Rottcodd

I don't care what happens along the way - there's just one thing that I really want to see out of this date. No matter how much he bumbles it, I want to see Stark say or do something romantic enough to make Fern blush.

I dunno - I never even considered the possibility that it was Asa. Granted that kids do stuff like that, it seems entirely out of character for her.

For the relatives, "selfish" probably wasn't quite the right term - "self-centered" would be better.

one can argue that the relatives aren’t the selfish one; Makio is

I disagree entirely.

The relatives know that it is irresponsible to take Asa in when they don’t have the capacity to truly care for her.

But I don't think that's what happened at all. They weren't thinking about Asa - they were thinking about themselves. It wasn't a matter of whether or not they could care for her - it was that caring for her would require making sacrifices, and none of them were willing to do that.

Makio, on the other hand, was thinking about Asa, and in fact was so focused on Asa that she didn't stop to think about the sacrifices she was going to have to make at all. That all hit her later.

Ah - thanks for that. It's been too long since I watched the original, and I'm a bot fuzzy on the details.

E.G. Mine already appeared and was dealt with relatively early in Stampede, and Leonof appeared a couple of episodes back in Stargaze.

Zazie was actually a recurring character in Stampede and has already appeared in the first episode of Stargaze, and is portrayed as essentially the consciousness of the planet - a sort of collective consciousness of the worms. They're fairly sympathetic (and even sort of grudgingly friendly with Meryl).

Hoppered appeared early in Stargaze. He nursed Vash back to health after Lost July, not knowing who he was, then challenged him to a fight when he found out who he was, which is what drug Vash back to reality.

Legato appeared briefly in Stampede, and again in the most recent episode of Stargaze and appears to be set to play much the same role in this as he did in the original.

And Midvalley was introduced in the most recent episode snd looks to be the focus of at least the next episode.

Fern is my favorite, no contest, but I wasn't worried about her during the first class mage tests. The ones I was most worried about then were Kanne and Lawine, and sort of surprising myself, Übel.

Though I didn't notice them as much the first time through, I grew to really like Laufen and Denken this time through - she's the granddaughter he never had, and it's really pretty sweet.

Started off the week with a rewatch of the current four episodes of Yuusha no Kuzu (Scum of the Brave). I Wanted to check my reaction to it, because I've been enjoying it, but that's very much not the common opinion. And I'm still enjoying it. It's not great by any means, but it's good, solid entertainment, mostly on the strength of the characters. I have no real complaints about it.

Next up was the most recent episode of MF Ghost. It was a decent filler episode. I have to admit I did laugh out loud when grandma did the patented Initial D / MF Ghost heel pivot to accelerate and brake at the same time and drift a corner in her kei truck. And they're really leaning on the romance angle, and I have mixed feelings about that. If they stick with the Initial D formula, then the romance is doomed, one way or another, and I don't want to see that happen to either Ren or Kanata. But if they break with tradition and give them a happy ending, that'd be great.

Spent a while then gently bouncing off of stuff, trying and failing to find something that hooked me. There was something that kept nagging at me though, and I finally gave in to it. Since the OP/ED thread last week, I've been thinking maybe I should go ahead and watch season 2 of Sousou no Frieren now rather than waiting to binge it later, as I'd originally planned. But that meant that first I'd want to rewatch the first season. And that's an odd thing - I rewatch lots of anime, but for some reason, I almost exclusively rewatch sentimental favorites and guilty pleasures. If something is undeniably outstanding, like Frieren, I have some sort of aversion to rewatching it. I'm not sure why. But I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I dove in and did it. And it was just as good as I'd remembered, and arguably even better, since I appreciated the whole First Class Mage test arc more the second time around, I think because I spent so much time the first time on edge, afraid that they were going to kill off characters I liked, and this time I knew that everyone who mattered to me was going to survive.

And conveniently enough, I finished up the day the latest episode came out, so just watched the new ones straight through after the rest. And... I'm actually sort of worried about this season. I'm afraid the corporate powers-that-be aren't going to be able to resist flogging that cash cow for as long as possible, so Frieren is going to actually get to Ende about the same time that Luffy becomes the Pirate King.

That said, I am looking forward to Fern and Stark's date.

And the rest of the week was spent bouncing off of stuff (most notably Gnosia, to which I'm trying to give another chance, since it's still ongoing), rewatching random favorites (a couple of episodes of Kemurikusa, the last episode of 86, the first episode of Makeine...) and catching up with current season watches.

Trigun Stargaze - still more or less following the original story, so now we're moving into Legato and the Gung-ho Guns (though I don't think that name has been used for them, and I assume at least the cheesier ones from the original aren't going to appear in this more serious reboot). And Milly's already warming up to Wolfwood.

Scum of the Brave - I'm still enjoying this - the characters are still amusing and still have good chemistry, and we're getting some hints of a deeper plot.

You and I Are Polar Opposites - adorable even by this series' already high standards, and I loved that Tani handled the sight of Suzuki in a yukata exactly right, unlike pretty much every other romcom MMC in existence.

Journal with Witch - still phenomenal. Asa's starting to come to understand her relationship with her mom better - most of her memories of their interactions so far have been more or less positive, but it's also undoubtedly notable that her visual image of her mom has been relatively cartoonish, while Makio's memories are all negative and her visualization is hard-edged and excruciatingly detailed. In this episode, we could see the difference, as Asa first remembered her mom, looking sort of soft and vague, telling her she could be whoever she wanted, then later, looking much more sharp and defined, butting in and taking over and making her decisions for her and belittling the decisions she made for herself. The scene later when Asa again remembers her telling her she can be whoever she wants, then she thinks to herself, "I will be who I want, so take that" was brilliantly subtly revealing. And the whole scene with the lawyer was terrific - both the way he came around to understanding them, and the moment when Asa revealed that when Makio said she could join the band club if she wanted, she just sort of automatically didn't believe her, because "she's an adult." Another insight into her mom and their real relationship.

Last episode, Makio refused again, and notably forcefully, to tell Asa why she hated Minori. I expect that if it keeps going like this, she's not going to have to - Asa's going to figure it out on her own.

And something's brewing with Emiri - she ended up hanging with the cool kids while Asa didn't, and they're potentially growing apart. I really didn't expect that - after the focus on Emiri earlier in the series, I expected them to end up like Makio and Daigo. But that's sort of par for the course for this series - things just work out however they work out, and maybe they're just going to grow apart, which'll be another thing that Asa (and Makio by extension) will have to deal with. And will.

So far, if there's an overarching message to this series, that's what it is - life just is whatever it is and all you can do is try to make the best of it, and if you're honest and essentially kind, things will work out, one way or another.

For a moment I thought grandma or some other person was embezzling money

Me too, though I gave grandma the benefit of the doubt and assumed it was some other relative. We've already seen that they're a pretty selfish lot.

Speaking of which, it’s really funny to me that she decided joining a band club was so out-of-bounds that it wasn’t even worth asking but dropping 2 grand on a new laptop was okay. I wonder if that says anything about how her mother viewed spending money.

Both how she viewed spending money and how she viewed doing something "frivolous" like playing music (or writing novels).

And it's notable too that Makio had already said that Asa could join whatever club she wanted, and Asa essentially just automatically assumed she didn't really mean it.

Makio's wounds from Minori are raw and plain to see, but I think Asa has very similar wounds that she's not even really aware of yet. Her memories of her mom are slowly shifting and clarifying.

Right - it just caught me a bit off guard because when Emiri was introduced then their fight was so heart-rendingly resolved, it made it look like the two of them were then going to remain inseparable, but now Emiri's hanging with the cool kids and Asa's not.

Particularly with this series, maybe that's just how it's going to play out because that's how life really works, but still, it caught me off guard.

Suzuki on the back of the bike was especially adorable.

And Tani, inexperienced and awkward as he is, handled Suzuki in a yukata exactly right, which is more than can be said for most male romcom protags.

Nice subtle drama in this one - Makio told Asa that it was fine for her to do whatever she wanted, and Asa simply didn't believe her. It wasn't even as if she consciously decided that Makio wasn't telling the truth - she just sort of automatically didn't believe that Makio really meant what she said, because "she's an adult." That's revealing.

Makio's and Asa's recollections of Minori started off notably different, and I expected that part of the central theme of this series was going to be them converging, but I wasn't sure which way it was going to go - which of the two was more accurate and which was less. So far, it seems to be shifting more toward Makio. Asa appears to have seen many of the same qualities in Minori that Makio did - just not in the same context or with the same clarity. I expect it's not going to shift entirely toward Makio though - that there are some things that she's seeing through her own bias, and it's just going to take more to get through to her.

Meanwhile, are Asa and Emiri growing apart? I can't imagine that, but at the moment, that's sort of how it looks...

Be True to Yourself! - honoring those that know what they are and never change

MF Ghost OP - TIMELESS POWER by MOTSU and Yuu Serizawa - You want more Eurobeat? Well, here is more Eurobeat.

Exactly.

And damned if it doesn't work.

The first time I heard it, I cynically thought, "Oh gee - Eurobeat with alternating rap and clean vocals - sure didn't see that coming."

Even as I felt this weird compulsion to grab a gear shift and stomp on an accelerator.

Last week in older anime:

First up was Bloody Escape: Jigoku no Tousou Geki, a movie sequel to Estab Life: Great Escape that I didn't even know existed until I happened on it while getting the link for Estab Life for last week's post. It was... okay. It's almost entirely separate from Estab Life, though it's the same setting and Equa and the crew show up a couple of times. It's a decent action movie with no particular flaws but no particular merits either.

Then, for some reason, I felt a sudden urge to rewatch Puni Puni Poemii, which is one of the strangest things out there.

Then I wanted something a bit more serious (granted that virtually everything in existence is more serious), and after some wandering ended up at Sukitte Ii na yo aka Say "I Love You", which is a shoujo "hot guy and awkward girl" romance that started out okay and went rapidly downhill until it became insultingly awful.

Then, desperately in need of a palette cleanser with good characters, I rewatched what there is so far of Journal with Witch. It's something I likely would've done anyway - I generally, when I'm as impressed by an anime as I am by this one, need to rewatch it to essentially check and make sure that my reaction is valid - that I didn't just get swept up and see it for something it actually wasn't.

And I'm pleased to say that it's every bit as good as I thought it was.

Next up was one I just happened on relatively recently - Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara aka Irodoku - The World in Colors. It was almost great.

Then I finished off the week with Munou na Nana aka Talentless Nana, which was also almost great.

Current season notes and impressions:

MF Ghost - the finish order wasn't quite what I expected - I thought Kanata would end in third with Sawatari in second - but it still broadly played out the way I expected. And we're apparently heading into a filler episode, though the idea of a filler episode in a series that takes so excruciatingly long to tell its story in the first place is sort of odd.

You and I Are Polar Opposites - still very good because it's closely following the manga, which was very good. We got to meet Taira and Azuma, who are going to be central to the rest of the series, and briefly got to see Nishi, though didn't actually meet her (she was the other library assistant, with the books on conversation). She's easily my favorite character in the series, and she'll probably be yours too, whoever you are.

Scum of the Brave - this has been a pleasant surprise. I watched the first episode on a whim and liked it, and still like it now that we're up to the third. It's an interesting and sort of goofy setting and looks to be heading into an interesting and sort of goofy story, but mostly it's just that the characters are appealing and have good chemistry.

Trigun Stargaze - the fight scene was spectacular. It did a thing that anime only sometimes does to me - it made me appreciate the cinematography. Anime technically has a "camera" - a viewpoint from which the action is shown. Even the most graphically impressive anime generally tend to not do much with that though - they just stick with a simple, practical viewpoint, only switching as necessary to follow the action. That fight scene though really made use of film-style cinematography - pans and zooms and pivots and so on - and it was very impressive.

Ikoku Nikki - still amazing. I was especially impressed by Makio's ruminations on loneliness. Like her, I'm so introverted that I don't really know what loneliness even feels like, but I only very rarely even mention that to people, because it's too hard to explain. That was the first time that I saw someone else who feels the same way, and who put it into words. And I love that she not only sympathized with Asa in spite of not really understanding, but that Asa recognized that that was what she was doing. Broadly, the two of them have a lot of things to work through - both internally and between them - but they're both fundamentally honest, so if they don't give up, they'll succeed. And it's great watching it happen.

And an especially intriguing detail in this episode - there was one of those flashbacks of Asa's mom looking stern and disappointed and saying demeaning things, but it wasn't Makio who saw it, but Asa. That's probably progress - until now, Asa's only flashbacks to her mom showed her as a cartoonish "mom" caricature - this was the first time that she saw her in the same sort of detail as Makio does, and it was telling that she saw her just about identically, though apparently without the same emotional investment. Yet.