This week I came back to playing Final Fantasy 14, a game I have enjoyed immensely for years as both a casual player and a closed beta tester. I stopped in the past because I just found other games that caught my attention. Yeah…I guess FF14 is the weeb MMO, compared to World of Warcraft which gave off a more serious atmosphere. Soon we’ll see some anime adaptation of the main scenario; I mean we did get that live action show about a father and son bonding over FF14 gameplay.
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Episode 8
I know there’s a live action movie coming for Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!; I wonder how that’ll work out, considering how we’ve all gotten so used to the wild animation styles in this show.
I am happy to see some more wild school clubs in this week’s episode though, all of it revolving around the school’s cultural festival…and wild is a mild way of putting it.
- The Accessibility Research Club
- The Electromagnetic Amoeba Club
- The Pi Research Club (as in the number Pi – 3.14159)
- Shortwave Radio Research Club (not that weird, but the fact that they’re promoting a shortwave radio tournament??)
- Shaved Ice Club (not sure why shaved ice even needs its own school club)
- Shingeki Theater Club (more on what that is here)
- Woodworking Club
- Security Club (with police riot gear and everything…)
I’m now begging to see some more weird clubs in future episodes; does this school even have the average kind of clubs, like literature or science or sports? Heck, I wish schools in real life had these kind of clubs; makes them more interesting, right? But back on topic, this week’s episode has got to be the best one so far, by a mile.
As I said, the Cultural Festival has arrived, and this is do-or-die for Eizouken. Pretty much everything they have worked on so far leads up to this day. First things first, they need to promote the screening, and with amateur model Tsubame a part of the team, what could go wrong? Well…I don’t want to spoil too much this week, since not only do we get our first glimpse of their anime in full, but the story around Tsubame’s parents and their objection to her watching anime is told in greater detail here. Remains to be seen whether it’ll be something that will be expanded on in the future though.
We still have some more episodes to go here, and with their airing of their anime at the Cultural Festival, what could possibly happen next? I mean this isn’t exactly the kind of show that would have a Christmas episode or a Valentine’s Day episode…although saying that, considering these weird school clubs, maybe we’ll get an episode celebrating some Pagan holiday or something…
Well, whatever. After watching this week’s episode, I seriously cannot wait for what’ll happen next…unlike one other show I’m watching which is just getting really frustrating to watch.
In/Spectre Episode 7
Frustrating is a bit of an understatement when it comes to watching each new episode of In/Spectre now. It’s slowly reminding me of when I was pretty hardcore of the Monogatari series, despite its small flaws. Those small flaws in the Monogatari series were that the script was poorly executed at points, resulting in long explanations of random things taking up entire episodes sometimes. Now I agree that this wasn’t entirely SHAFT’s fault, as the light novels did indeed go into great detail in every single thing, and often went on strange tangents. Yet the viewers loved the series, and it’s grown a massive cult fanbase.
These long explanations of random things are something that I am beginning to see in In/Spectre now as well. I was hoping that the Steel Lady Nanase arc would be wrapped up and finished this week, but instead it is padded out even more, and we are given an extremely eventless episode set largely in a hotel room, with Kotoko (once again) explaining in great and sometimes inscrutable detail how they are going to defeat the Steel Lady spirit. A whole 20 minutes (pretty much) of Kotoko, Kuro and Saki (but mostly Kotoko) talking, with nothing even remotely exciting to compliment it.
I’m starting to understand why this show hasn’t really made the impact it was hoping; it’s because of the lack of action and frequent obscure conversations.
Oh yeah, and another thing I noticed this week is how the In/Spectre title is styled to make it sound like ‘Inspector’, and I feel like a complete idiot for not noticing this sooner.
Asteroid in Love Episode 7
Okay, enough ranting on a show I’m really disliking, and onto a show I’m really loving. Still unsold on why Asteroid in Love needed a recap episode; the only logical explanation I can possibly think of is production issues. I mean the show is fine as it is, and this week’s episode is no different.
Monroe and Sakurai drop the bombshell at the end of episode 6 that they’re stepping down from their roles as President and Vice-President respectively, to focus more on their entrance exams and getting into the colleges they want. Inose is still coming to terms that she is the new club president, and so I guess that makes Mira the Vice-President and Ao the treasurer. Interesting…
We can see in this week’s episode that Inose has looked up to Sakurai for so long, in both the Geology club and in this newly formed Earth Sciences club. This is, I suppose, the reason why she is so hesitant to take the role as club president. I was beginning to get worried that Asteroid in Love was becoming episode after episode of Earth Sciences hi-jinks, but an actual story is beginning to form which looks like it could be a very good watch. I remember the last Dogakobo show I watched that tried to do an extended story/long arc was season 2 of New Game!, when the game studio began work on their new game, and Aoba was struggling in her role as character artist, knowing that her superior was infinitely better at the job. Here we see a new Inose, one that is willing to do the job she has been given.
I’m noticing that another ‘arc’ is also beginning to form around Monroe and Sakurai as well, but as that hasn’t really been touched on that much this week, I can’t really speculate on what’ll happen.
Flying Witch Episode 8
Not much speculation to do in Flying Witch since I have seen this show before already, and sort of know that there isn’t really much of a climax at the end. Just Makoto doing Makoto things, Chinatsu doing Chinatsu things, and everyone else just watching and having fun.
Right now at this point, in episode 8, they are still at the cafe with the shy ghost waitress, only the owner has returned, and more regular customers arrive, including a ladybug couple, the Veil of Night, and a fox.
I know that this was a bit of a filler in Flying Witch, but this really was such a wonderful episode, a little different than some of the others. While in past episodes, we’ve had Chinatsu following Chito wondering what she gets up to, Makoto making her own garden plot and Nao freaking out over frogs, on the outset this seems no different, right? Well this episode at the cafe seems to have a totally different ‘aura’ about it, showing us what the magical world around the local area is like. Suppose this is a bit of a lesson for Chinatsu too, to show her how our world and the magical world is so different.
On a final note, my recent poll ended, and you guys have picked Wotakoi: Love Is Hard For Otaku as my out-of-season show for when I watch my Spring 2020 shows. Thanks a lot for this pick; this’ll be interesting as I’ve never actually watched this show before, and know next to nothing about it.
…and I have those Spring 2020 shows chosen already, considering Netflix doesn’t come in and acquire licenses meaning we Westerners can’t enjoy them until much later. Well anyway, the Winter season is approaching its end, and shows are slowly starting to wrap up. How do you think the shows I’m watching will end? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below!