Will we be seeing an exodus on social media now? Because right now, it certainly seems that way. The anime community has embraced Twitter, and posted pretty much anything. And now that the owner is seemingly willing to do whatever it takes to turn the platform to ash, what is going to happen? Well The OASG is, right now, going nowhere as far as I can tell; you’ll have to ask Justin for more on that though. As for myself? I have not decided yet.
But enough doom and gloom. The holidays are coming, and I hope you have awesome ones. The Fall season shows have reached their final episodes, and now we all get the chance to say how much we enjoyed them…or not enjoyed them. Not going to lie when I say a part of me is disappointed that Chainsaw Man turned out not to be a bonfire of a show.
Raven of the Inner Palace Episode 12
Last week’s episode of Raven of the Inner Palace left me with a lot of questions. That episode focused a lot on the Magpie Consort, who originally had turned to Shouxue with the hope of bringing her dead brother back to life. When Shouxue said she could not, the Magpie Consort came across someone who could: Feng Xiao Lue.
We already know that he is not what he seems, but this week reveals who he really is and why he wants Shouxue dead. As he tells her in a faceoff this week, the owl and raven were brother and sister – he the executioner of the gods, and she the goddess of the dead. While he would slay the dead, she would ferry their souls to the afterlife. But when the Raven committed the grave sin of sending a soul back to the human realm, she was banished and forced to live forever in human vessels, women who would go on to become the Raven Consorts.
As we see this week, Feng Xiao Lue only used the Magpie Consort’s grief to lure Shouxue out. By creating a clay doll of the brother who fed on blood, along with kidnapping one of her eunuchs, he knew he would get her attention eventually. The Magpie Consort’s story is tragic, but the dead cannot be brought back to life, and the only merciful thing that can be done is to destroy this clay doll.
What we also learn this week is that each time she uses her powers, including that flower animation that we have seen once in every episode, she is chipping away at her life. This all clearly has something to do with this ‘8 years remaining’ thing we have heard in the past. Soon enough, Shouxue will name her successor and in 8 years, she will perish. The fact that Shouxue has been doing so many things that Raven Consorts typically do not do (socialize with others and meet with the Emperor) might mess this all up though, but as next week will be the final episode, I doubt that will be covered as much. As I mentioned last week, the show sometimes gives off an impression that the viewer has read the light novels…
The action really turned up this week, and a lot of things I was unsure of were made clear here. After the cliffhanger we get at the end, I’m not 100% sure on what will happen next. Raven of the Inner Palace has been a complicated show to watch, but that has not made it any less a fun one. Ask me 6 months ago whether I’d cover this show for Otaku Theater and I’d probably say no, and while I have been whining about how topsy turvy 2022’s anime has been for me, I still don’t regret picking this. The story has been engaging and the characters fun to watch on screen. This is the kind of show that won’t return, but that’s just fine by me, as Shouxue’s tale has been full of strange and supernatural surprises.
Bocchi the Rock! Episode 11
Do I think that Bocchi the Rock! will get a second season though? As much as I would like one, I would have no issue with her story ending here (or rather, next week). I often worry how sequel seasons can make an anime franchise lose the magic and spark the original show had. The Promised Neverland is a prime example of this, while Kaguya-sama: Love is War is an example of how a sequel can make the franchise better. K-on! did the same too; making its second season 2 cours long was great, as it got us to know new girl Azusa better, and to tell the story of how the band ended and graduated. But how would our poor Bocchi handle a second season?
Well we know that Cloverworks would likely not run out of ideas of what to put on screen, as they continue to experiment with live-action, CGI and unconventional film techniques. Last week we were left with a missing Hitori on the day of the cultural festival; her class is doing a maid cafe, so I can kind of understand why she’d vanish. But this cultural festival is important to Kessoku Band because this is their biggest stage yet. It’s possible that her classmates know she plays the guitar, but have never heard her play. Added to this is Kita’s popularity in the school…and she has become a whole new story.
I touched on last week how I am unable to ship these characters, and so when I see this week Kita blushing a lot more in front of Hitori, I don’t know what to think anymore. Her body language has drastically changed too, and she is thinking more about her words than before. It’s also noteworthy how she still refers to her as ‘Gotoh-san’, although this might just come from how she met her in class. All this time, I have thought that Kita has held a high level of admiration for her bandmates, because of their musical skill. I really must be so jaded that it’ll only be when full-on confessions and background shots of white lilies appear on screen until I see Bocchi the Rock! as a yuri show. It’ll be interesting to see how she acts in the final episode.
Cloverworks have been clever in disguising this part of the show, I think. Instead of just outright saying it, we have been drip-fed little things. Nijika opens her heart out to Hitori on the night of their Starry! gig, and last week we had Kita apologize profusely to her for submitting Kessoku Band to the roster without her consent. These four girls began by just jamming together, and it took a while for us to properly see them as a functional band. I don’t think Hitori, Ryo, Nijika and Kita have been as easy to read as Yui, Mio, Ritsu, Tsumugi and Azusa (K-on!) have, but that’s still fine with me. Heck, maybe a second season would be cool to see; I for one would be watching it without hesitation.
Odd Taxi Episode 12
Episode 12 of Odd Taxi, the penultimate episode, is where the heist takes place. And everything seems to go according to plan. A lot of the show’s remaining sub-plots were wrapped up here, and I’m glad to see that they didn’t do a rush job on it, and handled each one with care. Yano’s plan to take Imai’s money falls apart when he realizes that the money he acquired from the bank turned out to be the decoy money. And when Big Daimon pulls him over, he gets beaten to a pulp. Meanwhile Dobu is patting himself on the back for getting all of that money, but neither he or Odokawa counted on Tanaka showing up at the parking lot where they change cars.
Out of all of the sub-plots in the show, I’ve enjoyed Tanaka’s the most, even if it hasn’t been the one that’s been most highlighted. Perhaps I could resonate with this one more because I have seen first-hand what gambling addictions do to people, and what some otherwise rational individuals are pushed to doing. For Tanaka, killing Odokawa has lost its appeal, and is seemingly fine with an apology…even if Odokawa has no idea what his motive for harassing him was. But lo and behold, another twist I didn’t see coming at all: turns out that Dobu was ditch-11 the whole time.
Bringing you all the way back to Tanaka’s episode, ditch-11 was the username of a gacha game player who took away a young Tanaka’s chance of acquiring a one-off eraser shaped as Donraku (the allusive and famous comedian we get to see for this episode, and the murdered girl’s father). Odokawa may be the one responsible for him losing his virtual dodo, but Dobu/ditch-11 was the beginning of the end of Tanaka’s life. But he is no killer, and his actions the moment he shoots Dobu is evident of that. But Odokawa is pretty cold himself. He has no love for Dobu, as he just leaves him in the parking lot to bleed out while calling Imai telling him where the real lottery money is.
I’m sure that there are a million and one other things that have appeared in Odd Taxi that I just have missed. There’s also been some stuff that I haven’t talked about as much simply because I couldn’t get into their stories. Like the Homosapiens manzai comedy duo drama, for instance, or even Goriki’s investigation on whether Odokawa is ill or not (which will no doubt be wrapped up in the final episode). Yano has managed to catch up with Odokawa now, so even with Dobu out of the picture, he still has to deal with one more mobster. So what do I think the final episode will have? The good guys catching the bad guys? Well no-one has been morally just in this show…except maybe for Little Daimon, who has been forced to arrest his own brother in the end.
Next week will be the Fall Review post, where I’ll be finishing up all of my shows, plus I’ll be giving my two pennies on how this season fared for me…although given how things have turned out in the last 3 months and how I ended up dropping a show, you can kind of guess that I’m not going to call this the best one of the year. I’ll also be dropping my top 5 of 2022 post pretty soon as well, along with my Winter Preview one where you can see what I’ve picked for the start of next year. And then you can see if I’ll be picking sensibly in the future. In the meantime, I wish you all a happy holidays. Let’s all hope that Twitter doesn’t implode by then…