The cold is starting to set in, and I think I have picked up a bug of my own…that didn’t come from my trip to Scotland last month. We Brits do complain about the weather…a lot. Then again, I suppose it’s one excuse for all of us to stay indoors and watch some anime, right?
Azur Lane Episode 6
Last week was a bit of a triumph for me, as I finally figured out why I was disliking this show so much; it was because we as the viewer were overloaded with too much information in the opening episodes. Instead of padding the show out slowly, for the sake of us non-players, this adaptation decided to overload us with nearly everything, because it just assumed that we as the viewer would already know everything there is to know about this franchise.
Like I said, I’ve never played the Azur Lane game, and I know nothing about it. I must have picked it because I…couldn’t find anything else I wanted to enjoy?? I didn’t want to get absorbed in any of the big franchises (My Hero Academia, Sword Art Online, Food Wars), but I am halfway through this, and so there is no point in just dropping the show now.
But it’s getting harder for me to keep this up. This week’s episode consisted of no action whatsoever; just Enterprise pondering over life, the universe and everything, Kaga pining over her older sister Amagi (who is no doubt about to do something very stupid in a future episode), or all the ship girls taking a bath. And of course this means masses of white on the screen, to hide all the naughty bits.
For non-players like me, Azur Lane is extremely tough to follow. You forget who is who, you forget what the plot is, you lose patience on why these ship girls aren’t really doing anything aside from being moeblob…I could go on, but I’ll just get angry at myself for picking this. I will finish this show, one way or another…
We Never Learn s2 Episode 6
I think I said back when I was watching it that I was getting quite frustrated with all sorts of things in the show in season one of We Never Learn. It was only when I decided to watch season two when I acknowledged the show for what it was: a silly school harem with a rather sweet story and excellent character design.
This week is Kirisu’s episode, in both circumstances…sort of. The first part concerns her having to go to a public bath when the hot water in her apartment complex stops working. There she bumps into Nariyuki and his two younger siblings, as well as Asumi.
Later on, she gives Nariyuki, Fumino and Rizu mock interviews for when they apply to whatever college they want to pick. If you don’t know the We Never Learn franchise, Kirisu doesn’t buy the idea that these girls should pursue careers in what interests them, instead they should do what they excel at.
I think this is the first episode of this second season that addresses what the original plot point was; Nariyuki is applying for free college tuition, but the conditions are that he tutor these girls who are hopeless at the subjects they want to go to college for. Before this week, it’s just been one harem joke after another…which is all well and good. But sometimes it’s good to remind us viewers why exactly Nariyuki is tutoring these girls in the first place, and also why Fumino and Rizu want to pursue careers in astronomy and psychology respectively.
The ending, though, was fascinating, as it has only just occurred to me that Nariyuki doesn’t have a career goal of his own, and it feels like that’s something that has only just been realized now. What exactly could he do in life? Well…he could be a teacher, as he’s doing the tutoring job okay so far.
Houkago Saikoro Club Episode 6
This week’s episode of Houkago Saikoro Club makes the show that much more interesting. We already know that Midori is aiming to become a game author, but this week we get to see her first game played. One Room is an interior design-themed game, where the players collect pieces of furniture to fit on boards. Midori is extremely hesitant in letting people play it though, mostly because she is afraid of failure. She has played so many games and looked up to many game authors that becoming one herself and being on par with them is something she can’t quite imagine.
This week, she lets Miki and Aya play a prototype version of the game, with the intent of getting feedback. Will this One Room game of hers be a part of an ongoing arc in the show? Methinks so.
What has largely spurred her on though is the arrival of a known game publisher – that Takeru knows – who tells Midori that game authors can’t design games alone. This is indeed true, as constructive criticism and feedback is needed for games to be good. Do things need to be added, or removed, or improved on? This is something I have some experience in as I have ‘alpha tested’ and ‘beta tested’ a lot of games in the past. Incomplete games are released to either a select number of people, or to the general public, and we give feedback/criticism to the game’s creators, saying what needs to be improved.
This episode also makes me think of 2018’s digital collectible card game Artifact, by the creator of Magic: The Gathering, which despite being mechanically very good, was released poorly. It’s a game that should have had more feedback given to it and remained in beta testing, and only released when it was ready. I still play it, as I love the game, despite all that I’ve said about it, as I’m certain that the game’s publisher, Valve, will make some major improvements to it in time.
Oh damn, I’m going off on a tangent, when I should be talking about poor Midori and her incomplete game. Curious to see if this will end up being part of an arc in the show, and whether more people will want to play Midori’s game or not.
No new episode of Kandagawa Jet Girls this week. Instead we get a recap episode of what has happened in the last 4 weeks. If I may say so, this is a truly terrible time to have a recap episode, and so could this be a sign that the studio behind this (TNK) is having some production issues? This will also mess up my schedule even more, because as while my other shows are having their 7th episode, Kandagawa Jet Girls will be having its 5th. So they can just keep on going into 2020, put out 2 episodes on one week, or dramatically shorten the number of episodes to, say, 10 or 11.
Well, technically, the 5th episode will be out by the time this post is published, so we’ll find out later on.
Girls’ Last Tour Episode 6
Episode 6 of Girls’ Last Tour was a fairly normal one…or as close to normal as this show could get. Chito and Yuuri are going nowhere while the Kettenkrad has broken down, but in the distance they see an airplane flying…and a person chasing after it. This engineer, Ishii, takes the two back to an abandoned underground air base/warehouse she is currently occupying in, and asks that they help her finish a bigger airplane, so she can fly out of the city to the beyond. Ishii believes that another city lies far off in the distance, and hopes that life will be better than what this bizarre urban city-scape has to offer. And hope is the key theme in this episode.
Ishii is hopeful that the plane will work, and will take her to the city beyond. She is also hopeful that life will be better over there too. And all the while, Yuuri is singing her own little song about hopelessness. As I’ve watched this show, I notice that Chito has a lot of hope hidden inside her too; she hopes that, as they keep on driving to wherever, things will be better than they were. But then, what was life like before…whatever happened to the world?
Yuuri still has time to do a Dragonball Z pose in this episode though, which cracked me up.
This season is growing to be more of a ‘meh’ season for me. I’m liking Houkago Saikoro Club and am finding Kandagawa Jet Girls ridiculous yet tolerable. We Never Learn hasn’t changed since it was on last time, and I’ve already said what I needed to say about Azur Lane. Should I start researching what shows I should watch for the Winter 2020 season already, or is it too early? Feel free to hit that like button, and air your opinions in the comments below!
You can tell me if I’m being over-dramatic over Azur Lane, if you like. Still, it was worth it seeing Mad Midori this week. Makes her look all the more adorable…
