…and now we’ve reached this point in the season, that usually means I end up thinking about what I want to watch in the Fall, along with what classic/out-of-season show to get you guys to pick for me. I think we’ll start this week on some happy shows, and then move onto our depressing show of the season.
The Harukana Receive episode this week sees Haruka and Kanata finish off their match against Ai and Mai, who we might end up seeing again in this show, but who is to say? We’re already roughly at the halfway point in the season, and if they do decide to return, it’ll only be in a passing moment, where both Haruka and Mai will be giving each other the evil eyes and fighting over what swimsuit each of them ought to have, while both Kanata and Ai will be in the background, giving the two of them the: “What-the-hell-get-over-it” look.
This episode had everything we were all expecting, but it does confirm in our minds a few things. One is that Haruka is a lovable dork, another is that Kanata really does have a crush on her big cousin after all, and yet another is that it’s pretty certain that the Harukana unit will end up facing either the Eclair unit (Emily and Claire), Narumi and Ayasa, or both of them.
So what now? Apparently some Nationals tournament is coming up in Harukana Receive (like I predicted it would), and everyone is apparently going to participate, so Kanata will eventually get to see Narumi again and the two of them will possibly reconcile…or not…probably will, considering how positive this show is.
Now for some random Asobi Asobase…
I still can’t quite understand why I like this random gag show so much. We’ve had random gag shows like Pop Team Epic already this year, and yet I was unable to like that show at all…so how is Asobi Asobase any different? Well it could be said that a show like Pop Team Epic was more anti-humor, in that it didn’t really care if people liked the jokes, or found offense in the show…it was just there, like the very memes that the show and the characters were based on in the first place.
This week the almighty Oka returns, who tells Hanako, Kasumi and Olivia what happened to the occult club. While others graduated or transferred to other schools, there was one who Oka she claims teleported to another plane of existence. After some research, they all learn that this girl was in fact sick and had to be absent for an extended amount of time. I wish we will see more of Oka, as she has become that precious cinnamon roll that we all want to protect. Later, Hanako gets some exam results back and after learning the girl who beat her had her boyfriend help her, Maeda randomly arrives with a winking android boyfriend who he and Hanako’s grandfather voiced. Yup.
As I said…random gags. I wonder if the manga of this show will make it to the West. I’m sure that, when this show is over, some manga publisher will decide to translate it and bring it this way.
Well there was me actually believing that poor Ayanon was actually going to see some sense after last week, but things have only gotten so much worse…
…however while I thought this added drama was unnecessary, I think that now it has put Hanebado! on a whole new level with its viewers, who are now even conflicted on whether we should even be cheering for Ayano at this rate.
This week’s episode focused on her match against her cocky old rival Kaoruko, who we see is her polar opposite. While Ayano relies on raw natural talent, Kaoruko has made it where she is through sheer hard work…something similar to what Nagisa has been through, and went through when she played Ayano all the way back in the beginning of episode 1. Note that Kaoruko has actually been given a lot of screen time in this episode, which is leading me to thinking whether we should be keeping a track of Ayano’s progress, or whether we should be monitoring the people around her instead.
This increasingly-antagonistic attitude of hers is going to alienate her and ultimately lead to her downfall. She will climb so high, and considering how emotionally fragile she is, it will take the tiniest of things to send her off the edge. But what would it be though? This week-long wait for the next episode is actually quite intense. Even though I just knew that she would face Kaoruko last week, and that it wouldn’t be pretty, I genuinely have no idea on what next week will bring, even though we know that Nagisa will get the chance to get revenge on the girl who knocked Riko out last week.
Okay, so while I have been cheering on Haruka/Kanata and trying to cheer on Ayano, what about Lain? Well episode 6 is, I think, the first step into showing us who and what Lain really is.
This episode shows us a far more outgoing Lain; a person far more determined in what she wants to do. This may have come around as a result of how her room has suddenly transformed into an organized mess of machinery and monitors. Whilst out with Alice and co, Lain suddenly comes across a group of children looking up into the sky, arms raised high, only to notice a huge nude image of herself appear out of the clouds. Confused about this, Lain immediately turns to the Wired, and finds the whereabouts of a dying professor, who developed something called the KIDS program, which extracted and collected psychic energy from test children, only for this project to ultimately kill them. The professor tells Lain that, somehow, his schematics for the program have found themselves on the Wired, and that attempts are clearly being made to reproduce and enhance it.
I will admit that Serial Experiments Lain has, at this halfway stage, become a bit of a trek for me to watch. I usually end up watching these individual episodes on DVD alongside the uber-depressing Hanebado! on Crunchyroll, and so my head usually ends up in all sorts of directions. That’s not to say that I’m not enjoying it though, but I think that, because this is my first time watching this in full, I think I’m still having some kind of difficulty understanding absolutely everything here. Perhaps with a second watch, things will be different.
Roughly halfway through now, and what about you? How has the season been for you? Feel free to air your opinions in the comments below…