So the big news (or one of them) in this week is the news that Netflix have acquired the rights to stream that big 90s mecha show people went crazy over, Neon Genesis Evangelion. I’m not so bothered about the news myself, as it’s a show that I eventually grew to dislike when it came to UK shores in the late 90s, while I was at high school. The other big news is how Netflix have also decided to recreate Cowboy Bebop; again, something else I am not so bothered by, not because I didn’t like the show, but it’s just a show that I do not consider as one of the best, like others do.

Right now, though, I am looking forward to some other Netflix anime shows coming in December, like Hi-Score Girl and Sirius the Jaeger. Here’s hoping those two shows end up being cool. Not even a brand-new English dub of Evangelion will sway me.

Okay so, umm, Release the Spyce.

Anything to win me back? No. Not even a flashback episode like this could sway me.

This flashback came, predictably, in the form of how Yuki had her mentor, and lost her eye. As I said a few weeks back, I no longer care what happens to any of the characters in this show, as it has just become so disappointing. Plus, it’s also like, as each week passes, you want the show to get better in the next episode to come, but then it really bothers you when it doesn’t, but you continue to watch the show anyway just in case it does.

I also said last week that it’s as if the yuribait in this show has all but vanished too. Do I expect it to come back anytime soon? Well, no. Perhaps because I have just become too accustomed to what I see in Bloom Into You, that whatever I see here in Release the Spyce seriously pales in comparison.

At least with Bloom Into You, it feels like every episode (so far) has been equally strong, and don’t seem to blur into one moeblob mess like I seem to see in Release the Spyce. This week is Sports Day at the school, with the Student Council mixing their many chores with trying to compete with the Athletics Club, which apparently has been some long-running thing at the school. I’ll move onto Yuu and Touko later, but both first-years Koyomi and Maki have been interesting to watch this week. While Maki tells Yuu that the reason he sympathizes with her so much is because he is unable to fall in love too, Koyomi has grown desperate to find a flaw in Touko to write about in their school play, because otherwise she will just have to make one up. It’s episode 9 now, and Yuu can’t keep behaving so nonchalant. Maki picked up on Yuu’s non-truths long ago, and Koyomi surely knows that Yuu is hiding Touko’s perfect persona.

Yet, once again, Yuu is behaving like the more mature one out of these two, with Touko itching for ‘rewards’ after working so hard in the Sports Day, which leads to French kissing at the end. And even with something as intimate as this, Yuu is unable to feel anything…or is she? She has begun to notice all of these things about her senpai, and thinks to herself “oh-anyone-in-love-would-act-like-this-it’s-not-like-i’m-the-one-falling-in-love-or-anything”, and then it hits her like a ton of bricks. I’m an anime-only person here, so I don’t know the real truth…but surely these non-emotions that she has had will come back and bite her in the end.

To the people thinking SSSS Gridman would go and turn into The Matrix, well…if there was an episode that explained pretty much everything in this show, then this week’s episode is it, and did it exceptionally too. This week proves that Akane is not the total sociopath we were all thinking she was, and not even that omnipotent either. She is just the same as Yuta, Rikka and Utsumi, only someone in completely different circumstances. Most of the time in this show we have been led to think that the people in the city and the kids at school are all the victims of giant rampaging kaiju, but in reality there is only one victim in this show, and that is Akane.

She has been creating these kaiju not to destroy or to conquer, but to have fun, because as someone who adores tokusatsu, she needs something to get rid of the humdrum of high school, and a dreamworld where someone like Gridman can carry on fighting huge monsters, then the next day start afresh in a rebuilt city, is something she wants to live in forever. Even the line in the OP theme “I’ve come to rescue you from boredom” suggests this. In this dream of hers in this week’s episode, she creates a reality where she can geek out with Utsumi for an eternity, where she is best friends with Rikka, and is dating Yuta.

This was actually a really sad episode to watch, and it makes us want to love and protect Akane even more. I’m sure these remaining episodes will explain why Alexis (who or whatever he is) is so eager to nudge Akane into actually destroying Gridman for good, but with Yuta, Rikka and Utsumi now seeing the light, I think he won’t get that chance.

There are many many more theories about this show out there, and a lot of things I’d like to say about these four main characters and who they really are outside of this dream, but I won’t say any more, as I don’t want to be one of ‘those people’ who gets things totally wrong and gets slaughtered for it.

*…although it’s not like that hasn’t happened to me before XD*

So I don’t deny that a lot of people enjoyed watching The Tatami Galaxy. I, on the other hand, have found it quite a chore.

As we say goodbye to the three girls that our hero chased after, we effectively go back to whatever circle he ends up joining, and this time (in episode 9), it’s a super secret society within the university. Here, he learns that his friend/rival/nemesis/pain-in-the-backside Ozu has become the circle’s leader, and also has found a girlfriend and so with Ozu happily enjoying his college years, our hero wallows in depression in his 4 and a half tatami room. You would think that doing this would solve nothing, right? On the contrary…

Interesting to note though that this is the first episode (we’re in 9 of 11 by the way) where time does not rewind, so I guess that means the protagonist has made some kind of progress. At the same time though, after watching 9 episodes where this guy is either unable or unwilling to change, you would get frustrated too. I mean…I don’t want to swear and curse at this show, but I really am reaching my limit with this now. I want our nameless hero to just wise up already. Maybe Akashi can slap him across the face and perhaps that would wake him up. Well…as time does not rewind, maybe he can find a way out after all.

Please end soon. I just want to know what happens already…

This will be the first year where I’ll be spending Christmas relatively alone, due to living by myself for the first time in a long time. It’ll just be me, my laptop, my anime, my games, and my Netflix subscription. I know Christmas is still a while off yet, but I’m sure that, whatever you are doing, you will have a good one (a little premature, I know…). In the meantime, as this anime season is wrapping up, what do you have in mind to celebrate this commercial holiday? Anime binge-watching perhaps? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below…