know as me when it comes to anime staff - as well as the Bebop recap episode Mish-Mash Blues. They also put out the ending theme for that one. There are several songs I can and will suggest from them. One of them is that very ending theme, Recover the Sky of Day. Another is the remix of Wonder Worker done by Tsutchie's fellow Champloo composers FORCE OF NATURE. And what list of Shakkazombie suggestions would be complete without the theme of the famous Bebop/Trigun mash-up AMV Tainted Donuts, Shiroi Yami no Naka? If you want something less goofy than that, there's always the Version SZ. Oh, and that goes without mentioning the Brahman mix of Kokoro Warp! And while I don't have a proper link I can direct you to, if you're willing to track down their collaboration with Northern Bright, GET YOURSELF ARRESTED, listen to it. You will not be disappoint.

TOP BILLING: Rana

Kazuya's been knocked down to 2, but Satellizer moved up to 3, which goes to show how nice the show's starting to treat her.

RATED: TV-14SV

At this point, the incidental nudity in this show might as well be a mere 14 set, but as they still contain nips and I'm still basing my personal rating criteria off of [adult swim]'s, an automatic intense sexual situations indicator, they remain. Lucky for us, there were only two instances, in Rana's fights with both Ganessa and Satellizer, the latter having its own fair share of blood, especially at the end with that shoulder stab. Oh, and I guess there's also those two seconds of Satellizer in the shower, but that scene could be cut from broadcast without losing any of the plot, so it's not like it really counts.

Tune in sometime after my final exams for the first posts on Boys Over Flowers! Proving that bullying females in anime doesn't always have to be sexual.

Blatch · May 2, 2018

I guess I must be the only person who rates all of their shows as uncut. Personally, if I were to run my own TV network for some reason, nothing would be edited. I would make sure to put on some great shows with interesting ratings, though. It helps that there's little profanity in most anime, regardless of if they're dubbed or subbed, and there usually aren't many nipples actually drawn

The iDOLM@STER
Episode 23: "ME"

Okay, here we go...

Now it's after the holiday, and the idols are still hard at work. Except they're now working even harder than before. Ryuuguu Komachi is still making new songs, one of which Haruka listens to on a busy car ride. She also sees an ad for ramen featuring Takane and Makoto having a small role in some kind of live-action drama. Meanwhile, the New Year's concert is coming up, and Haruka really wants to rehearse for it with the other idols. Unfortunately, they keep cancelling on her due to having such a huge collective workload.

⟶ Opening: Thou shalt not worship false Futamis.

What's really clouding this up is that Chihaya has an overseas recording session planned during the next week, and Haruka wants her to be there for these training sessions. So she'd rather not reschedule, but it might just be what happens even if it is an objectively good thing that she's more prepared for the concert. Haruka in general just doesn't seem to get along with anyone in this episode. And on top of this general mess, Live!? on Sundays is being cancelled. It's getting good ratings, but the show is too much of a hassle to film, and the studio would rather have the studio open for other projects. It really sucks for all involved. So after this, Haruka goes off to audition for a play, where she's up against Miki for the lead role. Both of them will be in the production no matter what, but who has the more fiery passion will determine who leads it.

⟶ Act break: A decent shot of Haruka and Makoto from the back; the latter looks slightly awkward.

One person who does apparently have time in their schedule to help Haruka out is The Producer, who arrives to give her as well as Miki some snacks. However, as Haruka is eating his treat, she begins to walk backwards... right into an empty spot on the stage, where a platform should be. She begins to fall down, but then The Producer quickly grabs her hand to save her from the darkness just in time... only for him to fall into the trap door instead.

Whoops.

In other words, the absolute biggest tragedy to affect 765pro was not started by Kuroi-san. How amazing... and sad. The ending of this episode pretty much demands you cry at it, with the normal idol song ending being replaced with a solemn piano, and even just text on a black screen for its first half, before showing everyone being sad at the hospital, hoping that The Producer even survives this. It's kind of harrowing. It's also kind of surreal to see the show do something fantastical like this after Chihaya's plot was extremely emotional while being grounded in realistic tragedy. It typically saves the more soap-ish moments for the happy and/or silly episodes, while Love Live! is more willing to have everything seem unreal.

This what we're up against going into the show's final two episodes. I hope you're having fun.

A quick iM@S discography:

If you want a general roadmap as to where to start this franchise, just know that all three mainline series (this one, Cinderella Girls, and Side-M) as well as PUCHiM@S and the Cinderella Girls Theater (which is English for "gekijou") anime are on Crunchyroll, while HIDIVE has Xenoglossia in case you somehow want to subject yourself to that.
Two of the latter three are also available to buy on home video, and I'm thinking the Gekijou seasons will be following suit soon. Also, do be aware that the 2011 show and CG both have OVA episodes which aren't legally streaming, at least right now.
This show and CG are twenty-five episodes plus the OVAs, Xenoglossia has twenty-six (good lord), the gag shows have too many episodes for those counts to matter, and Side-M has fourteen, which includes a longer prologue titled "Episode of Jupiter". It apparently even has cameos from the 765pro idols. That's the kind of wickedly awesome thing I'm sure I would relish if I hadn't even finished this show yet. So I better, goddamnit.
There are also additional non-streaming OVAs, most of which are based on the 2011 anime, but there's also The iDOLM@STER: Live for You!, which was released in 2008 and was an early anime production by Actas, they of Girls und Panzer fame, who are still dysfunctional even by normal standards of the anime industry. It's basically a straighter take on the idol-managing games, but with character designs closer to Xenoglossia. It's the only screen production with Yukiho's original seiyuu. Also, Hibiki and Takane aren't in it. They had been conceived, but their appearances were not finalized until THE iDOLM@STER 2 was released long after the OVA. For that matter, Miki didn't even exist until the original arcade game was remade for the Xbox 360.
- I feel like I should also take this time to mention a thing Actas did called Mayo elle Otokonoko. What it's about should be obvious, but I'd really like to know more. Who exactly are the crossdressers? Why is the school like that? And how come they never made anything beyond a five-minute PV (which I guess no one has subbed)? The fact that everyone is listed as having voice actors despite not much happening in the video suggests there'd be more.
Of course, after all of these, you have the video games, the many albums the IRL idols have released, Blu-rays of the concerts, the spin-off manga unreleased in the U.S. (although you can use scanlations for those), spin-off mobile games like Starlight Stage, and all other merchandise. Idol hell has so many layers, so I hope you don't mind getting lost in it. Your wallet will be bled dry and you'll be screaming for more, which is just what the production companies want.

Rating: TV-PG

The fifth PG straight in six episodes, and the twelfth overall for this show. On the other hand, this one used a profanity exemption from "sucks", rather than the usual suspects of "hell" or "damn", but everything else is the same. And I guess The Producer falling down counts as an additional PG set.

Edited May 2, 2018 by Blatch
I forgot to include the paragraphs about Actas. Here you go...

PokeNirvash · May 2, 2018

I said it could be edited out. Not that it would.

Boys Over Flowers

#1: Declaration of War!

When I first heard of Boys Over Flowers through the two now-defunct anime magazines I used to subscribe to in elementary and middle school, I didn't think all that much of it. All I can immediately recall was how interesting I thought it was that two of the main characters' first names both began with "Tsu", an incident in the next episode serving as one of several examples of anime characters "showing their love" for one another, and taking Tsukasa's last name to use as the first name for one of the supporting characters in NIBAI MUGENDAI. If you asked me the plot of it back in those days, I couldn't tell you what it was about. But now, allow me.

ACT 1: Spoiler alert: it's not about dirty dancing.

Tsukushi Makino is a second-year student at Eitoku Academy, a private school that she managed to get into despite being from a poor-ass family, thanks to reasons that have yet to be explained. Being the hay in the needle-stack, so to speak, Tsukushi aims to get through her last two years of high school without getting involved in anything that would ruin her lacking reputation. Enter the F4 (short for Flower Four), a quartet of male students at Eitoku who come from the richest families in the tri-county area, and because of that act like big shots around campus. They aren't necessarily an absurdly powerful student council, but they might as well be, given how freely they appear to harass students who so much as dirty their clothes. After her friend Makiko accidentally lands on the F4's leader, Tsukasa Domyoji, after a fall down the stairs - complete with a foot to the face! - Tsukushi breaks her internal protocol and stands up to Tsukasa, claiming that he and the F4 can't just boss people around because their families are loaded and they're free to come to school in casual clothes instead of the standard uniform, among other stuck-up things.

This action proves to be Tsukushi's downfall as far as her everyday life is concerned, as the next day, she receives a red card; the titular "declaration of war" by the F4. This means that anybody and everybody at Eitoku has free reign to bully Tsukushi, as well as anyone daring enough to defend her for as long as the red card remains valid. This being a shoujo anime from the '90s that aired in the morning hours on network TV, the bullying is not of the sexual variety. Instead, it takes the form of more traditional methods, such as the lobbing of insults, the throwing of eggs, and outright stealing her desk. Bullying victims in anime nowadays get all sorts of insults and threats written on their desks, but back then, the tormentors just outright took it, chair included. And considering that it was stashed behind the incinerator, it makes you wonder if they were going to eventually go the extra mile and burn it too.

ACT 2: If that wasn't just albumen, it'd be in more than just her hair.

Even so, Tsukushi doesn't let herself get put down by all the tormentation. At least, after she leaves the classroom to wipe her tears and curse the F4 for putting her in this mess. All it takes is Makiko proving to her that she'll help her out whenever none of the other students are around, and being saved from some rougher male students by the F4's token nice guy Rui Hanazawa, to convince Tsukushi to start fighting back against the bullying. Her first day after the red card issuance proves just as much, as she blocks the eggs thrown at her by her unoriginal classmates, kicks Tsukasa in the face after noticing him pass by, and sticking the red card on his face as her own declaration of war. Added bonus: she lets her hair, normally done up in braided twintails, hang free as a metaphor for how her lacking restraint. (And apparently, it also reminds Tsukasa of his older sister.)

All in all, while it hasn't dug its hook to me quite deep yet, I will admit that, as with many shows, this first episode got me interested, even moreso than the events leading up to my watching it. The plot itself is moving with decent speed, so it should be interesting to see how things develop from episode to episode, if Tsukushi already formulating a solution to the "red card" fiasco is any indication. The visual direction is pretty nice too. This show was directed by future Casshern Sins director Shigeyasu Yamauchi, and between the watercolor backgrounds and some of the neater visual stylings, particularly the interior design for Eitoku Academy - it's very different from your average Japanese high school, and it's so white on the inside too... - I feel he's doing a decent job in that regard. And, because I'm sometimes schizophrenic like that, I chose to watch the dub, and it's definitely serviceable. None of the voices are aggravating me too hard - in fact, I love hearing Sango's VA as Tsukushi - though my one nitpick is their strange decision to pronounce Rui's name with an L instead of an R. Before long, I'll be calling him Louie in these write-ups. Not a whole bunch of laughs or "fuck yeah" moments yet, but biggest one I got was out of one of Tsukushi's more creative anti-bullying measures: throwing a baseball at one of the tormentors and breaking his watch. That was cool.

RATED: TV-PG

Oh, and she followed it up with a middle finger gesture, which also came faster than I was expecting. That aside, the only other objectionable contents were one use of "smartass" and two of "hell". And, assuming the eyecatches count, some slight Tsukushi cleavage from a couple shots of her in the bathtub. I'm expecting a little more to come out of later episodes, so don't expect PG straights all the way down like with Moshidora.

EDIT: ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS

In hindsight, there's something kinda humorous about the latter half of the F4's introductory scene. They kick away a trash can, three of the four members do some fly-ass jumping moves over it like they're on invisible skateboards, and the fourth just sets it upright before walking off with the rest.
In my rating schedule spreadsheet, this episode shares an hour timeslot with one other show, Armored Trooper Votoms. In their shared debut iteration - "Ratings Schedule Retro", I call it - the Votoms premiere episode is called "War's End", which you have to admit is a pretty damn funny coincidence.

And that's my debut posting for Boys Over Flowers! The following write-ups will be much shorter, and also serve as companion pieces to Freezing, since those take so long to put out anyways.

Edited May 2, 2018 by PokeNirvash

Blatch · May 16, 2018

The iDOLM@STER
Episode 24: "Dream"

If it weren't obvious in the next episode preview, Haruka broke. She's lost all knowledge of what it means to be an idol, and she doesn't want to sing right now.

⟶ Opening: You guys aren't gonna get away with this!

So... honestly, while I do like this episode's premise, it doesn't feel like a natural progression from what came before. What made Chihaya's plot work so well, at least for me, was that even in spite of all the awful shit she had to put up with over people who mocked her for letting her brother die, she reluctantly decides to perform again, and then she rediscovers the joy of enchanting people through song. Even if an idol's life can be hard, moments like that make the job worth it. On the other hand, Haruka... uh, The Producer almost sacrificed himself to save her. This whole thing wasn't because of anything she did herself. If anything, she should have survivor's guilt, but her struggles come across as wangst. Because of this, it feels like the show went soft-misanthrope and just wanted a moment with shock value to erase Haruka's faith in idol work, which is not my preferred plot device. The rest of the episode is pretty good, though.

⟶ Act break: Because we like ratings awareness so much, here's one more example.

Several parties see Haruka's predicament and want her to snap out of it; the biggest are her 765pro comrades. Chihaya in particular takes the lead, telling how Haruka ended up snapping her out of that funk after she was shat on by the paparazzi. In fact, Haruka's situation explicitly parallels what Chihaya went through. She's in bed, looking very disinterested, and she only gets out to do errands for a family member. While outside, she runs into, believe it or not, Touma, who's about to perform another concert with Jupiter, who has now changed agencies. Sadly, they can't fill large arenas anymore, but I guess I'm wishing the best for them. On the other hand, what 765 Production did was seen by Jupiter, and it definitely helped them out when essentially having to start from scratch. It's good to have some strong... bonds.

An indeterminate amount of time then passes, and Haruka finds herself near a bunch of kindergarteners who are trying to sing, but also berating each other for how bad they sound. In one of them, she sees her younger self, and all of the others are proxies for the rest of 765pro. She helps them get along, as well as sing better. She then slowly rediscovers how idols thrive when they work as a team; this combined with the sheer cuteness of the little kids roads her back into her usual peppy self. Finally, the other 765pro idols decide to hold a practice for the New Year's concert, but they obviously can't go on without Haruka, so they run an advertisement directed at her in a crowded city intersection. Haruka then has her faith fully restored as she runs down the street where the glass shows that summer has gone towards 765pro, mirroring the final shot of the show's second OP. And that's just gravy. Now they can actually get this damn concert done, and hopefully give The Producer one final great show before the idol group really starts to fracture. Hooray!

Stray observations:

One character whose arc I have nothing but praise for is Miki. In this episode, she turns down a solo hosting role for Live!? on Sundays' successor. This is quite a step up from her wanting to be in Ryuuguu Komachi, and as the leader of it no less. It's even more remarkable when you remember how lazy she was all the way back in the first episode. The show doesn't have her become "awakened" with the shortened hair and all, but it's so well done for how understated it is.
The video billboard message is also great. It's the most Love Live!-est shit which just happens to predate that show.
You know, considering that the Cinderella Girls mobage had just started around while this show was airing its last few episodes, I think it would've been a fucking stupendous twist to have one of the kindergarteners be a younger version of Uzuki Shimamura, or one of the other New Generation idols. To actually have someone be inspired by Haruka and what she's done as an idol is the sort of thing I really like. Of course, Rin Shibuya has a cameo in the theatrical movie that comes after this show, along with some of the girls from Million Live!, so that's better than nothing. Of course, then you might have complaints that one anime is influencing the other, but at least the actual Cinderella Girls show premiered later enough and with the titular Cinderella Project having no relation to this stuff.
Even more, this episode has references to the idols having so much work to do. I like a show that focuses on the business side of idols in this fashion. Love Live! had it be pretty weird with the girls still have to focus on school, but then you see all of this merch of them, high schoolers, and who the hell is making all of it? It looks official quality, at least since it has official artwork from the official magazines and School Idol Festival and whatnot. I do feel more comfortable about it here because the idols must have signed off on it.
Having all of those cute little kids makes the episode much easier to swallow, in case you were put off by yet another dramatic twist happening.

Rating: TV-PG

The exact same as the last episode; just one "sucks".

Since all I have to worry about right now is driving school, the final post for this show should come later in the week. And then I'll... well, obviously.

Edited May 16, 2018 by Blatch

PokeNirvash · May 16, 2018

First combination.

Boys Over Flowers

#2: No-Brand Girl!
#3: I Won't Be Hurt!

plus

FREEZING
Episode 07: Sanction

Sometimes you don't have to be as violent as a Pandora to be really nasty towards your peers.

BOF #2: The implications of some of these images can get pretty disturbing, wouldn't you say?

After her initial counterattack against the F4's red card-induced bullying, the level of such bullying from Tsukushi's peers has somehow gotten both better and worse. Better in that many of the students are cheering for her standing up to the F4 when no one has the stones to (but only when the F4 isn't looking), and worse in that some students are going to lengths that the F4 don't even know about. Take for example a piece of chalkboard graffiti - a classic case of Japanese bullying - that shows up in the classroom one morning. The source I watched from didn't have any subtitles for the very Japanese text, but from external context, it implied that Tsukushi sleeps around, and from one of the few Japanese translation sites I visit often, it stated that she had a child out of wedlock with the leader of a gang of delinquents in middle school. Naturally, she believes the F4 were behind it - they respond to her "I'm still a virgin!" protest with complete flabbergast, which proves they had nothing to do with it - but in actuality, it was a trio of classic high school bitches, who then proceed to bully Tsukushi in a much more behind-the-back way than simply throwing eggs at her and telling her to "go back to her home", as Bob Epic Team Popuko would say.

The chalkboard graffiti was just the first step. The second was cleaning it up while cheering on Tsukushi for responding to that sort of thing in her own way, and then inviting her to a party at this high-end club in Roppongi as a way of thanks. They claim it's casual, so Tsukushi shows up wearing the height of bad '90s fashion - seriously, her getup looks like something one of the Saved By the Bell kids would wear - only to discover that, it being a high-end club, it's fully formal. Not that it stops some of the other guests from hitting on her, as they like the 'flashy on purpose' look, though they back off once they start making claims that she's a slut, which clues Tsukushi in to their true bitchiness and being behind the graffiti. Because she's not the kind of person to just stand around and let herself give in to this level of rich girl torment, Tsukushi gets back at them without having to leave the building and think up a plan first. Simply, she takes her novelty emotion detector and makes claims that the bitches are all about wanting to get with rich men and nothing else, using the detector to prove their denial of such claims wrong. Corny, I know, but that's '90s anime for ya. Though Tsukushi does finish off with something legitimately awesome: dumping a cup of punch on one bitch's head in revenge for getting the contents of a cup of water splashed on her.

Naturally, bitches gotta be bitches, so they shift gears and decide to attack Tsukushi where it hurts: her crush on Rui Hanazawa, which she keeps insisting to herself she doesn't have because of her refusal to see the F4 in a positive light. With the aid of a French fashion magazine, they reveal to Tsukushi that Rui is already in love with someone: Shizuka Todo, an older student at Eitoku who's recently finishing up a study abroad program in France, and on top of that just became a model for Tahiti Airlines. Tsukushi tries to not let it bother her, but a later encounter with Rui where he kisses her on the cheek out of nowhere fuels her jealousy of Shizuka (but not in a toxic way), and the day Shizuka returns to Eitoku's main campus, she lays witness to her and Rui greeting one another with a mouth-to-mouth kiss, which has to be devastating for the part of her hiding behind the portion of her personality who is definitely not in love with Rui.

BOF #3: Spoiler alert: she's definitely in love with Rui.

Speaking of which, the F4's response to her sudden bout of character development - portrayed by her hair flowing freely instead of in braided twintails - is a "mixed signals" situation. At least three-fourths of the guys don't seem to mind Tsukushi's fight back and return of their red card all that much. In spite of the individually jerkish airs they all possess as members of the F4 (since childhood, natch), they're rather subdued and considerably nice compared to the last fourth. Rui appears to regret helping Tsukushi out the other day after seeing her looking for him to thank him, and also sitting down and listening to him play the violin with nobody else around, as "stalking", though he does break his promise of no longer hanging out on the stairwell he's always hanging out at. The two less-focused-on members, Nishikada and Mimisaka, have their own niceties to them, shown when they offer Tsukushi the opportunity to sit with them in the school courtyard while eating pizza and drinking tea (which Tsukushi mistakes for hard liquor), and giving her a little perspective on why Rui is in love with Shizuka (something about her being the only one to make him emote properly or somethin'). Nishikada even gives her the slightly dirty-sounding nickname of "working girl", after he sees her working part-time at a sweets shop. Surprisingly less malicious than I expected from them.

Of course, the worst case of mixed signals comes from Tsukasa. One of my first Anime Insider magazines listed various ways in which anime characters profess their love for one another (i.e. Naru from Love Hina punches you in the face, Sosuke from Full Metal Panic! points a gun at you, Kei from GANTZ imagines you naked, etc.). One of the others was Tsukasa kidnapping Tsukushi, which happened this episode. While the act itself could be considered violent (in spite of no strikes being dealt), Tsukushi was treated much better than the chloroform knockout to muffle her protests would suggest. He takes her to his place and gives her a full makeover - complete with aid from one of the top stylists in Japan - which isn't something a normal kidnapper would do. When Tsukasa meets up with her later in one of his mansion's many parlors, he claims that he did her up all nice and stuff as a means of demonstrating that with money and brands, even the plainest-looking girl can be beautiful. But really, it's because Tsukasa is a siscon who's in love with Tsukushi because she reminds him of her sister. (I mean, why else would you say your sister is married when it has nothing to do with anything, for no other reason than voicing your disappointment that she is?) Naturally, Tsukushi storms off minutes later, claiming she doesn't need money or brands to show her worth as a person. That, plus the "I'm not a virgin" protest the next day, only makes Tsukasa fall for her more, to the point where even he's acting much nicer than he would have at the start. He scares the bitches from earlier off by claiming that he's the only one allowed to bully Tsukushi, only for Tsukushi to be the one bullying him after they run off, and in at least partial response to one of several insults hurled at him, he has his hair done so it's hanging down like a normal person.

By the way, best joke of these two episodes. At first, you think Tsukasa's new hairstyle is there to match Tsukushi's own hairstyle change, a show of character development, only for it to curl back up seconds later, a show that Tsukasa will always be Tsukasa, and the hairstylist wasn't doing his job properly. Second place goes to Rui's reply to Tsukushi's "name something money can't buy" question: air.

Freezing 7 Act 1: Money also can't buy the satisfaction of bossing around people taller than you.

In other news, here's some good news: Kazuya managed to clear up the misunderstanding within the first minute! But, as with good news, there's also bad news: he got knocked out cold for the rest of the episode, to the point where he just straight-up disappeared during the fight scenes.

This episode's primary plot was simple and straightforward. Attia's pissed that Satellizer and Rana didn't kill or at least seriously injure one another in their fight, so she has her gal pals, Arnett McMillan and Creo Brand, fight them both to teach them not to mess with any more third years, not after the incidents with Miyabi and Ingrid. Creo, being one to end things quickly and rationally, knocks out Rana without a whole lot of fanfare, but Arnett falls into the typical tendency of Pandoras to play with their victims beyond the point of reason, and injures Satellizer worse. But even she appears to disagree with Attia's insistence that they rip out her stigmata when they realize forcing her to apologize won't work. Apparently doing so is a major cause for trauma with Pandora and Limiters, so maybe that's why Brooks Blauman or whatever his name is gave up after Satellizer wrecked his shit?

Anyways, Satellizer and Rana both get back on their feet and proceed to hand Arnett and Creo's asses to them by opening a couple more of the 8 Gates, which causes a good deal of damage on their end because what else would happen if you open them? Attia decides to attack them while they're down, but Arnett and Creo insist that they finish what they started with them, ready to go all out even further... only for Chiffon and her associate to step in and prevent them from doing anything further, to the point of knocking out Arnett with a single strike to prove that, as first rank in Year 3, she isn't fucking around. That convinces Attia and Creo to give up and walk off, with Satellizer and Rana taking Kazuya to the infirmary in the meantime. As for Chiffon, she meets up with another high-ranking third year, Elizabeth Mably, and lets her know that if she's still hell-bent on bullying Satellizer, she should avoid doing so with violence. (Keep in mind that this isn't promotion, as Chiffon prefers to stay neutral in these affairs.) I expect a piece of chalkboard graffiti calling her a tramp popping up sometime within the next week.

Freezing 7 Act 2: Only unlike with Tsukushi, the allegations are somewhat accurate.

Of course, as action-packed as it was, the fights weren't the best part of this episode for me. That honor goes to Satellizer's backstory, which really explains a lot. You see, el Bridget isn't Satellizer's actual last name. Her true name is Satellizer Alon-Grache, and she was adopted into the el Bridget family alongside her mother. And that family is a mixed bag of high-end cashews, rotten peanuts, and date rape drugs. The family patriarch, the as-of-yet-unseen Howard el Bridget, was nice enough to let the two-person family stay with his own to help aid the mother in recovery of her anime sickness, and daughter Violet is nice and accommodating enough, and surprisingly so! But then there's the mother Olivia, who dislikes the two staying there because she views Satellizer's mother's sickness as an excuse for nothing more than getting to the el Bridget family's money. And then there's Luis, the son, and man oh man is he a piece of shit. From the moment he and Satellizer first made eye contact, he hated her guts, viewing her as below human, a "thing" or a "beast", depending on how nasty he felt. He even went to the point of molesting Satellizer for years and forcing her to comply with it under threat of him convincing his mother - who's letting him do this, mind you - to kick her and her mother out of the house. And her having to put up with Luis's bad touching is heavily implied to be the entire reason Satellizer is afraid of being touched by anyone (well, anyone besides Kazuya). It's traumatizing for her, enough to make her lash out in violence in events where she isn't restrained and rendered helpless.

Naturally, Violet saw issue with Luis's treatment of Satellizer, and one heated argument behind closed doors later, they decided it would be best for everyone, especially Satellizer, if she left the house and lived somewhere else for a while. Satellizer is more than happy to comply, so long as it means no more Luis putting his hands in "strange places". Her departure, though, proves more bitter than she expected it to be, as not long after the decision was made for her to shack up someplace else, her mother's condition took a turn for the worse, ultimately killing her. But before she died, she gave Satellizer some life advice - the same advice that inspired her to resume her fight against the Not-As-Terrible Trio in the present - that would fit right at home in a Toonami motivational video.

Quote

"From now on, you have to be stronger than anyone. You can't ever give in. Be proud of who you are. Don't lose yourself, and don't lose to anyone else. Never give up, Satella. Be strong."

I swear, even if they aren't being serious, Jingai and Daos aren't wrong that this show should be on [as], as negative as the feedback might be.

Anyways, Satellizer transferred to East Genetics, started some shit, got transferred to West Genetics, and now you know the rest of the story.

As for "best joke", while Freezing isn't a "joking" kind of series, I got plenty of amusement as an American out of one of the eyecatches having to define what a gyro is.

TOP BILLING: Attia

Poor Satellizer's never gonna get top billing at this rate...

RATINGS: TV-PGDS (BOF 2), TV-PGD (BOF 3), TV-MA (Freezing 7)

Of course, you had all the chalkboard graffiti that claimed Tsukushi was a tramp, and Tsukushi's protest at it, in both episodes. #2 also featured a scene where some female masseuses undress Tsukushi in preparation for her makeover, while she fears it's something of a more sexual nature. We also see a brief shot of her ass, which only further cemented the rating.

Freezing, meanwhile, had plenty of blood spillage, plenty of incidental breast exposure during the fights and their aftermath, and Luis being a fucking molester. Another case of major buildup that Blatch will probably think of as not worth the level leap.

PROFANITY TALLIES: Seven uses of "hell" - three for BOF 2, two for BOF3, two for Freezing 7, and three variations of "damn" - the standard for both BOFs, and a "dammit" for Freezing.

MUSIC SUGGESTIONS OF THE MOMENT: "Crawl" by The Water of Life, and "Last Piece" by Kirari

I've been catching up on some of the "anime theme song rankings for each season" videos I've recently become invested in, and just so happened to discover these two in the Summer 1999 video. The strangest thing about the former is that I kinda wanna watch Eden's Bowy because of it.

Blatch · May 28, 2018

When the apple blossoms bloom in the garden of your mind, I'll be... your biggest fan.

The iDOLM@STER
Episode 25: "Everyone, Together!"

Spoiler

⟶ Opening: Oh, just The Producer getting one more shot in.

I'll be honest: a lot of what I have to say isn't about the actual finale. 765pro puts on their final performance, but we only see them on stage for about five minutes. All of the girls talk about their plans for the future, to become even better idols than they were before. They even bring out Ritsuko for a curtain call. And then, after a medley performance of the show's two OPs ("READY!!" and "CHANGE!"), they spring into a brand new song, which is accompanied by a long montage of pretty much everything notable that's happened in the series... again. Is it redundant and self-serving? Yes, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It's genuinely emotional, too, especially in a meta sense. The seiyuus have been portraying these same characters (except for Yukiho) for almost fifteen years. I mean, look at this shit. That's from Dubya's first term, and it's in SD. These idols have come so far, and I'm tearful about it.

⟶ Act break: Such pretty idols. It's a shame none of them will get married... for a while, at least.

But there's else to talk about in this episode. The Producer is still recovering from his injury, and he makes a surprise appearance to help the 765pro idols out with moral support before the big show. Considering that there was already a huge, non-CG animated performance back in the thirteenth episode, I'm okay with this one not doing much in terms of flashy animation. After the performance is done, things zip forward to some time in the Spring. The Producer is fully healed, and everything is back to normal for the agency. Live!? on Sundays has been renewed under a new name, and all the idols will start working on it. Furthermore, the play Haruka and Miki are in is going on a nationwide tour. And best of all, the 765pro president has leased out an awesome-looking apartment for his agency!

Except not. The corporation building this skyscraper where their office should be has filed for bankruptcy, and it just so happens to be run by Kuroi-san. That bastard managed one final trick against 765pro. Due to this, since the building can't be finished (and they get nothing back on the deal) they're back to being flat broke, as they originally were. But it's okay, because at least these idols are popular now and can make more money on their own. As the credits roll on this finale, the idols have fun with a picnic in the local park. There are also quick flashes to Jupiter doing a performance, and Yoshizawa-san having a talk with the idols of 871 Production, which recalls the first episode by having Ai (the red-haired one) mug the camera just like Makoto did.

Rating: TV-PG

See the last two weeks.

And that is... not the end of this show. Yes, Virginia, there is one episode left.

Episode 26: "A Story Called 765pro" (plus some clean-up work)

Spoiler

This is the sort of light anime comedy that defines most exclusive episodes, featuring several short skits with the idols. There's a segment about "Live!? Revolution", which isn't any different than what's in Episode 15: there's the Hibiki Challenge, an Ami + Mami segment, and a new fake trailer for a gangster movie, which is shockingly violent. The thing is, this show is ostensibly licensed by Aniplex, and they're pretty militant regarding OVA episodes. This one has not streamed anywhere. Neither has Kill la Kill's, and nor did it air on Toonami, even though it was the actual conclusion to that show's story. I'm assuming that this episode would follow suit and not be able to air on my dream TV station. On the other hand, I did rate all three OVAs for Squid Girl... and the Birdy the Mighty: Decode OVA, and the one for Girl's High (which was actually three different OVAs stitched together; I was grasping at straws), so I've decided to give it screencaps as seen below. Just consider this glorious armchair quarterbacking. So that's why you don't get a full synopsis here, but it's probably better to just watch the episode... because it's fun.

To make matters worse, there are three more full-length OVAs for the 2011 anime, all of which were included with the THE IDOLM@STER SHINY FESTA video game. And they were actually officially translated too, because the game was released in English (complete with the famous "Hoobies" typo) for iOS devices. I have not watched these yet, and while I will at some point, I actually don't intend to give then screencaps, because it's obvious that these were never intended to air on TV to begin with, and thus are doubly off-limits. I'm also not touching the Live for You! OVA for the same reason, plus several other obvious ones.

Opening: You can definitely tell that this is from a fansub because of the different text. Still, do you actually think I care?

Act break: Take us home, not-Yuu and friends.

OVA rating: TV-14V

Violent moments in the fake movie trailer, ranked:

The final battle between Chihaya and Takane (with "Aoi Tori" as the background music), leading to the latter being stabbed to death
Ami and Mami shooting Makoto to death, with pretty big splatters all around
Chihaya shooting Ami to death, and then killing Mami while she's down
Haruka stabbing Chihaya after her battle
Hibiki being felled by a couple of bullets
Getting hit with an election voice for Kako Takafuji
Yayoi's corpse, after she was stabbed to death

Honorable non-gory moments include a brief moment of Azusa sideboob (as in, she was laying down, and one of hers was shown from the front), and a mention of "The Girl Who Digs Holes" after the movie ("I'll go... all the way to Brazil!!"), which could be referencing about half a dozen different films. I just hope they showed it back-to-back with the gangster movie as a palate cleanser.

Ratings shakedown:

Most common: TV-PG [fourteen times]
2^nd most common: TV-G [three times]
Others: PGD [x2], PGV [x2], 14V(!) [x2], PGDS, PGLS, 14L

Screencap tally:

Haruka: 10 (4A [in a frog costume], 11A, 15A, 22B, 23B, 24A [younger], 24B, 25B)
Miki: 8 (8B, 12A, 15A, 22A, 25B, 26B)
Ami: 8 (2A, 3A, 5A, 9B, 18A [legs only], 18B, 26B)
Mami: 7 (first four Ami appearances plus 26B)
Yayoi: 6 (2A, 2B, 7B, 26B)
Hibiki: 6 (4A [in a frog costume], 5A, 7B, 25B)
The Producer: 6 (2A, 6B, 15B, 21B [no head], 25A)
Chihaya: 5 (4A [in a frog costume], 15A, 25B)
Makoto: 5 (17A, 17B [back of her head], 23B)
Takane: 5 (4A [in a frog costume], 4B [wearing a frog head], 19A
Iori: 4 (2A, 7B, 26B)
Ritsuko: 4 (12A, 15B, 18B, 26B)
Yukiho: 3 (25B)
Kotori: 3 (1B, 11A, 26A)
Asuza: 2 (8A)
- Multiple: 9B [all primary idols plus The Producer], 11B [all primaries except Ryuuguu Komachi],
Other notable characters: 13B [president of 765pro], 14B [all of Jupiter], 16B [Inumi], 20B [Chihaya's mom]

Overall, Haruka easily takes the victory, largely due to a surge in appearances in the last few episodes. Nobody came out as a big loser here; Asuza had the fewest overall appearances, but Yukiho never appeared outside of at least a decent-sized group. That's a bit of a shame, although I guess it fits with her character.

And with that, I end coverage of this series. It was an extremely fun ride, to the point where I'd say it's the best idol show I've ever seen, and in my top 10 anime I've ever seen... maybe even top 5. Would that be giving idols in general too much credit? I'll save any other opinions on this series for a later date, so as not to spoil potential blogging opportunities.

The next show begins fairly soon. See you all in the database.

PokeNirvash · June 5, 2018

I should've known Log Horizon would be coming next.

Boys Over Flowers

#4: The Ordinary Duo
#5: Me, Him, and the Other Guy
#6: Cinderella for a Night
#7: Atami Night Love

plus

FREEZING
Episode 08: Pandora Queen

Spoiler

Also known as, "The Dance Night Collection".

BOF #4-5: A little show of attention to Tsukushi's friends and family.

After laying witness to Rui kissing Shizuka, Tsukushi realizes that she can't possibly complete with her and decides to keep her distance from the F4, to the point of doing her hair back up in twin braids to convince herself of that mission statement. (Though that doesn't necessarily mean she's outright giving up, like Tsukasa claims she is.) But things start looking up for her when she runs into her old elementary school friend Kazuya Aoike - no relation to the Freezing protagonist, whose name lacks the extra syllable - who's going to Eitoku thanks to his parents hitting it big in real estate. The two stick with one another and catch up, which makes Tsukushi feel much better... until Tsukasa, out of a mix of jealousy and continued desire to get her out of Eitoku, gives Kazuya a red card. This issue comes off as slightly more humorous as when it happened to Tsukushi, thanks to Kazuya's cheerful misinterpretation of the red card and the other F4 guys getting on Tsukasa's ass for dealing one out without discussing it with them first, but even so, when the bullying begins, oh boy does it begin. Lots of trash thrown everywhere and stuff. After a couple feints and a brief pause to confront Tsukasa and punch him in the face over it, Tsukushi helps Kazuya escape, though the two are eventually cornered on Eitoku's adjoining college campus. Shizuka, who's been in France for some time, is shocked at what the red card entails, and likely because it's her that's shocked, Rui steps in and tells all the harassers to buzz off: an action that not only puts Tsukushi's feelings for him into question, but forces Tsukasa to kick Rui out of the F4 in revenge! You gotta love '90s teen drama.

After everything's settled, Shizuka helps Tsukushi clean herself off in the restroom, where she demonstrates a surprising amount of niceness in contrast to the rest of the F4. (And it isn't even a front!) In addition to giving her some metaphorical fashion advice she picked up in France ("beautiful shoes will take you to beautiful places"), Shizuka also offers her own theory as to why Rui stepped in and saved Tsukushi: he's in love with her. With greater admiration for her after that, Tsukushi thanks Rui for helping her, meets back up with Kazuya... and then passes out. Turns out all the pressure from the last couple of episodes gave her a head cold that, in surprising turn for the Japanese cold, only takes one day of bedrest to completely fix! Even more amazing is that Tsukasa's sudden appearance at Tsukushi's place for hanging out and dinner - his status catching their parents' attention much more than his jerk attitude - doesn't push her into a relapse! While walking him back to his place that night, Tsukasa once again shows his dere side and offers Tsukushi the chance to join him, Nishikata and Mimisaka as they go to summer school in Hawaii. Still unforgetting and unforgiving of their previous actions, Tsukushi refuses, instead declaring that for the summer, she's heading to the beachside town of Atami to hang out at Kazuya's parents' villa there. Clearly time better spent.

BOF #6-7: Nothing says "family vacation" quite like creepy tourist parents and a big bucket o' squid.

Or not, as Tsukasa lets the other F4 (or is it F3 now?) members know that they're going to Atami this summer instead of Hawaii. They invite a literal boatload of Eitoku students to come with them, including Yuriko and her cronies (now dubbed the Terrible Trio), Shizuka, and a stow-away Rui, all of them entering in style on Tsukasa's yacht as it comes in across Atami's beach. Tsukushi is none to pleased to see her peaceful summer vacation with Kazuya and her tagalong parents ruined by their presence, and even the offer of invitation onto the yacht for a fancy dance party doesn't gel well with her. She eventually accepts, though, after some prodding from her wannabe in-with-the-rich parents. But even then, after Shizuka dolls her up to be the "belle of the ball" in a sense, she prefers to stick to the sidelines, looking out the window and imagining herself dancing with Rui in the meantime. Which is pretty much what I'd have done at my high school prom had I actually gone instead of opting to stay at home. (And look what good that did me.) Naturally, things get worse for Tsukushi when, in a surprise "kissing in the dark" event, she accidentally locks lips with Tsukasa, who had his hair forcibly straightened for the evening. And this being her first kiss, she's definitely none too pleased with the end result and implications. And all the misunderstanding of her doing it on purpose... Even on vacation, she can't catch a break.

Skip to the next night, when Tsukushi returns to the yacht to return her dance outfit to Shizuka. Unluckily for her, she manages to board during the sacred "enter the room with your significant other and make out" portion of the evening, as she runs in on one of several couples and sees a bunch of others enter the room in tandem. Embarrassing enough, yes, but not nearly as embarrassing as when she accidentally walks in on Rui and Shizuka arguing over whether or not he loves Tsukushi. He claims he loves Shizuka, which sends our eavesdropper off to mope while the other two head to one of the private bedrooms for some (naturally) private time. Private time that Rui proves himself a little more forceful than intended during, but not so much that it drives her away. But enough consent politics, let's move on to probably the best part of that whole "nighttime on the boat" sequence: Kazuya challenging Tsukasa to a duel. Of course, since Kazuya doesn't fight, their duel takes the form of fishing for squid. Kazuya catches a whole bunch of it, while all Tsukasa gets is an octopus that immediately ink-bukkakes him. And if that wasn't bad enough, Kazuya unleashes his inner frustrations on him by angrily accusing him of ruining Tsukushi's life, turning her from the likeable and fairly popular girl she was in elementary and middle school to an outcast, all because she had the ovaries to stand up to him and the F4. Even with the comically-treated physical fighting that follows, that's awfully deep.

Even so, their continued fighting when they get back onto the main yacht somehow cheers Tsukushi up, and they take advantage of their catches of squid (which Tsukasa claims are his) to hold an impromptu barbeque that both cockblocks everybody else on the boat and brings them together in a widespread social gathering. That surprise event, plus Rui letting Tsukushi know that he doesn't hate her (if he did, would he have helped her out that time?), allows Tsukushi to end this night on a good note.

Of course, the dance party on the yacht isn't the only promenade covered in this write-up...

Freezing #8: When it comes to the rating icons, some do not want, while others are more than accepting.

In spite of Elizabeth's insistence that they focus on observing Satellizer's abilities instead of engaging her in combat, the rest of the Council of Scheming Third Years (as I'm calling them) still thinks she needs to be punished for going against them so often. Attia volunteers to deliver the punishment herself, and true to her moniker "The Architect of Evil", it's definitely conniving. Contrary to my joking comment from when I watched it, it's not a red card. (Most of West Genetics is too afraid of Satellizer to bully her en masse anyways.) Instead, it's a threat of suspension from West Genetics Academy. A fate that she says can only be averted if Satellizer manages to best her during the school's annual prom, a rare example of such a thing happening at a Japanese school. Not in battle, but in the "Pandora Queen" beauty contest where several popular and attractive Pandoras enter in the hopes of being crowned #1. Basically a popularity contest. Satellizer doesn't have to win first place; all she needs is to get more votes than Attia, and the suspension's off.

The participants in the Pandora Queen contest each have various outfits to wear as they go onstage, with the majority of them being various degrees of revealing or at the very least fetishy. (Ganessa's is best, btw.) By far, only Satellizer's and Elizabeth's outfits show any degree of class, and even then, Elizabeth's dress is much skankier than Satellizer's. Even so, the decency she displays with her outfit, on top of the shy side that the several students attending the prom lay witness to for the first time, allows her to score first place, while Attia, in an outfit completely different from the maid-style one she used as an example for Satellizer earlier, gets third. Pissed that Satellizer won, Attia decides to humiliate her anyway by having her accept the contest prize - a crown and cape befitting of royalty - while wearing a sling bikini that turns transparent when in contact with body heat. Naturally, Attia's the only one amused by the end result; everyone else is shocked, and even Arnett and Creo are wondering why Attia had an outfit like that to begin with. Of course, the night still ends somewhat good for Satellizer, as Kazuya activates his Freezing area at will to lock everyone there in place - something I'm sure took a lot of willpower to do - and run off with Satellizer before things get even worse.

So yeah, this was a breather episode. Considering there wasn't even one moment of violence, that designation is understandable. Of course, we get a return to action next episode, complete with a new Pandora to serve as Satellizer's rival of the week, so just as Chiffon said, these peaceful days aren't lasting for long.

STRAY OBSERVATIONS

I'd assume Kazuya's supposed to fulfill the obligatory "annoying supporting character" role present in all these '90s shows, but if you ask me, Tsukushi's mother is way worse. Though I will admit, her VA is doing a great job with it.
Kazuya getting natto dumped on his head reminded me of this Bo-BoBo line: "These beans have spiderwebs in them!"
Yeah, Rui just has to be somewhere on the autism spectrum; probably the high-functioning Asperger's end of it.
“And so the beautiful butterfly finally comes out of her cocoon.” Technically, butterflies come out of chrysalises, but what do rich people know?
The "Tsukushi dancing with Rui" imagine spot actually caught me off-guard when it turned out to be all within her mind, which goes to show how effective it was.
Shigeyasu Yamauchi sure loves his use of water imagery and symbolism.
They're not so much "stairway friends" as they are "stairway acquaintances".
During senior year of high school, one of the few events I went to was the Senior One Acts, a collection of three one-act plays written by the senior class and performed by the members of the theater club. One of them was about two high schoolers searching for prom dates in order to avoid being withheld food by their overbearing parents. (It ends with them finding one another, but deciding to skip prom anyways and perform a joint hunger strike to guilt their parents into feeding them again.) One scene had the guy character ask one of his friends to accompany him there, but the guy had no idea what "prom" was - EVEN THOUGH HE'S IN FUCKING HIGH SCHOOL, A.K.A. PROM CENTRAL - and assumed it was some hip new verb. In comparison, Kazuya, a teenager from a country that values cultural festivals over school dances, not knowing what "prom" is makes much more sense.
There was also a bit where Rana wanted to go to the prom with Kazuya but he chose Satellizer over her, but I skipped that because it wasn't nearly as important.
The other Pandora Queen placements: Elizabeth (last year's winner) got 2nd place, Rana scored 4th place, and while Miyabi got enough votes to score 5th, the fact that she had most of them bought for her got her disqualified from the contest, thus bumping Ganessa up to 5th. She was none too pleased with both not placing 1st and losing 1st to Satellizer, but Arthur's glad she placed at all, which I guess is all that matters?
Speaking of Ganessa, I liked that her response to Satellizer winning was a bratty pout as opposed to outright hostility. The small scene with her dancing with Arthur while still in her contest getup was nice too, because I love me some girls in dominatrix outfits doing non-dominatrixy things.
Funniest part was the announcer for the Pandora Queen contest getting booed by the crowd and pelted with trash upon saying the name of an unseen contestant. It just came out of nowhere and was more indicative of bullying than what Mr. Raged So Hard My Floor Turned To Lava thought accounted for bullying in this show, so you can't fault me for getting a kek out of it.
Rana, who officially has no Limiter, and Hiiragi, who couldn't find a last-minute prom date, dancing together during that portion of the prom was a sweet moment.

TOP BILLING: Satellizer

Our girl finally made it. And also just like the Pandora Queen results, Attia got third and Rana fourth.

RATINGS: TV-PGL (BOF 4), TV-PG (BOF 5-6), TV-PGS (BOF 7), TV-MA (Freezing 8)

This chunk of BOF eps started out with language here and there, the strongest profanity being Tsukushi calling Tsukasa a "cowardly bastard" in #4. After that were two "hells" for #5, just one for #6. But then came episode #7 with a surprising level of moderate sexual content, from simply near-nudity like a metaphorical naked Tsukushi and a random background topless sunbather, to more clothed but more direct approaches like the couple in bed Tsukushi accidentally walked in on and Rui making a bold romantic advance towards Shizuka that, while forceful, didn't devolve into one step short of rape.

As for Freezing, well.. it should be obvious. No amount of leniency towards incidental nudity can make up for all the gratuitous close-up shots on the breasts, butts and sometimes crotches of the West Genetics students participating in the Pandora Queen competition.

MAL CHALLENGE UPDATES

Four new series have been selected to round out the first half of my challenge criteria. For the "more in plan-to-watch than completed" category, we have DT Eightron, an obscure and unlicensed Sunrise property with only two distinguishing characteristics: it was screenwriter Mari Okada's debut in the anime industry, and its opening theme is super dope, especially for its time period. Next is the anime scored a 4 or less by someone on my sign-up page for the challenge. After some random selection, I settled on Sousei no Aquarion, which was scored a 2 by a user named Xxort. An Anime Insider article on the series kinda scared me away from it after noticing that the dynamic of the three main characters was a lot like that of Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke in OG Naruto, but between the excellent opening themes and TV Tropes' Better Than It Sounds page describing it as "robot powered by orgasms fights every fairy tale ever" being really fucking intriguing, I decided to finally give it a shot. By the way, it's my next ratings album, so keep an eye out for the images in the What Anime Are You Watching Thread? Then there's "scored by less than 50 users", so I skewed super-obscure and went with Ashita Kirarin, a short educational film about a high school girl with autism who helps her classmates out with creating a soda can mural for their summer cultural festival. The only stream I can find is on the official website for the City of Osaka's Human Rights Promotion Council, and it doesn't even go fullscreen, so I guess I'll be watching it that way. Finally, we have "anime taking place on Earth but not in Japan", for which I decided to finally cross GONZO's adaptation of Hellsing off my backlog. So I'll be doing that too.

Now if only MyAnimeList would finally give me access to my account after forcibly logging me out and changing my password like paranoid dickwads, then I'd actually be getting somewhere!

I think it's apparent now that I have trouble with conciseness.

Edited June 6, 2018 by PokeNirvash

PokeNirvash · June 28, 2018

Alrighty then, let's revive this thread with a little quickie.

Boys Over Flowers

#8: The Nightmare of the Fall Term!
#9: Tsukasa Domyoji Snaps!

plus

FREEZING
Episode 09: Godspeed of the East

Spoiler

BOF: No funny comments, so I'm just gonna point out that it's thanks to these that he's like this.

In these two episodes, Tsukushi's relationships with the two main guys develop in differing directions. On the one hand, she starts hanging out with Rui more often, to the point of the two of them actually getting along. (Truly those two are now "stairway friends".) Even taking out of consideration that he's probably the one character in anime I'm identifying most with right now, Rui's still definitely the nicest of the F4, even at his most autistic, so one could say I'm rooting for his relationship with Tsukushi to expand. On the other, Tsukasa... well, the episode title says it all. Yuriko and her cronies try to make Tsukasa hate Tsukushi more than he normally shows by revealing stealth footage they took of Tsukushi and Rui being buddy-buddy with one another and hinting that she's playing the both of them, but when they do, it works too well, sending Tsukasa into a calm, near-murderous rage, which is something even the other F4 members know is bad news. He bitchslaps Yuriko, physically assaults a student who accidentally bumped shoulders with him, almost throws a chair at the school nurse and misses thanks to a witnessing Tsukushi screaming to distract him, and confronts Tsukushi herself about the "truth" Yuriko revealed to him when she goes back to get her textbooks. What results is... oddly enough, the most gentle, non-explicit sexual assault I've seen in fiction. (And yes, that counts the attempted punching.) It was weird, weird enough to leave Tsukushi just as unsafe as she would have been had he actually raped her. So naturally, when it's time to go to the birthday party Shizuka invited her to, she has Yuki and Kazuya accompany her there, for moral support and in case any of the F4 are there and wind up harassing her. Though the latter fear only comes up when they reach Shizuka's place... Still, from the looks of the next episode preview, there won't be a whole lot of F4 bothering, as it's focusing primarily on character development for Shizuka. So yeah, can't wait to see where that goes.

Freezing: In the interest of different things, here's a bareback light show and a rare establishing shot.

Meanwhile in the era of New Tesla, Kazuya pays a visit to East Genetics, the sister school to West Genetics, and meets their #1 Pandora in the third year, Cathy Lockharte. She's strong enough for consideration to join Chevalier, the fancy name for the fourth-year students at the Genetics Schools who are the first in line for NOVA-fighting, but doesn't want to go into it. Partly because she'd rather spend her time writing novels, partly because the fight she had with Satellizer after she injured that one Limiter for life - the incident that resulted in her transferring schools - made her realize that she doesn't have the strength to really lead. Also of note, she's one of a select handful of individuals to receive the Stigmata recovered from Kazuya's late sister, dubbed "Sacreds" because of her high reputation among the Pandora.

Appropriately enough, this time around is a Wham Episode, thanks to the number of reveals dropped throughout. On the action side, there's the first-ever appearance of four NOVA at once, which not only results in the loss of several standard soldiers and Pandora forces, but also the absorption of Cathy, among others from East Genetics. What's more, the situation is so great that even West Genetics is being forced to mobilize in case the East Genetics Pandora manage to fall by the wayside. As for the more dialogue-focused reveals, it's all about Kazuya discovering the reason Satellizer reminded him of his sister the first time they met: she has six of Kazuha's Sacreds. And has good control over them, despite a startlingly low compatibility rate! He shares this information and the fact that it was subconsciously the reason for his selecting Satellizer as his Pandora with Arthur and Hiiragi, but Satellizer happens to overhear it, leading to a breakdown on her end.

This marks the point where I'm expecting a lot of character deaths in these next three episodes. Seeing how Satellizer, Kazuya, Rana, Chiffon, and Elizabeth are the only students I can remember by name that I know for sure make it to Vibration (which I'm probably gonna hold out on for a bit), I have good reason to believe that many of Satellizer's previous tormentors will meet their end before the final moments. And judging from a Youtube video I happened to glance at, Ganessa's most likely one of them. I fear for Arthur's life as a result.

STRAY OBSERVATIONS

Kazuya expected everyone at Eitoku to be friendly toward him after the squid bake in the previous episode, and was naturally shocked to find out that they still hate his guts. I doubt Tsukushi was surprised by this in the slightest.
[Tsukasa picks up chair and throws it] I'M MAD. [riot breaks out]
The date on the card for Shizuka's party says "Saturday, October 4th". Based on that, I determined that this series takes place in 1997.
The bulli game this episode was pretty high for BOF, but surprisingly low on Freezing. Now that everyone's being forced to care about the aliens, there's no more need to bully Satellizer, from what I can tell (and based off of what Lava Anon says).
One scene in this Freezing ep that I particularly liked was Rana finding out about the state of emergency from Chiffon, and the latter being surprised that Rana has no idea what they're talking about. I'm not surprised in the slightest that Rana wouldn't be aware of the NOVA attack. Being raised by Tibetan monks all her life and being sent to West Genetics for the express purpose of finding a suitable mate, I bet even the existence of the NOVA never crossed Rana's mind, assuming she was told about them to begin with.
Sister Margaret was the stealth best girl all along, who would've thought?

TOP BILLING: Cathy

As if I was expecting anything else.

RATINGS: TV-PGL (BOF #8), TV-PGS (BOF #9), TV-14SV (Freezing #9)

The former of the two Boys Over Flowers eps had mostly just profanity, namely one use each of "hell", "piss", and "bitch". In contrast, the latter had no profanity, but the aforementioned not-so-rape scene. Tsukasa pinned Tsukushi to the ground, undid her uniform ribbon, and then spooned her and kissed her forehead. Nothing super-drastic, but considering the context, the atmosphere, and Tsukushi's PTSD moment, I thought an S was fitting. (Damn, this show's pulling this rating out of obscurity faster than Neo Ranga was...)

As for Freezing, there was the usual incidental nudity - three for Cathy, one for Satellizer - and a mix of bloodied Pandora bodies and some blood trailing off of Cathy's VOLT weapon in her flashback fight. No profanity, as per usual.

There. Now doing write-ups of these length for future episode combos should be easier now.

Edited June 28, 2018 by PokeNirvash

Blatch · July 4, 2018

Well damn, this has taken too long even for me. I just wanted to check something to verify the rating, but I was too lazy to do it for several weeks.

My apologies. But at least you already know what's coming.

Log Horizon
Episode 1: "The Apocalypse"

I apologize to Poke for the unfortunate title.

Now, let's talk about a game... Elder Tales, of course. It's a story as old as one particular medium: some unfortunate people get trapped in a video game. Only this time, it doesn't involve complex computer systems nor virtual reality. The main gimmick of this series is that everything is very real, as our protagonists soon find out. The cold opening involving novices instigating combat with some generic monsters is pretty promising, of course.

Elder Tales is a very popular online RPG, with over twenty million active players. It's basically the World of Warcraft of this world, except everything seems to trend towards the Japanese. So here we are at the launch of Novasphere Pioners, the game's ninth expansion. When it launches, however, that's when 30,000 players from across the world get spirited away to the game. One of them is Shiroe, a half-Alv (elf-ish person) sorcerer who has a really big robe. He suddenly gets transported to Akiba (short for Akihabara, natch), the game's equivalent of Tokyo. He finds that he can use the internal interface of the game just like on the computer, only it takes some getting used to, because you need to tap the icons in mid-air as if they were solid. And logging out isn't an option, at least for right now. He pulls up the friend list so he can talk to his friend Naotsugu (pronounced "nowts-goo"), a defender clad in heavy metal armor. They end up meeting in a part of Akiba that's rather forlorn... actually, the entire city's like that. This is an interesting twist for how this show goes about making its MMORPG: Elder Tale seems to take place in a world of the far-future, after civilized society as we currently run it breaks down. Basically, all of the major population centers, such as Akiba, have a shitload of moss, and it makes the end result look rather stunning.

So back to Naotsugu... he's basically a less-chivalrous ladies' man; a shameless pervert who loves panties, will happily go after lady parts, and is just begging to be #MeToo'd at a moment's notice. They talk about various things related to the game they're now in. Naotsugu hasn't logged in for two years prior to this expansion going live, but now he's here. Soon after, they get distracted by rocks being thrown in a derelict lake. They're from an assassin on a high floor of a building named Akatsuki. She's looking to get Shiroe's attention. He and Naotsugu go up in the building to meet her. She's currently a female trapped in a male body, because that's the gender she chose for her character when first starting the game, and now she needs Shiroe's potion to fix things. This allows her to transform into something closer to her real form... a rather smol purple-haired girl. Aww, how cute! Naotsugu wants all of her, but he gets not much back except for some violence. Basically, the three are now a makeshift group that will help sort out the chaos in Elder Tales. They then go to a busy street corner to eat food, which looks pretty appetizing... but all of it, all the individual bits of food, taste like soggy rice crackers, while liquids just taste like flavorless water. Despite this, however, they're just happy to be well-fed.

Shiroe soon gets another message, this time from his full-elf friend Marielle, asking for his presence. They get to Marielle's location in Akiba, and it's filled with a bunch of plushies, teddy bears, and other cute things. Of course, Marielle herself is extremely wholesome and ready to hug all the members of this group, especially Akatsuki. She's one of the higher-ups in the Crescent Moon guild, which also includes Henrietta, who's more stern and serious, but even she can't get enough of Akatsuki's cuteness. Nevertheless, they seem to be doing well. Also included in this guild is Sojiro; there's not much interesting about him, but he looks like a samurai. Sojiro then explains what's going on for the rest of the episode: the teleport gates that usually connect the regions of Japan in Elder Tales are shot to hell. Nobody knows what to do or where to go, and on top of that, since a new expansion has recently launched, nobody really knows what could be different in the world, and if such things could potentially kill you. Nobody knows what happens to people yet, although in the game, it typically just took people to the Cathedral, where they could live again. On top of this, guilds have more power than in the game because there is a general lack of social order to speak of. Therefore, it's join Crescent Moon or get spanked, but Shiroe and Akatsuki don't necessarily want to take.

The episode ends with Shiroe getting involved with combat, and it doesn't end well for him, Akatsuki, or Naotsugu. They have to be careful to not die, because nobody knows what happens when you do just yet. Either way, they'd lose some valuable EXP, although it doesn't matter too much since they're all at the known level cap of 90. This is definitely going to take some getting used to. Of course, you don't have to also contend with one of your party members being missing in action over in Susukino, at the northernmost province of ET!Japan. Buckle up, everyone, because this show is about go accelerate into turbo and knock yourselves over with superior MMO action.

And that's the first episode. I like this show's more cerebral take on the isekai genre, even if it sort of came on the scene before the genre became especially popular. There's an interesting contrast between these early shows like Log Horizon, SAO, Grimgar, maybe Overlord, and then you have your contemporaries like Re:Zero. This show does not have any single Gary Stu character to primarily focus on; a lot of people are specialized and have good skills, but they don't hog up the plot.

Miscellaneous points:

Let's talk about the music in this show. The actual diegetic tracks are what you would expect for an anime like this. There is occasionally an orchestra for dramatic pieces, but you also have some more laid-back music with wind instruments, light synths, and other inoffensive stuff.
As for the OP... well, I do like me some "Database", but because this is the only OP in the show across fifty episodes, it eventually started to wear on me when I originally watched the second season. The ED is staid J-pop to a comical extent, but I'm okay with it. Strangely, the first episode's ED animation is clean on my Blu-ray, even though the original broadcast had all the proper credits.
Regarding the voice work in this show, let's just get this out of the way... yeah, Shiroe is voiced by Touma's VA. In fact, that's not the only correlation in this show, because we have Yumi Hara (the voice of Takane) as Marielle in the Japanese version. There's also one more iM@S connection I'll mention later on, but these aren't relevant at all to the show discussion. I'm watching the English dub, of course.
The dub is pretty well cast. I've never heard Mike Yager in anything before, but he does a pretty serviceable Shiroe. Andrew Love's Naotsugu sounds like the biggest dudebro in the world; I remember him sounding a little more serious in the sub, but I prefer this portrayal easily. The only voice I have an issue with is Shelley-Calene Black as Henrietta. Honestly, it feels like she uses the same type of stern and authoritative voice no matter what she's in; the average person reading this will associate that with Najenda. I don't know... maybe I should watch more Sentai dubs so I can see if she ever plays a different character. They must exist somewhere.
One of the things Sentai really excels at is disambiguating every single minor character that gets a voice, which are included in each episode's credits. The names in this episode include: "Brigandia Jerk"s A, B, and C (the latter of whom is voiced by the dub's director, Kyle Jones); a "Veggie Merchant" and "Food Selling Wimp" (the latter voiced by Chris Ayres); and many "Confused Gamers", two of whom are Kyle again as well as John Swasey, another dub director who helmed the remaining Squid Girl episodes.
There are going to be different (chibi-fied versions of) characters in the eyecatch at some point, but this one brings up the logo and nothing more. I'm just making a note of it.

Rated: TV-PGDLV

Why? Well, Sentai's rating on the BD case is 14V, but we'll see what happens further along. In the meantime, this episode had a good variety of stuff.

The dialogue subrating comes from Naotsugu, who talked about going out with hot girls, as well as one mention of enjoying a woman's panties. That last point was actually worse in the original light novel, where it persisted for an entire chapter, and was seemingly the default trigger for Akatsuki to go and kick Naotsugu's ass. That it was only mentioned once saves this episode from going up to a 14 straight, so I appreciate the more subdued approach the anime uses.

Speaking of those ass-kickings, they were arguably the worst violence in the episode (and Akatsuki called him "pervy-pants" after one beating) because this show's way of treating things as if it were still an RPG includes, get this, making the enemies explode into blocky pixels... and bubbles. Fucking bubbles. I'm about to reclaim that running gag due to the person who started it being an asshole. Victims of this bubblization included some briar weasels whipped by Shiroe into a pixelated grave. There was a brief overlay of blood on the screen to show Akatsuki's role as an assassin at the end of the episode, but I'm not completely sure how to rate this, so I'm going to pretend it has more to do with paintball. It isn't a lot of blood, either.

Finally, there were three uses of "sucks" and its derivatives, one of "frigging", and Naotsugu saying "If I lose my Level 90, it's your ass!" Just based off of that, I think this'll be a series where lower-rate profanity becomes more important.

Opening: An alarm clock. But at least it's more exciting than just text on a black screen.

Act break: Our three heroes juxtaposed with the farmer's market.

If you don't know, this is a pretty lengthy anime, with fifty episodes over two seasons. I'm probably going to combine episodes within posts just like Poke is doing now, if only so I can chew through it faster. Like I said on the ANN boards, I hate taking more than a few days between episodes of a show I like.

CatSoul · July 16, 2018

I joined the Adult Swim message boards long ago, started a content ratings thing for Oh! Edo Rocket (which is not TV-MA like Funimation alleges it is), never finished it, continued doing my ratings in private, and then discovered this place exists.

A little introduction:

I've been doing this since mid-2016. It's definitely an Aspie thing, though I'm interested in pretty much all content ratings from all countries.

It looks like I may be a more lenient rater, comparing PokeNirvash's ratings for Made in Abyss and Inuyashiki in his ratings gallery on Imgur to my own. I was on Amazon's side with their TV-14 rating for Made in Abyss; the highest rating I gave an episode was TV-14-DV. However, it looks like Sentai is on Poke's side, as the upcoming Blu-ray is listed on their site with a TV-MA-V rating. I also gave PGs to a few tamer Inuyashiki episodes Poke went with a plain TV-14 rating for.

I'm admittedly not sure how to make the cool rating screencaps you guys do; I presume you need transparent versions of all the ratings.

And now, my ratings for Hinamatsuri episodes 1-3 (dubbed version):

If you haven't given this show a chance yet go for it, it's lived up to its hype so far.

Episode 1: TV-PG-LV. Profanity includes one use of 'bitch', three uses of 'damn', four uses of 'hell', one use of 'pissed', and one use of 'screwed'. Violence included bloodless kicking, punching, and people being thrown through windows via psychic powers. Hina's brief nudity posed no issues with a plain PG; she's a child, it's not portrayed as fanservice, and all we see is a non-detailed side view of her and a brief shot of her bare butt. A single-second flash of a news story referencing sexual harassment on the TV was also fine with a plain PG.

Episode 2: TV-PG-LV. Profanity includes two uses of 'ass', four uses of 'damn', three uses of 'hell', one use of 'pissed', and one use of 'crap'. Violence included some tough guys being thrown around by a young girl. This young girl pops in naked, but it's entirely the same as Hina's nudity (there was a full-frontal shot, but it was too dark to make out anything). Some might be concerned with middle school girls becoming impromptu bartenders and going to a gentleman's club in this episode, but it seemed fine at PG for me (it's not like they were actually drinking or engaging in any unsavory activities).

Episode 3: TV-PG. A very low-key episode. Profanity (if you can even call what there was profanity) included one use each of 'hell', 'sucks', and 'bite me'. No violence at all. More middle school bartender antics push this from G to PG.

PokeNirvash · July 17, 2018

Oh hey, a sorta-new visitor! I'm glad to see you've been keeping up with my Imgur albums, and am actually quite flattered at how strikingly similar my ratings are to the real deal. Still, I can be lenient too. Just look at Freezing; if not for my laxer-than-typical stance on female nudity, every episode up to this point would've gotten an MA by now!

Boys Over Flowers

#10: The Woman Who Gave Up Everything
#11: Love Beyond the Horizon

plus

FREEZING
Episode 10: NOVA Form

Spoiler

In the interest of time and brain power, I won't be going super in-depth into the plots of these episodes, though I'll try to paint as complete a picture for you as I can without forgetting the definition of "concise" half-way through as I have in the past.

BOF #10-11: Tsukushi's inner loneliness has nothing on how Mimisaka must feel after Nishikado nabbed himself some facetime.

Now, I'm not the kind of person that gets wrapped up in happenings in the news, especially political ones. #MeToo, I especially try to avoid, as every day it seems like more and more women are coming out about harassments that may or may not have actually happened. But somehow it found its way to me here in a series two decades too early for the hashtag, and in a surprisingly relevant way too. I mean, let's be real. When a good couple of minutes' worth of screentime is dedicated to a sleazy producer feeling up a clearly unwilling chick, almost doing the same to Tsukushi, and getting straight-up decked for it, eliciting cheers from all the women there to boot, it's hard for your mind to drift to anything besides the #MeToo movement, even someone who cares as little about Hollywood producers as myself. (Fuck, I'd barely even heard of Harvey Weinstein before the literal flood of accusations came rushing in.) Even taking Shizuka's one-two punch of a bombshell of announcing a permanent move to France and cutting her hair super-short for character development purposes into account, Tsukushi's supposed anger issues making her a hero for women's rights a whole generation before such a thing truly mattered will always be my personal #1 moment from the former's 20th birthday bash.

Now let's talk about Rui for a moment. As expected from the man with the mysterious emotional patterns, he was just as shocked as the next guy at Shizuka's news about her super long-term return trip to Paris, but claims that it doesn't bother him in order to save face. Tsukushi at first saw this as an opportunity to try and get with him, though her whole tune changed after realizing that she's thinking under the same mindset as her man-eater classmates. With it, she also figured out that Rui was likely really emotionally wrecked about Shizuka's departure and was bottling it up, inspiring her to try and use those presumed feelings to convince her to stay behind. Something that Rui himself, who eavesdropped on the girls' conversation, was actually quite offended by, even though Shizuka showed no problem with Tsukushi's allegations, only convincing her that regardless of what Rui's feeling, she can't let as golden an opportunity as practicing foreign law slip by. And while his offense to her assumption leads to a confrontation that may have been unwarranted, he can't help but feel thankful for Tsukushi for unclouding his feelings on the matter. My plothole-filler instincts tell me that Tsukushi claiming he'd be lost without Shizuka in the same country as him made him want to be with her for just a little bit longer before parting ways until the first time she vacations to Japan. The end result was the same either way: after seemingly skipping out on seeing Shizuka off at the airport, Rui bought tickets for the next flight from Tokyo-to-France and followed Shizuka there. But not before telling Tsukushi and the F4 that he was doing so; what friend would he be to them if he didn't? That boy is certainly an odd one.

Anyways, now that Rui's out of the country, it's Tsukasa's turn to make a play for Tsukushi. Assuming her randomly vomiting on his nice suit made up for the sexual assault that barely wasn't, it appears that their relationship is back to how it was, so the date they'll be going on next time should be interesting to see play out.

Freezing #10: If you wanted to see Dr. Elise in these screencaps, then today's your lucky day.

Unlike BOF, there's no real big scene I can use to describe the plot around here, so I'll just wing it with a quick rundown. So the NOVA that were attacking East Genetics only did so as a diversion, using the alert to send their strongest troops away so they could teleport to their true target of West Genetics and take what's inside. Namely, the body of the NOVA-human hybrid Maria Lancelot, used to create the Stigmata used by all Pandora and is being kept in the lowest levels of the uniquely-titled Ravensborne Nucleochede. But taking out the NOVA themselves are the easy part, at least for the veteran Pandora. The hard part is combatting the assimilated NOVA Form Pandora absorbed at East Genetics - Cathy included - who take over the NOVAs' mission for them and invade the campus and Ravensborne Nucleochede to get what they want. Not even special knockout gas is enough to stop them, which makes me wonder what is enough.

As for our protagonists, Satellizer still feels that Kazuya's feelings for her outside of sisterly resemblance aren't legit, and almost gets in a fight with Rana over it because apparently only Pandora can fight other Pandora. Luckily, Kazuya puts a stop to it before it starts and clears up the misunderstanding, which is more than I can say for a number of other harem protags. (Assuming a harem can consist of only two ladies.) Still, whether I'm right or wrong in that regard, the three of them, plus Ganessa and Arthur, are called down to protect Maria Lancelot's cryogenics room in the event that the NOVA Forms bust their way in. Okay, now I'm really fearing for Ganessa's life. But I'll have time to talk about that next episode, posted while it's still fresh in my memory.

STRAY OBSERVATIONS

“Girls like that are only after one thing… They don’t want me, they want my position, my name, and my cash!” And also your dick.
There's something amusing about the fact that Tsukasa bought one of those boxes with the spring-loaded snakes that scares you when you open it as a going-away present for Shizuka, just so he could spook Kazuya with it before handing it off. I'd imagine it also doubles as an in-joke between him and her.
It's surprising but also understandable that Tsukushi would be so wrapped up in Rui's feelings for Shizuka that she'd forget that he could just use his money to by cross-country plane tickets and visit her whenever he wanted, thereby shooting down any possibility of the two never meeting again.
The Virgin Rito Yuuki keeps hopelessly confessing to his crush no matter what contrived coincidences keep him from doing so, and never makes any progress at all. The Chad Tsukasa Domyoji asks a girl out on a date one time and takes whatever reaction she gives as a yes, especially when it's confusion thanks to loud noises.
It amuses me that the NOVA Forms run Naruto-style, and this episode was outsourced to Pierrot's fanservice-friendly sister studio ARMS. Whose name for the longest time I found hilarious considering they also worked on Elfen Lied.

TOP BILLING: Sister Margaret.

Who else but the secret best girl?

RATINGS: TV-14 (BOF 10), TV-PG (BOF 11), TV-14S (Freezing 10)

For BOF 10, Japanese Weinstein's chronic ass-groping disease (yeah, right) are all that really need to be said. Outside of the profanity close-call of Kazuya almost saying that liver (actually foie gras) looks like dog shit. BOF 11 is just mild profanity, with "sucks" being the worst of it, and Freezing 10 all incidental full-frontal and surprisingly no bloodshed.

CatSoul · July 17, 2018

I'm going to try to make this post a bit more readable than my introduction. Furthermore, I found Poke's old tutorial on creating rating screencaps and attempted to make my own. Unfortunately, I got lost at the assistant screencap, making my attempt at episode 1's first act off-center and clearly amateur. I'll practice some more.

Hinamatsuri #4-6:

Episode 4: TV-PG. Profanity includes two uses of 'damn', one use of 'hell', and one use of 'suck'. Violence was one comedic, Y7-esque punch. The usual drinking antics.

Episode 5: TV-14. "Profanity" includes one use of 'crap', one use of 'suck', and one use of 'screw'. No violence. The reason for our first TV-14 is because of some of Hitomi's classmates seeing her enter the bar she works at right before their teacher and thinking she's having a sexual relationship with him. The second half of the episode involves them investigating this alleged 'illicit sexual relationship', though they don't know anything about sex/what comes after the 'boob touch'. The dialogue didn't exceed a PG-D rating, but the fact that it involved middle schoolers was enough for a TV-14.

Episode 6: TV-PG. Profanity includes two uses of 'damn', one use of 'hell', one use of 'freaking', one use of 'crap', and one use of 'suck'. Violence was limited to slapstick. Some casual drinking/intoxication.

Can't help but notice it appears like the dub got most of its swearing out of its system in the first two episodes.

1

Edited July 17, 2018 by CatSoul

CatSoul · July 20, 2018

Finishing Hinamatsuri:

Hinamatsuri #7-12 (plus thoughts/statistics on ratings, whole series):

#2 AOTY for me so far behind Aggretsuko. Watch this!

Episode 7: TV-PG-L. Profanity includes one use of 'ass', three uses of 'damn', and one use of 'crap'. No violence. A very sweet scene in which Anzu happens to be in the shower, once again her body entirely nondescript. You'd have to be one sick, kinky bastard to get an "S" out of that.

Episode 8: TV-PG-L. Profanity includes a poster that reads "Magical Bastards", one use of 'ass', one use of 'hell', one use of 'crap', and one use of 'screw'. No violence. Hina and Nitta's bare butts.

Episode 9: TV-PG-L. Profanity includes one use of 'dumbass', one use of 'balls' (complimenting Nitta for having the 'biggest, hairiest balls' - not in a sexual context), two uses of 'damn', two uses of 'hell', and one use of 'crap'. Violence only consists of a bit of comic punching. We're introduced to Mao in this episode, who's stranded on an island completely naked, though I'm not sure why I bother mentioning the nudity at this point. They don't even have the outlines of breasts. The camera keeps its distance. It's not "S" worthy.

Episode 10: TV-PG-D. We spent a long time with the child cast in this episode, so there actually turned out to be no swearing at all. Some slapstick. The "D" comes from Hitomi's mom, suspicious of her middle school daughter sneaking out every night as a bartender, accusing her of "doing something lewd" and "selling her body". Hitomi's new office has some women gossiping about her who say she might be able to get ahead because "some guys like them young", while another woman suspects she "answers to a pimp". It was less of a focus in this episode than episode 5 and never directly referenced sex or an adult-child relationship; therefore, I felt it could still be contained at the TV-PG level.

Episode 11: TV-PG-LV. Profanity includes three uses of 'dumbass', three uses of 'damn', two uses of 'hell', two uses of 'crap', and one use of 'suck'. (Most profanity we've had since episode 2.) Some brief violence involves Nitta pretending to be a tough yakuza by hitting a guy on the head (we see a tad bit of blood) and plenty of references to his violent yakuza past.

Episode 12: TV-PG-V. Profanity includes three uses of 'damn', three uses of 'suck', and one use of 'crap'. We finally get back to the fight scene from episode 1 with some bloodless kicking and punching.

-

Despite my rating of most of the series as TV-PG, I suspect if Adult Swim/Toonami were to actually air the series at some point, there's a good chance most episodes would get at least a plain TV-14 rating based on scenes involving middle schoolers as bartenders, in gentlemen's clubs, gambling, etc.

Last week's Pop Team Epic was TV-MA and I have absolutely no idea why, but some suspected that it was because of 14-year-old Popuko smoking. That seems kinda ridiculous. If something as wholesome as Hinamatsuri ever got an MA, I'd seriously complain.

Overall ratings:

TV-PG-LV: x3

TV-PG: x3

TV-PG-L: x3

TV-PG-D: x1

TV-PG-V: x1

TV-14: x1

Blanket rating: TV-14

Profanity Count:

Damn: x22

Hell: x15

Crap: x9

Suck: x8

Ass: x4

Dumbass: x3

Screw/screwed: x3

Pissed: x2

Bitch: x1

Balls: x1

Bite me: x1

Freaking: x1

For a grand total of 70 off-color words!

Could this show have been edited for Toonami pre-Adult Swim? No way. Not with a middle schooler who works as a bartender being so significant in the plot.

korosu · July 20, 2018

1 hour ago, CatSoul said:

Hide contents

Last week's Pop Team Epic was TV-MA and I have absolutely no idea why, but some suspected that it was because of 14-year-old Popuko smoking. That seems kinda ridiculous. If something as wholesome as Hinamatsuri ever got an MA, I'd seriously complain.

PokeNirvash · July 20, 2018

Hey, keep your FOX animated comedy clips out of my thread!

PokeNirvash · August 15, 2018

I have got to get better at being timely with these sorts of posts. And just when I fixed by conciseness problem too...

Welp, no matter. Before the overdue (and hastily put-together) rundown, the long-awaited announcement for Freezing's replacement.

Spoiler

2011: the year that keeps on giving.

Replacing Freezing upon its planned, possibly postponed but definitely eventual completion will be Heaven's Memo Pad, a 2011 anime from J.C. Staff about a high schooler who gets dragged into the world of Japanese gang violence and drug smuggling by way of a loli NEET detective, as anime is wont to do. It'll be dubbed, for the sake of having the ratings be as close to an [as] analog as possible, and it being one of Steven Foster's last dubs before his disgraceful resignation from Sentai Filmworks, it should prove entertaining, even if said entertainment is more unintentional than anything else.

Like Freezing and Boys Over Flowers, Heaven's Memo Pad is part of the MAL Challenge, which I doubt I'm going to finish on time thanks to a combination of other free-time hobbies, an upcoming semester of grad school, and the beginnings of carpal tunnel in my non-dominant arm (probably). The reason I waited so long to announce it was because I wasn't sure if it fit the necessary criteria for its challenge item, "watch one of the top 5 anime recommended to your favorite". The top 5 anime recommended to Eureka seveN at the time of decision (Xam'd, Evangelion, Gurren Lagann, Guilty Crown, and Code Geass) are all on my list in one way or another already, and by the time recommendations came back up after the infamously long downtime, Darling in the Franxx managed to poke its way into the top 5, and like hell I'm watching that until I'm back to writing NIBAI MUGENDAI. So, as I did with the Koi Kaze item, I went back to Durarara!! for suggestions, and Heaven's Memo Pad was the only show not on my list that wasn't tied with something outside of the top 5 (better luck next time, Kekkai Sensen), so that was my planned watch. As for the long wait, I had to wait until the forums came back to ask if Durarara!! was an acceptable favorite to choose recs from. Once I did, I asked, I got the affirmative, and here we are.

The other three challenge series to join it in its block of four are Chuukan Kanriroku Tonegawa, for anime tagged Dementia, Psychological, and/or Thriller (of which it fits the middle category) - I was planning on doing Happy Sugar Life, but the damn site won't let me add genre tags - Initial D: Extra Stage 2, for anime with 5 or more genre tags (of which it satisfies the minimum), and Hajime no Ippo, for anime whose title starts with the last letter of my username, the contest for that position it won back in April. I feel that's the one I'm gonna have to marathon like my life depends on it come December.

The next four items on the list are "3 or more main characters with unnatural hair colors", "movie that's 2 or more hours", "short anime with 70+ episodes", and "spin-off/alternate reality version of an anime on my list". The only series I've come up with for any of those four is Di Gi Charat Nyo for the third one, but even then that's a placeholder. So it's gonna be a while before I have anything for that. Still, hope you enjoyed the update. Freezing/BOF post coming soon-ish.

PokeNirvash · August 16, 2018

Boys Over Flowers

#12: A Date in the Snow
#13: Love Moves Too Fast

plus

FREEZING
Episode 11: Ambush! Ravensborne Nucleochede

Spoiler

Alright, seeing how I've waited way too long to put this together, I'm setting some ground rules. No overly long plot synopses, no stray observations. Just my thoughts and what I can muster of them.

BOF #12-13: Frustrated by the not-so-little things in life? Then early '90s dancing might be the solution you need!

While I wouldn't really call it an apology for getting all pseudo-rapey with her a few episodes ago, the fact that Tsukasa was serious about getting romantically involved with Tsukushi, to the point where he called out his F4 buddies on trying to give him advice that would end in an easy lay, was quite surprising, considering his personality up to this point. But then again, waiting four hours in the snow for a girl you aren't even sure agreed to the date you just dumped on her, even after almost assaulting her over a misunderstanding big enough to shatter a glass window, is an admirable means of making up, even if it wasn't your intention and you caught a cold afterward. He's lucky Tsukushi gave it enough thought to eventually join up with him and see how legit his efforts were, even if it ended with them spending the night in an elevator. So I'd say things are getting a little better for them? Probably?

Whatever the case, that date was enough to boost Tsukushi's popularity at Eitoku, to the point where she's now eating with the F4 during lunch. The Terrible Trio, as usual, try to get in on this by (obviously facetiously) getting in closer with Tsukushi as if they were giving friendship with her an honest shake, giving her the cutesy nickname "Suki" to boot. Tsukushi, naturally, doesn't trust them in the slightest, but you know what they say about keeping your enemies closer than your friends... Ultimately, Tsukushi went clubbing with them and got the chance to hang out with Rui's American doppelganger, a man named Thomas. Perhaps the most surprising thing to come out of his appearance are the multiple hints that he and Tsukushi may have slept together after getting tipsy on 7UP. The soap opera complication that he's boarding with Tsukushi's new friend Sakurako - the one she saved from Jap Weinstein back in episode 10 - is interesting and all, but what I'm really interested in is Sakurako herself. Her defensiveness towards Tsukushi looking at her photo albums is enough to arouse suspicion by itself, even without her connection to Thomas, and apparently it works because I really wanna know what she's hiding in those books. Considering that next episode is titled "Sakurako's Secret", I have a feeling I'll get my answer very soon.

Freezing #11: Ah, unprecedented wartime activities. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one nettled by such a hot-button topic.

As for Freezing, it was mostly action. The high-ranked third years keeping most of the NOVA Forms at bay and figuring out they can be temporarily dispatched by striking their chest emblems, while the second years on the bottom floor deal with NOVA Form Cathy, who temporarily breaks free of her mind control during a battle with Satellizer to beg for a speedy defeat, so no one else has to get hurt. Speaking of which, I was expecting a wide array of fatalities this episode, none of which were delivered on. What a pleasant surprise! Of course, that means next episode probably has the fatalities I'm expecting, so we aren't in the clear just yet.

...Yeah, not much else to say about this episode. Kazuya managed to clear up the misunderstanding Satellizer had about him viewing her as a sister surrogate, which is good. I'd have more to say, but my memories of the episode are a month old, so they're not as good as the ones I'm hoping for the finale will be once I get around to writing about it.

TOP BILLING: Satellizer

I'd say she finally made it, but I just remembered (read: looked up) that she already got top billing once before. So yeah, my memory is not to be trusted 50% of the time, remember that.

RATINGS: TV-PGDS (BOF 12), TV-PGD (BOF 13), TV-14SV (Freezing 11)

Both BOF episodes had its initial moments of dialogue come from Nishikado and Mimisaka misunderstanding Tsukasa's intentions pre- and post- his cold date. First they suggested he get a hotel room and say "bye-bye" to his virginity, and then they were led to believe, through Tsukasa's wording, that he did the nasty with Tsukushi in the elevator they were trapped on. Other sex comments popped up throughout, including a construction worker suggesting Tsukushi and Tsukasa get a hotel room next time in the first, and Tsukushi concluding that she and Thomas did it in the second. The former episode also had flashbacks to the assault from episode 9, and Tsukushi assuming Tsukasa collapsing against her from the beginning stages of his cold was another assault in action. Profanity for each episode consisted of just one use of "hell".

Freezing, meanwhile, had the expected interplay of sex and violence. Incidental nudity and stiff yet clothed nipples, lots of bloody violence from NOVA Form Cathy's fight with the 2nd years, and two hells also... what more do you need for your average Freezing episode?

Blatch · August 19, 2018

Yeah... I really need to get back to posting here.

I'm going to do two episodes of Log Horizon next; the post is largely done. I just need to make the images and it'll be ready to go. I'll start doing posts more often after that, too.

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