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What Anime Are You Watching Right Now?


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Interviews with Monster Girls 5/6
Girls' Last Tour 1 (rewatch)/2
Laid-Back Camp S2E10/11
The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls 15
Birdie Wing -Golf Girl's Story- 6/7
Touhou Hifuu Club: The Sealed Esoteric History 1

Jesus, almost a month since my last post. I thought I'd posted earlier, but I guess not. No biggie.

Seven years ago today, I published my first review of an anime episode on the ASMB w/ gratuitous content ratings, which was the first episode of Squid Girl. Seems time to pile on another.

The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls Episode 15: "When the spell is broken..."

Spoiler

Executive Mishiro's decision to disband all the units, including the Cinderella Project itself, have taken a sledgehammer to the vibes at 346pro. The office looks unrecognizable, with boxes strewn everywhere and some covering the windows. People are shuffling in and out to take away what remains, as if the company is being stripped for parts. The girls still have outstanding jobs to do, but who knows if anything else will come. And it's raining again, because I know writers who use subtlety and all of them are cowards. To really drive things home, basically all the idols who work at the other parts of 346pro who showed up in the first cours re-appear, except they too are feeling the effects of Mishiro's desire to rebuild the agency in her own image. Haruna's unit had jobs canceled on them, Koume and Syoko are moving out, and all Nana can to do to satisfy her fellow idols is make dessert.

All the while, the girls are trying to figure out what they can do to take control of their agency again. The wedge issue is that Mishiro needs a proposal to run the idol unit. She has her own, wherein all the girls will compete to join one grand unit. TakeP will put in an alternate proposal, but he needs time to think about it. Miku (the former rival now turned aspiring leader) and the other idols have proposals they want to include as well. But they don't have a lot of time, as the clock is slowly ticking towards midnight. Somewhere amidst all this, they decide to beautify the now-stripped office, so they can still have a space to chill in between their remaining jobs. Also, there's recurring chatter in the office about Kaede Takagaki, the super popular adult idol who recently turned down an offer for a big job from Mishiro. Turns out it was to return to the place where she had her very first Live; Mizuki and Sanae are incredulous over this, but she later explains to New Generations that it wasn't about the money, but the fans. Ideally, the best proposal to do idol business should involve the idols and the fans moving forward in lockstep. And this ends up influencing TakeP's proposal for a new idol event called "Power of Smile", which he gives to Mishiro to close out the episode.

Well then. I was engrossed in this one at first, but the second half dragged a fair amount. It was nice to see Kaede in action, because for all intents and purposes she is the most popular idol in this series, but I was disappointed the show covered up most of her image song with dialogue. In regards to the other idols, they didn't get to do much. But I have high hopes for the next episode of this show, whose Crunchyroll thumbnail includes two unvoiced idols.

Oh, and Nao showed up again, plus her friend Karen. They got to practice with NG, and that's about it.

Stray observations (I originally wasn't going to do this, but I've got some good ideas):

  • Since I first wrote up this post in late July, it's been announced that the original Cinderella Girls mobile game is ending service, with the EoS date being next year on March 30. I never played it, but I recognize its historical value in pimping not just CG, but arguably mobage in general. This game might be the first anime mobile game to be shut down not because it wasn't making enough money, but because it reached the end of its lifespan. The only other mobage I can think of that is in similar territory is Rage of Bahamut, and in that game's case, it's just not being updated anymore. Call it "zombie mode", if you will. The thing with the original CG is that its gameplay... isn't, and on top of that it was always very expensive for someone to buy in. You always had to be of a special breed to get any enjoyment out of Mobamas, as it is sometimes nicknamed. But hey, at least Starlight Stage will live on for at least a long time.
  • In another bit of "the passage of time makes cruel victims of us all", Crunchyroll is ending support for their Wii U app on August 29. This might not sound like a big deal, but I've been using this platform to watch anime since, like, 2015. It replaced me jury-rigging a netbook to the TV and streaming the episodes that way. I don't remember what the first thing I watched on it was, but it's served me very well. Heck, I watched all of the OG iM@S series that way, and CR doesn't have that show anymore. Now, I do have a Switch, and I've watched all of one episode of anime on its app: it was actually Episode 9 of Cinderella Girls. But I didn't like it solely for the fact that it unfocused the credits in the last few seconds to show a countdown to the next episode. Also, the stream quality might be a little worse. It's barely anything, but it takes away from the viewing experience at least in my humble opinion. Guess I'll have to live with it and start using my older device for playing games and shit. At least, any games outside of Metroid.
  • Clockwatch: Finally, I have good material for this! The clock starts at 3:55 (w/ the seconds hand close to 12), is at 5:17 or 5:18 in the following scene (with Nao), pushes past 6:00 later, and eventually settles out at 6:50 just before the final scene. What does it all mean? Bitch if I know. But time seems to be growing shorter.
  • By the way, I've been reading my early posts lately, which includes my ratings-powered reviews, mostly the ones for Birdie Wing the Mighty: Decode. They hold up pretty well, actually. I'm shocked at how well I was able to compress the plots for some of the episodes, whereas my more recent reviews have felt too long and clunky. (Interestingly, having read it over about it, this one isn't so bad.) And the review I did for the OG Birdy fucking rips; here's a direct link to it, if you desire. I really want to be able to harness this creative spark once more at some point.
  • Now,  on the other hand... my early non-review posts don't hold up. I never realized just how much politics I invoked in my early reviews, often shoehorning any reference to Trump and the Dems in. And I was quite combative, whereas now I'm scared that anything I say anywhere on the Internet can be used against me, even though most people probably won't bother. Oh, and there were way too many references to the music I was into back then, starting with Yes and going through all the prog rock/jam band favorites. But that's a problem I've always had, Poster Nutbag.
  • Sorry if these observations don't have much to do with the show itself, but I wanted to get this out somewhere, like the old "State of the Blatch" posts I would do adjacent to ratings funtimes. Now, getting back to the topic at hand...  Mishiro's kinda sexy. Too bad most of the JP artists hate her guts for arbitrary reasons.
  • If Anzu is able to casually put on a mask and keep it on for at least a few minutes, so can you. But that's rich coming from me, since I haven't put one on since I recovered from COVID. Watch me get monkeypox next.
  • Not feeling a meme this time, if only because I've been saving so many Touhou memes as of late. I was thinking of putting one here just to be a contrarian, but I'll save that for the other thread.
  • Rated TV-PG.

Featured idol:

  • Kaede: 25, Cool-type, 6th Cinderella Girl. Likes drinking and making bad puns. Maybe you already know why she places in the Top 10 of the CG election every damn year. Some dude I followed crossplayed her, but then he got outed as a rapist and I felt conflicted.

Music reviews:

  • "Shine!!": 2nd OP. It's negligible.
  • "Koi Kaze": Kaede's Cinderella Master (image) song, which takes on a very regal and dramatic air. Quite literally, in the case of the show's in-series performance where there are fans (like our good tengu friend Aya has) that her fans get that are also autographed. With this weather we're having, I could use some fresh air.
  • "Yuubae Present": 2nd ED, except people are talking over it. But I know how it goes, and, again: negligible.

[r.i.p. jerry garcia]

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Laid-Back Camp S2E12/13

And a sorta random bit of news: the ComicFesta title popularly known as Show Time! (I just refer to it as the show with the Songstress) is being dubbed. Crazy that these hentai that air censored versions on Japanese TV are now a big deal around here too. Makes my comment about how Skirt no Naka will never be released hilarious in hindsight.

[never on crunchyroll, though]

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22 hours ago, Blatch said:

Makes my comment about how Skirt no Naka will never be released hilarious in hindsight.

Not sure if it's legally available, but for what it's worth, it got its own English title: A Predator in a Skirt. Personally, I prefer the fansubs' "A Wolf in Women's Clothing" myself.

Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer 7
Naruto Shippuden 406

Edited by PokeNirvash
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