This week we got the news about when season 2 of Attack on Titan would be; spring 2017…apparently. I won’t be covering it though; despite its mass popularity (even trending on Facebook), the show just never caught my interest. People are also wondering when Yuri and Viktor will get married now they have engagement rings, and about whether Yayaka will be okay in Flip Flappers. Then I heard the news that the final two episodes of Long Riders! won’t be shown until February, already with the 2 delayed episodes, that just goes to show that the studio put in so much effort to make to show absolutely perfect. Hell, even episode 5 was shown as a ‘catch-up’ episode in Japan…that shows the hard work and commitment.

Me? Well it would be fair to say that if I were a regular viewer, I would have given up on Long Riders! by now. I would have already been influenced enough to spend vast amounts of money on road bikes and equipment (just like Ami has) by about episode 6 or 7. I wouldn’t go so far as organise a team and get a custom jersey though. Maybe I’d do this 160km event that was the highlight of this week. I initially thought that said event would cover the rest of the show, but as Long Riders! won’t end until February now, I have absolutely no idea on how the studio will finish anymore.

I was right about Brave Witches though, Naoe’s temper indeed became the focus. She has the spirit of both Gertrud and Charlotte from the original Strike Witches…they all want to be the strongest and fastest they can possibly be. Naoe is still raw on how Hikari joined and not Takami, the person she looked up to. Her one punch finishing move only exacerbates this. This week’s Neuroi unit has been their toughest yet, and when it threatens the witches’ supply route once again, With Waltrud and Sasha out-of-action due to injury, it’s down to the highest-ranking officer available, Pilot Officer Naoe. Odd as I would have thought it would have been Edytha or Nikka (they are both Flight Lieutenants), but eh…what do I know about rank?

After nearly being wiped out herself, she panics and realises that she can’t do the mission all by herself. She’s still totally tsundere with Hikari though, which used to be annoying but is now actually rather adorable.

You know what isn’t adorable and is very annoying though? That shogi cat tutorial that returns in this week’s Sangatsu no Lion. It’s getting really old now, but I think it’s already reached the stage that it’ll be a regular occurrence. I think more and more people are watching the show as it’s on NHK, and are more curious about shogi, since it is a rather complicated game. So I guess that’s proof that cats make everything better.

Continuing on from last week where Kyouko paid a visit, Rei faces off against a soon-to-be-retiring player. After the game though, the two chat and Rei realises that, because of his accolades as a child, he is painted as some kind of grim reaper. Even though he too sees shogi as something he can’t escape, his opponent was trying his best to go out in some style, but failed miserably. Their game was rather amusing to watch, truth be told.

Rei has not really learned anything new, aside from the fact that he is not the only one who feels that playing professional shogi is like a prison. Thinking about this made me think back to when I was a tournament poker dealer. I ended up meeting many professionals who knew the game inside out. Like Rei has shogi, poker was their job, and where winning means absolutely everything (and winnings pays for mortgages, bills, food, etc.) the pressure can really creep up on you, plus the fact that they have to try to not get addicted to gambling. Of course I can’t imagine how professional shogi players cope with such pressure, even with SHAFT making it somewhat humorous. Next week will start the Christmas episodes (I think there is more than one), and I know what happens in that, but beyond that…I don’t know.

I can’t possibly imagine what kind of Christmas episode the writers of Occultic;Nine would do though, and that’s probably for the best, especially as how this week was more of a mess than it normally is.

I think that, even when this show finally ends, there will be a heap of questions and mysteries left unanswered and unsolved. I don’t know what to think after hearing that Ryouta is most likely Tesla’s daughter…well possessed by her at least, and was actually the crazy radio voice the whole time (??). Now priests are around to erase astral projections…ie. the people who are in fact dead (which is like 80% of the cast now).

The cameraman got drunk this episode. Or maybe it’s the animation director wanting to look edgy for the sake of looking edgy. Either way, having to turn your head while watching the show was…well…picture shots like the one below for about 85-90% of the episode:

In the Fall anime review post in a couple of weeks, I promised to rewatch the entire show. I can make much more sense out of it that way.

Well, Hibike! Euphonium 2 finished its Asuka/Mamiko arc off, but I’m not satisfied. Disappointed would be the best word to describe it. While last week saw Kumiko try to pick Asuka apart, this week has seen the end of both Asuka’s story and Mamiko’s one too. I accept that Mamiko was merely jealous that Kumiko got the opportunity to join band when she could, but she’s being kind of contradictory when she then says that her idea of growing up and being an adult was to simply put up and shut up. She still plans to leave college though, but now that side of the story is irrelevant; Mamiko has accepted that she has been in the wrong, and says to her younger sister that she shouldn’t live with any regrets (like she does).

This in turn mirrors with Asuka. Some of the band have decided to accept that she won’t be coming back; even my bae Haruka has gotten over her inferiority complex and realised that Asuka really wasn’t all that special at all…the band’s own opinion of her only made her out to be. We got the KyoAni trademark happy ending sure enough, but I don’t like how it was executed. Kumiko’s venting did her the world of good, but the fact that Asuka herself then reveals (subtly) that she has a touch of narcissism about her made me so angry. She has become more selfish in this arc than ever…even beating Mamiko’s sudden career change. The band’s (and the viewer’s) opinion of her is coloured by the fact that she is treated like and portrayed as a mature adult…but she’s not. Like Kumiko says, she’s only a high-schooler, just like everyone else in band, and so going around acting superior to everyone would be her undoing, and her punishment would be living the rest of her life in regret. I secretly hoped that, after her vent, Kumiko would slap her and then tell her to just disappear off to her fantasy narcissistic land where the world revolves around her…but sadly she didn’t. That’s why I didn’t like the execution. Now we have a new arc to begin though, and it concerns Reina. Even I don’t know how the story will play out from now on…

This week has been rather mild, which makes a refreshing change. These shows could be saving the best for last. But that Occultic;Nine episode still gives me a headache after all this time, and I thought the super-fast dialogue was bad. So I’m just going to end this post by saying that I’m very glad the show ends in two weeks. I no longer care how it ends, just as long as it does.