Weekly Roundup Winter 2019 SPECIAL EDITION

So, I was originally planning to do a post talking about anime sidekicks today, and I plan on publishing that soon. But as I'm sure you can imagine, a lot of my time goes to working on the weekly roundup, as the various shows air on different days throughout the week. I watch the shows when I have free time, take notes, and write that section of the roundup right then and there, all the while working on my weekly editorial post that comes out on Thursdays.

So what happened this week? Well, Boogiepop happened, that's what.

Screw you, you smug bastard!

Little known fact: Studio Madhouse is evil. The secret to their incredible library of successful anime, including several of my favorites, is that they sold their souls to Satan. And occasionally, Satan calls in a favor and makes them inflict chaos upon the anime community. Their latest orders: drop 5 episodes of Boogiepop and Others all at once, wrapping up the Imaginator arc and then beginning and ending a 4 episode arc called Boogiepop at Dawn.

Obviously, combined with the 6 other shows in the roundup, 5 episodes of Boogiepop are way too much content to cover in a single post. And thus, we have a special edition of the weekly roundup today: covering the 5 new episodes on an episode by episode basis. The Boogiepop at Dawn episodes won't have as much detail as a typical entry on the roundup, since there isn't space for speculation when I have no time to rest between episodes. Each episode's section was written immediately after I watched it before watching the next one in order to give an honest reaction without the benefit of knowing what happens next. Oh, and due to the extraordinary circumstances surrounding this post, Boogiepop is hereby immune from elimination on this week's roundup. And there will be no special joke titles this week because I'm not creative enough to come up with 5 all at once.

Okay, enough stalling! Let's get on with it!

Episode 9

In episode 9, Asukai plans to use the perfect rose he sees inside Aya's heart to spread his hive mind across the city and, in turn, use the citizens of the city to spread it across the world. The process of doing so would kill Aya, as he needs to completely extract her heart. After Masaki deduces Aya's location thanks to a bit of background noise on his last phone call with Aya, he breaks into the abandoned amusement park to rescue her. He is ambushed and subdued by Asukai's followers, but is rescued by Boogiepop. Boogiepop confronts Asukai, and it is revealed that Aya's inhuman nature and the fact that human hearts naturally change over time as new experiences accumulate prevents Asukai's plan from even being possible in the first place. Boogiepop's revelation that the plan was doomed from the start drives the Imaginator from Asukai's body, and Boogiepop rescues Asukai from a fall that would have killed him as the Imaginator is completely purged and destroyed. Later, Suema stumbles upon Masaki and Aya, and hears Boogiepop's voice in the wind as she is left to ponder what the hell just happened.

This is a good finale to a good arc. The theme of utopia being rejected on a conceptual level because it would create a vacuum that goes against the fundamentally chaotic nature of the universe is a unique take on the concept, and I really appreciated the way that this Imaginator presented that conclusion. Masaki and Boogiepop each had their moments to shine and be badass in this episode, and I'm glad that even though Asukai survived, he wasn't given any slack by the narrative either. Instead of being treated as an innocent victim or a misunderstood visionary or anything dumb like that (which is exactly what a weaker story would do with a well-intentioned antagonist like this), Boogiepop calls him what he is: an idealistic fool. It's not often that someone so blinded by supposedly positive ideas of what the world should be is cast as the villain in a story, but it's always interesting when we get a character like this.

While I'm nowhere near qualified enough to say if this is accurate or not, Asukai's goals remind me a lot of Buddhist ideals. As far as my understanding goes -- which is limited to what I learned while studying world history in college, so please correct me if I'm wrong -- Buddhism argues that life is an endless cycle of suffering, death, and rebirth that can only be escaped by discarding all desires for any material goods or earthly attachments, including our relationships with others. Because these desires hold us back from reaching our natural state of being, called moksha, our continued existence as our souls keep coming back to Earth in new forms is causing us untold pain and suffering. Asukai sees all people's hearts as incomplete, and works to remove desire and fear from those around him in order to create a perfect state of being among the entire human race. Buddhist philosophy has greatly influenced Japanese culture and history, as it has blended with the traditional religion of Shintoism to form its own unique variant (which I am not qualified to explain in the slightest). While I can't say this for certain, I get the felling that this Imaginator storyline was written specifically as a rejection of these Buddhist ideas that would permeate traditionalist Japanese culture, instead arguing that passion and desire is what makes us human and should be embraced instead of rejected. If that is true, then it's definitely a message worth thinking about, though I'm not going to say that either side of the argument is wholly right or wrong, as this is something that seems to be deliberately left open to interpretation.

Episode 10

In episode 10, in a strange place among the stars, Echoes and Boogiepop meet for the first time. When Echoes asks Boogiepop how they got their name, they tell him the story of the Scarecrow Kuroda. Kuroda was a synthetic human created by the Towa Organization who was given a mission: locate any signs of humans developing supernatural abilities and report them to headquarters. During his investigation into a potential mole, he meets and bonds with a young Nagi, who has been hospitalized for having random bouts of extreme pain. Realizing that Nagi is developing abilities of her own, Kuroda breaks into a Towa Organization research facility and steals an experimental drug meant to suppress her burgeoning powers in order to protect her from his superiors. These actions mark him as a traitor, and as he lies bleeding out from an assassin's attack, he meets Touka and tells her his story.

That was awesome! It looks like the story of Boogiepop's origins is being explored in this arc, which is great on its own, but the fact that we got some details about the mysterious Towa Organization on top of that is a huge bonus. Based on Kuroda's dialogue with his partner Pigeon, it seems that the group got a tip from the future that humans are on an accelerated path of evolution, and the resulting conflict threatens to have apocalyptic consequences. And, rather than trying to prevent this, the Towa Organization's response seems to be to make sure that they are the ones that will win this conflict, and so they begin their research into synthetic humans and supernatural abilities. There's not a whole lot more to say about this episode, as it is a solid standalone story, save that it has the best animation of the series so far, and considering this is Madhouse we're talking about here, that's saying something.

Episode 11

Hey, me too!

In episode 11, Dr Kisugi, the psychiatrist who was treating Nagi, had witnessed Kuroda give Nagi the drug before he was attacked by the assassin, and managed to obtain a sample of the drug. After experimenting with it, she determines that the drug accelerates evolution and gives the user incredible regenerative abilities. Using this drug to augment herself, she decides to pursue her incredible fascination with fear and becomes a serial killer, torturing her victims and eating their brains after they've become well and truly terrified. As her exploits start getting too much national attention, though, she decides to lay low and just terrorize the patients in her hospital for now. Later, Touka is brought in to Kisugi for treatment, as her mother fears the presence of another personality inside her, and Kisugi has a philosophical discussion with Boogiepop.

This arc is selling itself as an origin story for Boogiepop, but strangely enough the actual nature of Boogiepop's existence and the way they appeared in Touka's body is left unexplained. I suppose, then, that the purpose of this arc is to show how Boogiepop and Nagi met, since they are established allies in the present timeline, and to give more depth to the Towa Organization and their research. More importantly, though, how about Kisugi? Her character was terrifyingly insane while still being competent, and the idea of a coward becoming obsessed with fear to the point that she would inflict it on others is one that I haven't seen before. I'm really enjoying this story arc at time of writing, so here's hoping the last two episodes live up to this level of quality.

Episode 12

Oh, no, not this crap again!

In episode 12, Nagi's father Seiichi was a novelist when he was alive, and his books tended to speak to troubled youth who developed extraordinary abilities. When fans of his books start dying in large numbers, Seiichi tries to investigate the cause. He learns that the victims are being killed because of their abilities, which makes him a target for the Towa Organization's assassin Sasaki. A few years later, Sasaki is ordered to hunt down the mysterious serial killer eating young girls' brains (who we the audience know is Kisugi). Sasaki bumps into Nagi during his investigation, and the two of them decide to investigate the case together. Kisugi observes their investigation and decides she wants Nagi to be her next victim, so she leaves a clue about her identity with a friend of her victim. Nagi picks up on the clue and deduces that Kisugi is the killer, and thus leaves Sasaki behind and goes to confront Kisugi herself, unaware that she is walking right into a trap.

Okay, the first half of this episode was kind of boring. Seiichi isn't a bad character at all, but too much time was dedicated to him discussing this episode's philosophical tangent, and the discussion he had with the little girl about the nature of death and evolution doesn't really cover anything that we haven't seen discussed in previous episodes, so I just found myself wishing desperately for the scene to just move on already. Once it did, though, things picked up dramatically, and the Sasaki/Nagi buddy cop story was quite entertaining. I especially liked seeing Nagi put Sasaki on the spot and tell him to go "pick up" a high school girl for their investigation. Seeing a professional killer all flustered over something so mundane was kinda hilarious.

Episode 13

Finally, in episode 13, Sasaki secretly follows Nagi to the hospital where she plans to confront Kisugi. However, Kisugi moves against Sasaki first, having secretly made an alliance with Pigeon, who wants revenge against Sasaki for killing Kuroda. Sasaki manages to kill Pigeon, but Kisugi takes advantage of his distraction and murders him, revealing that she left incriminating evidence of her crimes in his apartment, thus framing him for the murders, before staging his suicide. Kisugi then attacks Nagi, and though she seems to have the upper hand at first, Nagi successfully lures her away from the hospital and into a trap where she manages to mortally wound Kisugi. As Kisugi attempts to escape, Boogiepop appears and kills her, naming her the Fear Ghoul. When Nagi tells Boogiepop she plans to continue fighting to protect others, Boogiepop tells her that they will meet again if that is the case and gives her their name, which they adopted based on Kuroda's last words. Back in the present, having finished telling their story, Boogiepop and Echoes part ways.

This may not be an action heavy show, but whenever a fight does happen, Madhouse shows you why they are among the kings of action animation. Every one of Kisugi's movements was so well done that I ended up missing some dialogue at one point because I was just so impressed with the animation! Since this episode was almost entirely framed around that battle though, there isn't much to really say about it other than how cool it was and how well it tied up the loose ends of this story arc. I'm not sure why Madhouse decided to structure its release like this, when it dropped all four episodes of this arc on the same day, but it means that watching it felt more like watching a film than the one episode per week experience from the Imaginator arc. What I do know, however, is that I got to see Nagi as a starring character in a story arc from start to finish for once, which is great because she is the best character and she tends to stick in the background. I always got the feeling whenever I saw her that she was a character who had already had her arc offscreen, so getting to see her grow from a scared little girl with no purpose who is only pretending to be fearless to an actual super-competent badass hero was quite satisfying. I also enjoyed all the world building details about the Towa Organization. Based on my research, it seems like we're going back to a weekly release schedule for the last five episodes of the series, so look forward to seeing Boogiepop return to the roundup proper in week 9!

Weekly Roundup Winter 2019 Week 7

Another week has come to a close, and 8 shows stand before us ready for judgment. Will they earn another week at life, or will they fall before the cruel whims of the tyrannical Caesar that I have become? Let's find out!

Domestic Girlfriend

First up this week we have Statutory Rape: the Animation. In episode 7, Hina and Natsuo go to the beach, where she tells him about the way she fell in love with Shu, who was her teacher back in high school and a source of comfort from gossiping bullies. Natsuo confesses his feelings to Hina, but when she explains that the two of them being together would inevitably result in social ostracization, even from their family, he decides not to pursue it. That night, Rui comes in to Natsuo's bedroom and convinces him to kiss her, for the sake of experiencing a kiss for the first time, though Natsuo feels guilty as he was only doing it to spit Hina. As Natsuo stays up late preparing for his final exams and working on a short story for an anthology to be published by the literature club for the school culture festival, he decides to confront Hina about his lingering feelings for her. However, before he gets the chance, he overhears her pleasuring herself while moaning Shu's name.

I never thought I would have to discuss masturbation in a serious context when I first envisioned the weekly roundup, but here we are. We got to really get to know Hina in depth as a character instead of a target for Natsuo's lust for the first time in the series, and her story turns out to be a tragic one. The way she was take advantage of by a teacher, someone in a position of authority, is a bit ambiguous. She says that nothing happened while she was actually Shu's student in high school, and it was only after she bumped into him a few years later after graduation -- at which point he was already married -- did they actually start dating (and presumably sleeping together). And while it makes sense for her, as a teenage girl, to be infatuated with an older man in a position of power who was there for her in a time of need, the question remains: when was Shu interested? Is he the kind of guy to approach a child in trouble because it's the right thing to do, or was he already interested in her sexually? Did he initiate the affair because he was unhappy with his marriage, or was he interested in playing with two girls at once? We may never know the answer, since Shu isn't a very important character in the long run, but the ambiguity is still interesting. 

Not to mention that Hina's relationship with Shu serves as a dark warning of what a relationship between Hina and Natsuo would be: an adult taking advantage of a child's infatuation, and puts Hina in a very interesting position. She is a potential stepping stone in the cycle of abuse, both a victim and a potential abuser. I'm surprised that a show with such a fetishistic premise would be so honest about how such a relationship would actually be psychologically damaging without condemning any of those involved as anything more than unfortunate victims of circumstance and passion. Even if this show is weird and cringe-y, there is real heart and depth here and I am genuinely enraptured. Though, let's be honest, I also kinda like Citrus, so it's probably because I'm trash.

Dororo

I ask myself this every day before I go to work.

Next up we have The Why Boner. In episode 7, on their travels, Hyakkimaru and Dororo clash with a parasitic monster spider. Hyakkimaru wounds the spider, but the beast escapes and takes on the form of a human woman. She is found by a miner (whose name is so generic that I forgot it mere seconds after the episode ended) who names her Ohagi and takes her in. Though she originally plans to suck his life force and leave him for dead, Ohagi is surprised by the miner's kindness and vows to keep him alive. Meanwhile, the village's residents are being kidnapped, and Dororo and Hyakkimaru think that the spider is responsible. However, it turns out that the miner is the kidnapper, who has been struggling the residents out of the tyrannical control of the local lord one by one. However, he is discovered when he tries to smuggle Ohagi out of the village. Ohagi kills the soldiers, but then Hyakkimaru subdues Ohagi. Before he could kill her, though, the miner and Ohagi vow to live together in symbiotic-parasitic harmony, where Ohagi will feed on the miner's life force, but not enough to ever kill him, and Hyakkimaru agrees to spare their lives.

I never thought I would sympathize with a parasitic monster spider lady, but that's the power of anime, I guess. This is honestly the weakest episode of Dororo so far, with a lot of the episode being a whole lot of nothing. But the final scene was still quite good, and I appreciate the attempt to create moral ambiguity in a show about demon slaying. And honestly, after the two part story of Mio, any episode would pale in comparison. Either way, the visuals were still quite nice, and I'm fairly confident that this was just a minor bump in the road and things will improve next week. And besides, the weakest episode of Dororo is still better than the strongest episode of Shield Hero when I was covering it!

Hinomaru Sumo

In episode 19 of Falling From Grace, if Dachi High loses one more bout, then they are out of the tournament. With this in mind, Chihiro faces off against Kano of Hakuro. When his usual penchant for flashy takedowns nearly leads to defeat, Chihiro decides to swallow his pride, take a page from Mitsuhashi's book, and just do whatever it takes to win, using a simple push to force Kano out of the ring. Yuma steps into the ring next to take on the Mongolian exchange student Batbayar, and he is terrified of losing and letting Ozeki down when he is responsible for Ozeki's stagnant development as a sumo wrestler. But with some words of encouragement from Hinomaru, Yuma calms himself and faces Batbayar, and though he is forced to use every trick at his disposal, he manages to pull out with a win. Now, with the score tied, everything lies on the upcoming bout between Hinomaru and Tennoji.

You know, I like Chihiro, but it's a little ridiculous that the only fighter he has lost to so far is Hinomaru himself back in the preliminaries. And honestly, his bout with Kano, while demonstrably showing character growth, which was kind of boring to watch, though I think that's more to do with Kano being a boring character than anything else. Then again, aside from Tennoji, everyone from Hakuro has been pretty boring so far, so I guess it's not that much of a surprise. Batbayar is somehow even more boring than Kano, just talking on and on about how he is struggling as an exchange student in a culture as insular as Japanese sumo without ever actually exploring that idea in any depth. I bet there's more to it in the manga, but here it's like if a Naruto villain quickly sped through a speech about his tragic backstory right as he was being hit with the final Rasengan. It's almost pointless to even bring up at this point. At least this fight was more interesting to watch, with Yuma and Batyabar engaging in mind games with each other and consistently switching up their strategies. 

I don't know if I'm just getting a bit bored with this show overall or if the quality is actually decreasing, but somehow the semifinals of the national tournament have been less engaging than the preliminaries. It's mostly due to the character writing for the rival teams being a bit weak and the matches being over a bit too fast to even give them a chance to develop. I mean, sure, sumo matches are inherently shorter than more traditional subjects for sports anime like baseball or soccer, but that is something that you have to work around. Look at Hajime no Ippo or Megalo Box, two stories about boxing, which is a similarly short combat sport. They take their time and let us get to know the protagonists and the opponents as characters in depth, building anticipation to the climactic end of their character arcs before the starting bell can even go off. But Hinomaru can't do that to the same degree of effectiveness because it hamstrings itself with the team tournament setup. While it has its benefits like the power of friendship and the strategy of setting up a team's lineup and match order and such, it leaves the cast feeling bloated and one-dimensional. And due to that, Hakuro doesn't even have a chance to make an impact because they try to force an entire character arc in only fifteen minutes. Even though it should be huge that Dachi High is hanging in there against the top ranked team in Japan, I feel nothing. If it weren't for the show being eliminated this week, I would cut Hinomaru right here.

The Promised Neverland

Up next is Keeping Secrets from the Audience: The Animation. In episode 7, with no other choice, the children accept Sister Krone's offer of an alliance. However, each of them know that while she claims that she would let them escape in order to take Mama down, she would be held equally responsible for such a security breach and thus CANNOT let them escape, and thus she is only pretending to be their ally as she tries to get them to slip up and lead her to physical evidence of their escape to present to headquarters behind Mama's back. Emma and Norman use this tenuous relationship to pump Krone for information about headquarters and the world outside, and they learn that Krone was once a cattle child who was offered a chance to become a staff member in exchange for her life. However, Krone notices through their reactions to her revelations that the children already knew the location of the tracking devices and had a workaround planned for them. She later finds evidence of a secret about Mama in Ray's room (which he had planted for her to find), but before she could attempt to use it against her, Mama approaches Krone with a special message from headquarters...

You know, when I was reading the manga, I didn't like Krone very much at first. I appreciated why she was there, as another player in this life or death game, but she didn't seem as impressive as anyone else to me at the time and I didn't like her design. But this moment where she turns everything around on Emma and Norman just by observing their reactions was what actually made me like her as a character and respect her intelligence. Her more animated qualities have been exaggerated greatly in this adaptation, but at the very least her intelligence hasn't taken a hit because of it. If anything, I get the feeling that she was handled this way in order to make her more off-putting for the audience, and I wouldn't be surprised if the director believes that she uses this persona to put others off their game and/or is genuinely a little unhinged after all she has been through as a cattle child. 

Also, her reveal that there are humans that have equal standing to the demons in the world outside is another huge reveal, and it just raises so many questions about the existence of these farms. Why would humans allow human children to be treated as food? Are the cattle children viewed as sub-human? Are they descendants of dissidents or some kind of racial minority or lower class? How are the food supplies kept self-sustaining? Does slavery exist in this universe? And what was in those notes? What is the secret that Ray knows about Mama that, according to Krone, neither of them should know? Is it even genuine, or did Ray make it up? And what does headquarters want with Krone? Is she leaving Grace Field House? Do they know she's plotting against Mama? I mean, obviously, I know the answers to these questions since I've read ahead in the manga, but the fact that any of these scenarios are plausible based on what has been shown so far is a sign of a strong story, especially when it's one based around intrigue like this one is.

The Price of Smiles

In episode 7 of Obvious Surprises that Patrick Doesn't See Coming, one month has passed since the Empire began its occupation of Hariant. Izana is a hostage, forced to send requests for surrender to the remaining pockets of resistance. Pierce is being discharged from the army due to his injury, and Stella and the rest of his squad come together to throw a farewell party for him. As he tells them of how his family looked down on him for being a burden and another mouth to feed, Stella remembers her similar childhood experience with her adoptive family (which led her to smile constantly in order to defend herself from reprisals), and Owens offers Pierce a job at the orphanage he runs. After a bonding experience of breaking into the palace to see the garden with Lily and Stella, Pierce agrees to take the job, but his transport is attacked by the Soleil resistance, and there are no survivors.

In retrospect, I should have seen Pierce's death coming. But I had no idea it was happening, and seeing him die was a genuine shock to me. And upon seeing Stella's reaction to the news, I almost was ready to call this a great episode. But that was only the last 3 minutes, where the 17 minutes before that were only just....okay. It's a good thing I like these characters, because otherwise having an episode with all banter and shenanigans in a war story would have been awful. As it stands, I do like the characters, so all in all, I'm happy, even if it means that there isn't really anything to talk about this week. Next week, we'll probably see Yuki again, and I'm so interested to see what her life in exile is like.

Boogiepop

I'm so glad I find a screenshot of someone being confused so consistently often.

Up next is Dawning Comprehension. In episode 8, Suema confronts Asukai about his plans and informs him that Kotoe has been acting unusual lately, prompting Asukai to go after the Towa Organization. Masaki fights off an ambush led by Kotoe and tries to interrogate her at gunpoint, but is stopped by Nagi, who refuses to let him become a murderer. Masaki runs off and Nagi chases after him, but before Kotoe can pursue, Asukai arrives and frees her from Spooky E's control. Later, Asukai meets Spooky and reveals his plan: he wants to use his powers granted to him by the Imaginator to create a hive mind and end division across the world. To that end, Asukai offers an alliance with Spooky to overthrow the Towa Organization, but Spooky kills himself instead. Asukai finds Aya tied up in Spooky's office, but refuses to release her as he wants to use her as a sacrifice.

FINALLY, SOME ANSWERS! It turns out I wasn't far off in my prediction that Asukai has been removing people's inhibitions a few weeks ago. I was just off in the sheer scale of his powers. Instead of rewriting information in someone's brain like Spooky E does, Asukai can rewrite a person's soul and personality. His goal isn't to free people of their inhibitions, thus encouraging them to live freely; instead, it's to free people of their desires, thus encouraging them to live without regrets and be happy with what they have. In retrospect, that conclusion should have been obvious when you think about his dialogue up to this point, but regardless, the implications are massive. If nobody had any desires, then there would be no war, as nations wouldn't compete for resources or for the sake of a madman's ambition. There would be no poverty, as nobody would have the desire to hoard and accumulate wealth needlessly. It's a powerful dream, but it has an obvious counterargument in that the world Asukai would bring about would be a perpetually stagnant one. If everyone lived content with the way things are, progress could never be achieved and individuality would be lost. It's a fascinating paradox, and I can't wait to see it explored further next time. But even then, the episode isn't content with just giving us an explanation as to what the hell Asukai is doing. We also learned that the Imaginator has been inside Asukai this entire time, being a spirit that merged with him way back in episode 4, AND we got to see Masaki and Nagi be badasses. It's about time she took an active role in the story again. Though I still wonder what Boogiepop has been up to, it is implied this week that they have been hanging back and observing Suema and Masaki's movements and planning the perfect moment to strike. I get the feeling that that will happen next week, since with Spooky E dead, only Asukai and the Imaginator remain as an antagonist.

Run With the Wind

Two shows left! In episode 18 of Understated Hype, the Hakone Ekiden is just around the corner, and Fujioka has visited the Kansei University team's dorm to visit Haiji and wish them luck. When Haiji is not there, he tells Kakeru about how he and Haiji used to run on the same track team in high school before Haiji's injury. Kakeru's history as a high school athlete who assaulted his coach is revealed in a scandalous magazine article, but Haiji and the coach manage to secure his place in the Ekiden regardless. Later, the day of the Ekiden arrives and Prince is chosen to run the first leg of the race. But even as the starting gun is fired, Shindo seems to have fallen ill.

This was a great setup episode, and fortunately, it seems to be the last setup episode. The moment we've been waiting for is here, the Ekiden is about to begin, and we have learned all that we need to understand who our characters are and what drives them to run in the first place. Seeing Haiji explain his strategy of which runners run which legs of the race was awesome, as each explanation about how each runner is suited to their particular leg made perfect sense to me and was informed by their personalities and strengths that we as viewers got to see develop over the course of the series. All that being said, I have some concerns. Firstly, is it impossible to end an episode without a sadistic cliffhanger anymore? And secondly, even with an event as momentous and built up as the Hakone Ekiden, are you really going to be able to fill 5 episodes worth of content with it alone, or is there more story that will take place afterward? Either way, this show has more than earned my trust and I believe that this finale will be something special.

Magical Girl Asuka

Someone's never watched Gate...

And so, to wrap this up, we have Anime Military History 101: A Powerpoint. In episode 7, Asuka's first mission as a member of M Squad is to intercept a trade in Hokkaido between the Russian mafia and a slave trader from the Disas world. Though they arrive too late to stop the deal from taking place, M Squad slaughters the mafia, seizes the magical contraband they got in exchange for the humans they sold, and takes the magical mercenary psycho loli in for interrogation. None of them notice the leader of the mafia use a teleportation drug to escape the battlefield with a powerful magic item in tow, but he is intercepted by Tamara, a former member of the Magical Five on a top secret mission for the Russian Federation, who kills him and steals the briefcase with the magic item. Meanwhile, the Babel Brigade sends orders to a mysterious assassin.

I really wanted Asuka to be good. It's a show with fun ideas and a willingness to commit to its bit that you don't see a lot in anime. It takes the metaphor of magical girls as child soldiers that has only been played with in shows like Madoka Magica and brings it to its logical extreme, it has a strong main character, and its world, while not exactly original, is fleshed out and has quite a bit of imagination behind it. And even better, its unbelievably cheesy aesthetic of corrupted innocence played for shock value mixed with just the right amount of heart is right up my alley. And you know what, the first five episodes were pretty damn good. I was enjoying myself quite a bit right up until last week. But between then and now, it seems that all of the ambition behind Asuka has gone up in smoke, and what remains is just an animation staff going through the motions. This is the laziest animation in a fight scene I've seen in a long time, and I've been binging Black Clover lately. Every shot is a still frame, and every frame is repeated multiple times. I know I've said before that animation is the least important part of anime to me, and I stand by that, but it still matters, and at this point I would be getting more out of reading the manga. And I might still do that, since there is narrative potential and I enjoy a lot of these characters, but I've honestly been so bored with this show the last two weeks even as the show promises to shift to a more action-heavy focus. I know that LIDENFILMS doesn't have the biggest budget in the world, but if you're gonna make a balls to the wall action story, at least make it fun to watch. You made Killing Bites last year, for crying out loud, you should know how to work around limited animation to at least keep the audience engaged with the crazy stories you license! Or are you just not as interested in this story because the girls aren't furries this time around? You know what, that's fair enough. But if the staff doesn't want to be here, then neither do I. Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka, consider yourself dropped.

And that wraps up this week's roundup! What will happen next week? Will Hinomaru defeat Tennoji? Will Shindo be able to run in the Ekiden? Will Yuki run away from her advisers and surrender herself to the Empire? Will Hina try to rekindle her relationship with Shu? Will Mama learn the secret that Krone discovered? Will Hyakkimaru regain his sight next? Will Boogiepop actually make an appearance in a story named after them? Will any of these shows overtake Mob Psycho 100 Season 2 as anime of the season? Probably not, but wouldn't that be something?

Top Five Anime Villains

The last few weeks on this blog have been very critical, haven't they? It's been exhausting for me to write about. So, I feel like mixing things up, just taking it easy this week, and just gush about things I really like.

So, you know what's cool? Villains. I love heroes more than any other character types in fiction, but without an evil to fight, heroes would just hang out and live their normal lives. Heroes are inherently reactionary and typically virtuous to some extent, which is why some people would label them as boring. While I do not feel this way at all, as I find heroic characters to be the most inspiring and likable to me, I still love villains as well, and want to celebrate the best of the best of their field.

Before we begin, as always, we need to set a few ground rules for this upcoming list. First and foremost, this list is entirely based on my own opinions and knowledge. Only characters from anime that I have watched are eligible and they are primarily ranked based on how much they appeal to me personally. The villain's actions, motivation, and personality are the main factors with which I judge any given villain. If a franchise has multiple villainous characters, then only one character will be considered for this list. Also, in order to effectively discuss a villain's plan, spoilers will be present. Just like everything else on this blog. Finally, the best hero list will be released soon.

Number Five: Marshall D. Teach

It was so incredibly difficult to pick a single One Piece villain for this list, as they include some fantastic characters, many of whom serve as a commentary on the themes of freedom and exploration or as a dark reflection of Luffy's personality and ideals. Sir Crocodile and Gecko Moriah both serve as cautionary tales of what failure can do to a dreamer like Luffy, Rob Lucci, Donquixote Doflamingo, and Akainu further reinforce the themes of freedom vs security that I have discussed previously, and characters like Buggy the Clown and Charlotte Katakuri are just fun characters who are excellent additions to the cast. But Marshall D. Teach, aka Blackbeard, is the perfect counterbalance to Luffy's idealistic quest to become the Pirate King. Both Luffy and Teach are charismatic dreamers who attract followers easily and have actions that challenge the established political landscape of the world. Both challenge authority and put their shared goal of becoming Pirate King above all else, consequences be damned.

But Teach is different from Luffy in every other possible way. Luffy is a courageous and straight-forward adventurer who values freedom and friendship more than anything else. Teach is a cowardly schemer who plans very far ahead and treats the lives of everyone other than himself as disposable. From his first appearance in the background of the Drum Island arc, everything about his place in the narrative serves as a reminder of what Luffy could be like if he were ever to value the finish line of Pirate King over the adventure that he has along the way. Just as Luffy shakes the control the World Government has over its member nations by fighting against oppression, Teach's opportunistic nature throws the entire balance of power between the Government, the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and the Four Emperors into disarray in his mad quest for power. Both are two sides of the same coin, and it makes the scenes where Teach actually encourages Luffy to pursue his dreams and ambition that much more interesting. No matter how scummy Teach is, he still has his own ideals: people should pursue their ambitions no matter what sacrifices they should make along the way. And that's just neat.

Number Four: Lieutenant Tsurumi

There are three kinds of villains in the world. There are the irredeemable monsters, the misunderstood revolutionaries, and the ones who are in the middle. Tsurumi from Golden Kamuy one of those in the middle. As the leader of the 7th division of the Japanese army, he has been forced to commit several atrocities in a war that he cannot understand the purpose of (as it was mostly about wealthy aristocrats wanting to make more money and political gains) and now has nothing to show for it. Neither he nor his men have been paid for literally putting their lives and humanity on the line for the sake of a cause they didn't even understand, and they are pissed. Tsurumi even suffers from brain damage after the fighting and doesn't know what to do with himself anymore. Much like Sugimoto and Hijikata's factions, the quest for the lost Ainu gold is partially motivated from a desire to continue fighting because the war was the last time life made sense to him.

But even more than this, as crazy and unhinged as he is, Tsurumi's ultimate goal with the gold is understandable and even sympathetic. The men in the 7th division deserve to be paid for the time they fought for their country. Their livelihoods are put on hold for a cause they don't benefit from and they don't even get compensated for it. It's literally the same initial motivation that Sugimoto had when he decided to go after the treasure. The world threw used Tsurumi and his men and then threw them to the side, and damned if he isn't going to get revenge for that and get them their due. It's too bad that he, you know, has lost his marbles, and will literally murder anyone and everyone who stands in his way. I initially hesitated before including Tsurumi on this list, since he and Hijikata are both morally ambiguous leaders of factions that have both worked with and against Sugimoto at various moments, but I feel that he is the most villainous of the cast and he stands head and shoulders over so much of the competition.

Number Three: Younger Toguro

Yu Yu Hakusho is one of the best shonen action anime of all time, but it didn't start out that way. Originally, the show was just an above average series as it spent its first 21 episodes laying the groundwork and establishing its amazing cast of heroes. But it still didn't have a great villain to latch onto and use to push itself to become something truly special. Enter, the Toguro brothers. 

The Toguro brothers originally act as enigmatic demonic minions of the corrupt human businessman Gonzo Tarukane. Tarukane had kidnapped the ice apparition Yukina, planning to use her ability to cry precious gemstones to augment his already vast fortune. The Toguros are famous mercenaries, who were hired to torture Yukina in order to create more gemstones. And while the elder Toguro (we never learn their first names) relishes in the torture, the younger Toguro hates it and tries to make things as easy for Yukina as possible, encouraging her to just do whatever Tarukane says. Being a noble demon who is still fighting against Yusuke is already a good way to make the younger Toguro a memorable villain, but he isn't content with just being memorable. The Toguro brothers want to be definitive, and so they return in the next arc, graduating from minions and becoming the main antagonists for a 40 episode season known only as the Dark Tournament Saga.

See, the Toguros were only posing as Tarukane's minions, as they were actually hired to sabotage his plans by a rival businessman. And while their true employer Sakyo is another fantastic villain with evil plans of his own, Younger Toguro's fascination with Yusuke becomes the driving force of the next arc, where he forces our heroes to fight in a fighting tournament against a stadium full of demons who all want them dead if they want their loved ones to survive. And as the tournament drags on, you learn about who Toguro is as a person and how he came to sell his humanity and now only wants a worthy opponent who can punish him for the crimes he feels cannot be forgiven. To fully explain Toguro's character would take too long for this week's post, but to put it simply, he is a fallen hero who is haunted by his past and sees no other way to continue than by hijacking the tournament and using it as a trial by combat with Yusuke as the prosecutor. Toguro's introduction marks a turning point for Yu Yu Hakusho, turning it from a standard action series to a character piece that happens to involve a lot of punching.

Number Two: Freeza

I love Dragon Ball, if my previous posts on the subject did not make that clear. And since Dragon Ball is a show that builds its entire narrative structure around larger than life villains, it's obvious that one of them would make the list. And there was a LOT of competition among Goku's rogues gallery. Cell and King Piccolo were both strong contenders, with huge ties to the lore of Dragon Ball and interesting motivations, and Vegeta almost took this slot as well, and if it wasn't for his current role as hero, he may well have. But without question, no other character has had a greater impact on the story of Dragon Ball as Freeza. 

On one hand, it's arguable that Freeza is not actually a deep character. His character basically begins and ends with the words "pompous, genocidal space emperor". But, as I will argue until my dying days, nothing in Dragon Ball is truly simple or one dimensional. Villains don't need complex motivations or sympathetic aspects to be great. Freeza is the personified antithesis to Goku's nature with a strong presence in the backstory of the series, probably the strongest personality in the entire cast, and some INCREDIBLE fight scenes. And ever since his death, no other villain that followed has managed to have the same amount of presence that he has (with the possible exception of Beerus, though I consider him more of a neutral character than a full villain), which is probably why he's been resurrected and basically promoted to full cast member at this point. And, hey, he's even got a modicum of character development in Super while still being true to his pompous and hammy old self.

We're almost at number one, but before I get there, let's pad this post out with some honorable mentions:

• Tomura Shigaraki (My Hero Academia)
• Orochimaru (Naruto)
• Ragyo Kiryuin (Kill la Kill)
• Azami Nakamura (Food Wars)
• Griffith (Berserk)
• Dio Brando (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
• Akane Shinjo (SSSS.Gridman)
• Light Yagami (Death Note)
• Hisoka (Hunter x Hunter)
• Sosuke Aizen (Bleach)
• King Bradley (Fullmetal Alchemist)
• Shogo Makishima (Psycho-Pass)
• Mewtwo (Pokemon)
• Mao (Code Geass)

Number One: The Anti Spiral

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is one of those shows that gets a lot of praise from a lot of anime fans for a lot of good reasons. Even though it is technically a Gainax production, so much of its staff have gone on to work at Studio Trigger that it's basically the grandfather of all Trigger shows, and its mission statement of being a celebration of its genre and a strong story in its own right have has carried over to future Trigger greats like Kill la Kill, Little Witch Academia, and SSSS.Gridman. And as much as I love Gurren Lagann, it was never one of the shows I would mention right away as one of my all time favorites, since it is just so different from anything else I typically watch, it's a show I always come back to. And no villain in any anime has ever stuck with me more than the Anti Spiral.

The Anti Spiral is the physical manifestation of the hive mind of those in the universe who have rejected the use of Spiral energy. Spiral energy, to keep things simple, is passion. In the world of Gurren Lagann, being in touch with your emotions and following your passions gives you super powers. So, screaming really loudly like an anime character actually has a purpose in this universe. It's genius! Anyway, the Anti Spiral rejected this power because if Spiral energy was left unchecked, it would destroy the universe. Just like how unfiltered real world emotions can lead to tragedy in the real world, so too will Spiral energy destroy the universe. And so the Anti Spiral emotionally castrates itself, giving up the concept of individuality and identity in exchange for guaranteed safety. Now, where have I heard that before? 

All kidding aside, Gurren Lagann has a lot of similar themes about freedom and security as One Piece does, but it's more about the emotional side of things and truly being passionate about things that you care about. With the Beastmen being representative of pure id and the Anti Spiral being the embodiments of cold logic, the humans falling in the middle of the spectrum between both all consuming passion and cold, cynical detachment. It comes together as a statement on what it means to be alive.

Also, I just love the thing's design. It just looks so cool!

Weekly Roundup Winter 2019 Week 6

We have officially hit the halfway point of the Weekly Roundup. After the death of Girly Air Force we have nine shows left in the gauntlet competing for the honor of officially being recognized as worthy of my love. Will any more fall this week, or have we reached our goal of only having good shows to watch? Let's find out!

Magical Girl Asuka

I would if the background wasn't so distractingly static!

First off we have The Cure for Insomnia. In episode 6, as Asuka and her friends attend a local festival, Mia travels to Japan to continue her investigation of the strange magical killings she first witnessed in Tijuana. As she investigates the penthouse apartment of a murdered business tycoon, her team is ambushed by a Colombian mercenary named Sandino, who is attacking soldiers and magical girls in a vengeful crusade after her family died as collateral damage in the war against the Disas. Though Mia kills Sandino, she is concerned by the bloody message she found in the apartment's bathroom: a phrase that only the surviving members of the Magical Five should know...

Asuka, what the hell happened? You were doing so well last week, and then you crashed and burned this week. I know you never had the best animation, what with the abundance of still frames in each fight scene, but your constantly building forward momentum and commitment to the horrors of war kept things from falling apart. But while Mia's storyline was good, the bulk of this episode was focused on the most BORING festival scene I have ever seen in anime (and that's saying something, since they're always boring). Asuka is an official member of M Squad now, so you don't have to focus on her enjoying civilian life and reaffirming her commitment to protect people anymore! This whole thing was redundant. But that would have been bearable if you didn't have force me to endure such characteristically unfunny antics and long panning shots across background characters who never moved once! I am willing to accept the limitations of a low budget show like this, but there is no excuse for a 22 minute episode to lose nothing of substance if I took 17 minutes out. You're lucky you've earned such goodwill with me, Asuka, because you're on notice!

Hinomaru Sumo

Seriously, Crunchyroll, use spellcheck once in a while.

Up next we have episode 18 of Why the Referees Suck. The semifinal round of the Inter High Team Tournament has arrived, and Dachi High is facing off against Hakuro, which is Tennoji's school. The Hakuro team is fired up about the chance to give Tennoji a rematch against Kuze in the finals, and that enthusiasm leads the aikido expert Enoki to victory against Ozeki in the first round. Mitsuhashi uses unconventional tactics against the giant Shutou and manages to push him outside the ring. However, though Dachi High is initially declared the winner, the officials then rule that the competitors landed simultaneously and the bout needs to be restarted. With the element of surprise now gone, Mitsuhashi stands no chance against Shutou and is quickly defeated. With two losses right out of the gate, things look bad for Dachi High, as Chihiro enters the ring to face off against the national treasure Kano, said to be second only to Tennoji in prowess.

Two things. First, this episode was so frustrating to watch as a Mitsuhashi fan that I got Yu Yu Hakusho flashbacks. At least this time the competition isn't rigged against our heroes...probably...

Second, this is SO much better than the last few episodes were! It's amazing what this show can do when it actually focuses on one thing at a time without cutting away to some random nonsense. The flashbacks for Enoki and Mitsuhashi were used perfectly, never overstaying their welcome and giving a strong insight into their characters and motivations, and each of their fights was something to behold. Mitsuhashi in particular had an incredibly strong showing, and I really feel like he deserves a win at some point. There's not much more to say this week, with no deeper meaning or interesting tidbits to talk about. It's just a solid episode of Hinomaru Sumo, the little shonen that could, and I hope that this momentum continues in the future.

Domestic Girlfriend

Uh...I need an adult...

Next up we have Doki Doki Incest Club. In episode 6, Rui is getting used to her new school, and so she asks Natsuo to show her the different clubs at school so she could make some more of her own friends. When they find an empty room for the literature club, Natsuo gets really excited upon seeing a rare book that he always wanted to read and decides to "borrow" it. When he tries to secretly return the book the next day, he gets caught by the faculty adviser Kiriya and the club president (and only member) Miu, at which point he is forced to join the club if he doesn't want to be expelled for theft of school property. During a club meeting, upon learning that both Natsuo and Miu are aspiring romance authors, Kiriya suggests that they kiss right then and there in order to get more experience with romance. Miu reluctantly agrees, but Natsuo refuses when he sees just how uncomfortable she is with the idea, and Kiriya shrugs it off and says that he understands them both a little better now. Upon seeing Natsuo in the literature club, Rui and Momo decide to join as well, and it is revealed that Momo is among the top ten highest scoring students in the school. That weekend, Rui goes to the cafe for advice on what to do about her growing jealousy, and Hina invites Natsuo to go out with her sometime.

We finally have all four girls from the opening introduced, and Miu is just as much of a delight as the other three. Being a nerd who is super passionate about stories and has about three or four unfinished manuscripts lying around at any given time, I am instantly a Miu fan and would probably join her club if I was in her school. Kiriya is a bit...unusual, to say the least. I can't be the only one who is worried that he may turn out to be a sexual predator based on his dialogue, right? I mean, any other show and he'd just be a weird eccentric character because this is anime, but based on how Domestic Girlfriend's been handling its characters up to this point, I can't shake the feeling that there is something more sinister planned for Kiriya. None of that matters, though, because we got the cafe owner's AMAZING backstory of being a former yakuza lieutenant who fell in love with a lieutenant from a rival family! Why can't we watch that anime!? That's the single best thing I've seen all season! Oh, and the episode was pretty good, too, I guess.

The Promised Neverland

In episode 6 of Death Note: Kidz Bop Edition. Don and Gilda manage to avoid detection in Mama's office thanks to the lucky intervention of their younger brothers Phil and Eugene, and sneak into the secret room. There they discover the old toys that belonged to the children who were shipped out, and realize that Norman was lying to them when he said there was a chance that they were still alive. Meanwhile, Emma shows Ray and Norman a series of coded messages left in their library books by a man named William Minerva, warning the children of the demons and the true nature of Grace Field House. Later that night, Don and Gilda confront the other three, demanding to know the truth, to which Emma agrees. As the five of them reaffirm their commitment to escape together, the children begin to plan their next move: scouting the area outside the House. While Ray stalls Mama with a false report that Norman plans to poison her, the other four are approached by Sister Krone, who reveals that she was listening in on their conversation the previous night. Surprisingly, instead of capturing them to be shipped out, she offers an alliance instead.

This is another great episode that gives us a lot of new information to chew on. The introduction of a person on the outside who knows about the existence of the farm and is opposed to it is a huge boon to the children, but the fact that he can only resort to coded messages tells us that he is in great danger simply by opposing the demons. The implications of that are not promising, to say the least. Is the society outside entirely controlled by the demons? Is Minerva actually a demon who simply recognizes that the fact that humans are sentient means that they deserve equal treatment and should not be treated as livestock? Is Minerva even from the outside, or was he a child of Grace Field House from long ago who was trying to pass a warning on to future children? Are the messages a genuine warning, or is this a trap laid by Mama in order to catch the children? All of these thoughts raced through my head as I read the manga for the first time, desperately searching for more information about this fascinating character. 

Simply revealing the existence of Minerva and having Don and Gilda learn the truth would have been enough to make this a good episode, but Promised Neverland isn't satisfied with just being good. It adds new layers to the story as Emma tells Norman a secret plan to help with the escape, Mama tells Ray that all shipments are being stopped until January (it's currently October in universe), which is his 12th birthday, AND Sister Krone offers to work with the children against Mama. Every one of these new elements has an air of uncertainty, as you're not sure if anyone is actually telling the truth (aside from Emma, obviously). Is Norman going to tell Ray about Emma's plan? Is Mama lying to Ray even while Ray lies to her? Is Krone genuinely planning to work with the children to take down Mama, or is it a trap to get them to confess? And if the children refuse her, will Krone just take them in anyway and tell the higher-ups that she heard them plotting to escape? At this point in the game, it seems that Krone has pulled ahead, but will it stay that way in the future? It's the sign of a really good story that all of these possibilities are exciting and only make things more interesting, and it made the next chapter impossible to resist as I read the manga. Things don't match up perfectly -- in fact, there have been quite a few changes -- but the anime does a very good job of translating the character dynamics and atmosphere to the screen, and that's the sign of a strong adaptation.

Dororo

I can think of at least three anime moms that don't love their children off the top of my head.

I want to keep the good vibes going, so what's next? Making Me Cry: Samurai Edition? Oh... In episode 6, Hyakkimaru rests and recovers from losing his leg at the temple, carving a prosthetic leg out of wood and planning to fight against the demon again, though Mio and Dororo struggle to keep him still so he can actually recover. Dororo tells Mio that he knows what she is doing and does not hold it against her in the slightest, as he understands how difficult it is to survive. Tahomaru begs his father Daigo to allow him to ride to war against the Sakai clan, but Daigo refuses due to Tahomaru's cavalier attitude about war. As Mio continues to sell her body to the soldiers in both camps, Hyakkimaru sneaks away to battle the demon, actually winning this time and getting his leg back as a result. But when he and Dororo return to the temple, they find it set ablaze by Daigo's men, who have murdered Mio and the other children, suspecting that they are spies working for Lord Sakai. Hyakkimaru goes on a rampage and slaughters the soldiers, and it is only thanks to Dororo's intervention that one of them manages to escape. With heavy hearts, Hyakkimaru and Dororo bury Mio and the children and continue on their journey.

Some might say that the ending of this story was a little obvious. Of course doing work for two opposing sides in a war was going to look suspicious and attract unwanted attention. The soldiers aren't going to believe that you're just being an opportunistic businesswoman, and even if they did, they can't take the chance that you let something slip to the enemy during your pillow talk. This was the only real ending this story could have had. Not to mention how heavily Mio's death was foreshadowed in the opening. But in my mind, the anime knows that you know what's going to happen, and it takes advantage of that fact in this episode. Every scene with Mio is used to remind you of how great she is and build dread because you know she isn't getting out of this alive. It starts to play tricks on you because surely it can't be that obvious, right? And as soon as that thought crosses your mind, you see Hyakkimaru kill the demon and you start thinking that maybe everything will work out after all and Mio will only get grievously injured or ill. Once you feel that hope, though, the rug gets pulled out from under you and the deaths of Mio and the children hit you that much harder. At least, that's what it was like for me. This episode wasn't as good as the last two, but it was still good and I especially loved seeing Hyakkimaru's rampage. Tahomaru's scene felt like it should have been in a different episode, though, and really broke the flow of Mio's story. I get that he is going to be important later, being Hyakkimaru's brother and all, so we need to lay the groundwork for him, but I feel like this scene should have been in last week's episode, maybe at the beginning before Hyakkimaru and Mio meet. Still, this is a strong series where even the missteps are fun to watch, so it's not even a major complaint at this point.

Boogiepop and Others

Right there with you, buddy.

Only 4 shows left, so let's keep the good vibes rolling with The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries. I swear I have no better joke name right now. In episode 7, following Spooky E's orders, Aya convinces Masaki to pose as Boogiepop and fight criminals in an attempt to lure the real Boogiepop into an ambush. When that doesn't work, Spooky remembers that Boogiepop said that they are hunting for the Imaginator when they last met, and decides to hunt for the Imaginator himself. To that end, he possesses Kotoe, the daughter of a wealthy CEO and Asukai's cousin, and begins gathering information about the Imaginator's powers and activity, as well as hiring mercenaries to eliminate both the Imaginator and Boogiepop. Fearful for Masaki's safety, Aya begs him to stop posing as Boogiepop, but Masaki, knowing that she is hiding something from him, refuses and vows to keep acting on his own until he can figure out what the hell is going on. 

It seems like my prayers from the last roundup were answered because we started to get a clearer picture of what is actually going on this week! I mean, we still don't know the actual endgame of either the Towa Organization or Asukai and the Imaginator, but we did get confirmation that whatever Asukai is doing to these people has some sort of brainwashing effect and leaves them feeling really happy, so my previous theory from last week may not be that far off. And knowing that Aya wasn't speaking metaphorically when she asked Masaki to be her Boogiepop and is actually being forced to put her boyfriend at risk in order to lure Boogiepop into a trap is a bit of a relief, since I was worried that the show was getting a bit too pretentious last week. 

This show is almost impossible to talk about on a weekly basis since it's built around drip feeding you information out of order and is thus better suited to marathon viewing, but at least the pacing and structure of the reveals is back on track after last week's mishap. I get the feeling that this arc is almost at its climax and that we are going to either learn in either the next episode or the one after that that Boogiepop and the Imaginator have been battling it out at the same time as all this Towa Organization stuff has been going on, leading to a three-way battle where the Imaginator is defeated, Aya and Masaki get a happy ending, Asukai dies but the show pretends he is redeemed somehow, and the Towa Organization looms in the background as a continued threat in future stories.

Price of Smiles

Oh, thank God, he's actually dead.

In episode 6 of Mixed Bag: The Animation, the Empire has broken through Soleil's defensive line, and are bearing down on the capital city of Hariant. As the city is evacuated, the families of the soldiers refuse to leave, and are thus sheltered in the royal palace as the last of Soleil's forces prepare to fight. As Yuki watches in horror, Harold himself leads a vanguard on a suicide mission to keep the Imperial forces trapped between two minefields. Upon seeing Stella leap from her mech in order to rescue her comrade, Yuki refuses to witness any more bloodshed, orders a retreat, and triggers the remaining mines in such a way so as to collapse the ground and create a large crevasse, separating the two armies. As both sides regroup, Yuki orders Izana to prepare a peace treaty with the Empire with herself as a hostage, but her advisers disobey her orders and spirit her and the rest of the evacuees away from Hariant as Izana stays behind to lead a resistance. As the Imperial generals spread propaganda about Yuki's "cowardly abandonment of her people", the occupation of Hariant begins.

I said last week that I get frustrated with the characters from Soleil because they feel less human, and it seems that Tatsunoko heard my complaints and attempted to address them. We got to see Izana interact with his family, we got confirmation that Yuni WAS the lone unit from last week and not Joshua (thank God) and that she is being so reckless that it's causing her brother Lune to fear for her life, and we got to see Harold be a badass, which is always appreciated. I really like this show's ambition and it does a good enough job to stay on my good side week after week, but let me tell you, the weak production values really held this episode's battle back from being truly great. I'm not an animation snob in the slightest -- usually the characters and context are enough to keep me invested in an action scene -- but when I've seen so many other anime do these big war scenes better AND I've seen better animation in earlier episodes in this very series, then I start to lose my engagement. Not to mention that, aside from Yuki and Joshua (and to a lesser extent, Yuni Vanquish), none of the characters from Soleil have really endeared themselves to me like Stella's squad did, so I feel less worry about them surviving. 

But, well...it was nice to see Yuki's character development start to kick in, and I was ready to see her turn herself over to the Empire, since the show has been teasing her meeting Stella this whole time. At first, I was angry at seeing her advisers go against her wishes like this, and I still dislike them for lying to Yuki this whole time and then thrusting her into a war that's supposedly been going on for her entire life, but I understand their motivation. If Yuki surrenders herself, there is no guarantee that her life isn't in danger (and Yuki knows this), nor is it guaranteed that the people of Soleil will be treated well. It's a hard choice, but it's not unreasonable for them to decide that it's preferable to fall back and prepare a counterattack to liberate Soleil once and for all. I'm not sure if I agree with that decision, but I understand it. And if nothing else, I'm okay with this episode since it means that Stella may potentially learn that her mother is still alive.

Run With the Wind

Damn right, it is.

Next up we have Pretentious Metaphors: Track and Field Edition. In episode 17, the twins confront Haiji, demanding to know why he recruited them for the Ekiden if he knows that it's impossible to win. When Haiji answers honestly and says that he knows it's impossible to win but that running the race has a personal significance to him, they storm out of the dorm and stop coming to practice. After Kakeru tracks them down and forces them to come see the actual Ekiden course with the rest of the team, Sakaki bumps into them during their scouting trip. Sakaki taunts the Kansei team, asking why they even bother running if they are going to lose members to graduation next year. Though none of the Kansei runners respond to his jeering, none of them can get his words out of their heads. But with the encouragement of both Haiji and Hana, the twins decide to finish what they started. Later, Fujioka approaches Kakeru in the market and Haiji has an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon.

First of all, this episode was gorgeous. That screenshot I have up there took my breath away, and it's not even the best looking shot in the episode. Yes, I have talked about how good looking Run With the Wind is before, and yes, I don't have the highest standards when it comes to visuals, but still, this episode felt, to me, to be on the same level as Violet Evergarden! And lest we forget, Violet Evergarden was the best looking anime of 2018! Story-wise, I don't know what else to say. It's a typical Run With the Wind setup episode. We saw the characters banter and it's nice to see character development for Joji and Jota (see, I know the twins' names!) and all, but ultimately it felt like jogging in place for me (oh dangit, that was a pun...). I mean, even for the twins, I highly doubt anybody at Kansei should have actually believed it was possible to win the Ekiden, so I had a hard time investing in their story this time. I guess they just got caught up in the hype? And honestly, I get that Haiji is going through a bit of a midlife crisis following his injury and is basically going for the Ekiden in order to prove something to himself, but I'm not impressed by his essential non-answer of why he is running. But either way, all complaints aside, I still really liked this episode, and I might be a bit of a pushover for this show at this point, but as long as the plot moves forward, the visuals continue to impress, and the character interactions stay entertaining, then I'm happy. Plus, I get the feeling that the actual Ekiden starts next week, so you know I can't cut this yet!

Shield Hero

Me this entire episode.

Last, and honestly, least, we have Isekai, Spice and Raccoon. In episode 6, Filo's sudden transformation has thrown Naofumi's life into disarray. He can't afford to keep buying new clothes for her that get destroyed every time she transforms, and so he plans to buy magical clothes that can survive transformation. But in order to get the magical clothes, he needs magical thread, and in order to make magical thread, he needs to find a rare and expensive gemstone. With that in mind, Naofumi starts a new life as a traveling trader, selling various goods, including self-manufactured jewelry and medicine, until he learns of an ancient temple where the rare gem is said to lie. After a thrilling battle with the chimera that has taken up residence in the temple, Naofumi retrieves the gemstone and solves the problem of Filo's never-ending wardrobe malfunction.

Uggggggghhhhhh......

This episode is not bad, objectively speaking, but it's appealing to a desire to see cute girls doing cute things and, as has been well-documented on this blog, that just doesn't interest me at all. Filo's antics are more annoying than endearing to me, and I cannot stand her voice at all. Natrually, then, seeing her derail the dark story and tone of the show with her presence alone leaves me less than happy about the last two episodes. And even worse, Raphtalia is starting to get ruined as a result as well! The Raphtalia I like is someone who is cool under pressure and responds to the worst sides of humanity by covering up her righteous anger and killing them with kindness. She is a heroic and mature character who understands that being consumed by rage will be the end of her and Naofumi, and approaches situations with care because of that. 

So why is she just a grumpy, jealous child now that Filo is here? I get that new circumstances in life will bring out a new side to your character, but Raphtalia is now suddenly unappealing to me. And while I'm sure that seeing the show take on a slice of life atmosphere, focusing on Naofumi the traveling merchant, is something that some will enjoy, I find myself getting more and more bored these last few weeks. I'll never say that Shield Hero is a bad show, because it isn't, but I don't think that it's for me, and I'm sure that seeing me complain week after week will be less than enjoyable for you, the reader. So, Shield Hero, consider yourself dropped. Goodnight, sweet isekai, and may a thousand bird-lolis sing thee to they rest.

Me, realizing that I dropped the most popular anime of the season after worrying that I was becoming pretentious

And that wraps up this episode of the Weekly Roundup! What will happen next week? Will Chihiro defeat Kano? Will Mia discover a traitor in the Magical Five? Will Yuki run away from her advisers? Will Haiji be medically barred from the Ekiden? Will Boogiepop capture the Imaginator? Will Hina make a move on Natsuo? Will Hyakkimaru and Tahomaru meet? Will Emma and the others accept Sister Krone's offer? Find out all this and more, or something else entirely, next week! Until then, my name is Patrick, and somehow after cutting 5 shows this season I'm still currently watching a total of 14 different anime!

Me after posting each week's roundup.