Forgive me if this post seems a little rushed; you can blame Crunchyroll’s misfortune on Saturday. In case you weren’t aware, the site was hacked, forcing visitors have to download malware. All fixed now, though, so no worries. I’ve also had esports matches to watch all weekend, as well (League of Legends, Overwatch, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Starcraft…but I only watched that because I was bored, and because it’ll be free-to-play in a week or two).

We’ll start with a non-Crunchyroll show though: Land of the Lustrous. After yet another cliffhanger last week, Phos learns that Ventricosus only did what she did to save her brother and fellow snail Aculeatus, who plans to negotiate with the Lunarians to save their parents, who remain on the moon. After the freed Aculeatus fights off an attack, the two decide to return Phos to the surface, minus the legs she lost in battle. Using shells left behind, Rutile successfully manages to make new legs for Phos.

This episode shows a very exhausted and worn-out Phos, who finally seems to realise that, in all honesty, the jewel people would not miss them if they vanished. Phos now totally understands Cinnabar’s view now, and how being taken by the Lunarians would mean that at least someone/something would find value in them. I’m sure that, now that Phos has new legs (made out of an unknown material), they have more of a purpose. Their job as an archivist has been cancelled, so it’ll be curious to see if Phos can cope in battle or not.

This week’s Love Live! Sunshine!! also shows a character who feels very much not of place, and feels unable to fix it no matter what they do. Yoshiko has been seen as the Nico of the group; the comedy character who can be poked at. This is solely down to her chuunibyou behaviour which the viewers immediately recognise, and seeing her as Yoshiko (as opposed to seeing her as Yohane) is something that can’t quite be fathomed.

This week’s story concerns a dog Yoshiko finds on the way home from practice. She asks for Riko’s help to take care of the dog temporarily as her apartment complex doesn’t allow pets, and everyone else is busy or unable to. An interesting character episode/mini-story that shows Riko battling her cynophobia (fear of dogs) and befriending Yoshiko. The two of them have never had any real time together as they have very little in common; while Yoshiko is more creative, Riko is more serious and down-to-earth. When they realise the dog is in fact a missing one, and already has an owner, Yoshiko and Riko begin to share a ‘longing’ for the dog that they spent the little time they had with.

This week showed us that the members of aqours still have a way to go in order to work and trust each other implicitly. The first, second and third years all work and operate differently, and with the Love Live regional qualifiers coming up, the nine of them need to work together, and fast. Oh, and this week brought us You with mini pigtails. I don’t need to say any more 🙂

It is a shame that my hype for Kino’s Journey is beginning to disappear. I’ll be easing off the show this week, as I plan to do a big write-up in next week’s ‘halfway point’ post. You see, I was hoping to get totally absorbed into this alternate universe that the show presents us, with obscure countries (and their obscure laws), travelling mercenaries, contrasting technology and talking bikes, but the only thing I can really get hyped about in the show right now is watching Kino kick butt. I’m still totally hyped whenever I get to watch The Woman Called Fujiko Mine though, as it’s turned out to be better than I had initially thought. More on my initial thoughts on it another time, however…maybe in the season review post in December (before this year is out).

I’m up to episode 5 right now, and it’s like Lupin won’t ever give up on trying to hit on Fujiko. Of course we all know she’s too smart for that, yet she still tells him about a jewelled peacock made out of pure alexandrite hidden in a pyramid in Egypt. Of course, pyramids are full of mystery…especially now, when we learn that a great big void has been uncovered in one of them. Daisuke Jigen returns in this episode too…remember the bodyguard in episode 2 that Fujiko was told to steal a gun from (there’s actually a hilarious line in this episode referring to that!). Due to being scammed, he needs money fast, so ends up on the hunt for this jewelled peacock along with Fujiko and Lupin himself. I’d call this episode one of the more action-packed episodes, and doesn’t really give us any major back story into Fujiko herself. Not sure if you could call me a convert to Lupin III (as in other shows); I think that watching any of the other Lupin III shows and movies would be a bit unfair, considering I’d have to compare them to something as remarkable as this show.

These action-packed episodes have been cool, and are keeping me firmly hooked, but I’d still like to see these episodes that show how mysterious Fujiko Mine really is. I understand an upcoming episode turns the psychedelia up to maximum when Fujiko is kidnapped by a cult of ‘owl people’. Should be an interesting watch as, even though she is the main protagonist, very little is known about her.

As I know next to nothing about the stories of any of the shows I’m watching, this has been a rather unique season for me to monitor. Even though I know The Aqours Show will have a happy ending, it’s a matter of how it’ll get there.