I’m going to start straightway with Kino’s Journey this week, and I feel it’s time to say something that has been firmly on my mind concerning this show.

Call me naive, but I was really hoping for this to be a semi-happy road trip where Kino and Hermes travel from country to country meeting new people, sometimes getting into scraps, but with everything working out in the end relatively. Instead in this adaptation/remake/rebuild of the original Kino’s Journey show and movie, Kino has been turned into quite the monstrous sociopath who changes country laws that lead to murder at a whim, can shoot down missiles, can overthrow governments, and all with that cute and adorable face and gorgeous green eyes. Meanwhile Hermes is just sitting/standing/resting (whatever a bike does whilst stationary) in the background, with a “meh, whatever” look about him. I don’t know whether to be frustrated with this sociopathic behaviour of hers, or impressed for having the courage to pull all of this off without even battering an eyelid. Either way, Kino’s Journey is depressing the hell out of me. Last week’s very uncomfortable watch (which veered away from Kino and turned to another character) verified and reinforced this depressing feeling, and this week is not that much different, as it focuses less on her once again.

Like I said last week, Kino’s Journey seems more of a show that puts the spotlight on the characters that inhabit the world that Kino & Hermes travel around, instead of Kino & Hermes themselves. First Shizu, talking dog Riku and orphaned mute Ti…then the former slave Photo (and her motorrad which I’ve already forgotten the name of)…and this week, we turn to a flashback story consisting of Kino’s mentor, known as Master, and the apprentice she had at the time. They travel to a walled country with a corrupt military police force, where the apprentice is falsely arrested and Master ends up breaking him out, where they both steal as many weapons as they can carry and hole up in a clock tower, holding the entire country to ransom.

It’s almost as if Kino & Hermes no longer exist in this show anymore, and only appear every now and then. If this is the case, then this is not what I signed up for when I chose to watch this show. I signed up for a semi-happy road trip anime, and instead I get sociopathy and despair.

Let’s move to a less depressing world in Land of the Lustrous where, thankfully, Amethyst is okay. As the jewel people hibernate for the winter (they rely on a form of photosynthesis to maintain their energy), Phos gets Master Kongo’s permission to stay awake over the winter with Antarcticite (a normally liquid jewel) to keep watch. This episode shows us a different Phos. Last week showed us that, even with super fast legs, Phos doesn’t have the mental strength to fight. As they keep watch around their home, Phos tells Antarcticite that it doesn’t matter how much they try…everyone else can do the job a thousand times better.

Considering what takes place in this episode, it isn’t hard to see that Phos is slowly giving up now, and has begun to understand how Cinnabar feels; rejected and hated by the jewel community simply for being different. While Cinnabar secretes a poison which has given her a cynical and spiteful attitude, Phos’ frequent misbehaviour annoys the hell out of everyone, and has almost got to the point where they have pretty much had enough.

This week, we also saw that Aqours are losing their energy too, as we learn that, despite making it to the Love Live Finals, they were unable to secure the 100 students they needed to keep the school open.

Comparing this to season 2 of School Idol Festival, the second season of Sunshine!! is much different, in that the future of μ’s was secure by this point, and the girls were, essentially, goofing off until Eli, Nozomi and Nico graduated. Now halfway in season 2 of Sunshine!!, aqours have had to have the news delivered to them all of a sudden. This isn’t to be the great miracle that Chika was working for. Well, they have their finalist spot in the Love Live finals, and if that isn’t enough to immortalise the school and make the town proud, then I don’t know why Chika is pouting so much this week.

On the 15th of this month, I was able to catch SHAFT’s recent release Fireworks, as it did a recent run in a select number of cinemas here in the UK. No word of when or if it’ll get a release in US/Canada yet though, however I’m sure that that news will come in time. Meanwhile, catch my review of it here.

Oh, and as well as that, I’ve decided to do my poll again…for what my classic/out-of-season show is to be for the Winter 2018 season starting in January.

I’m already starting on my Winter 2018 watchlist it’ll be longer since I’m writing for another blog as well. No doubt I’ll end up dropping one or more of them. Perhaps I should do a separate poll, for you to determine which one I’ll drop first…