My Fall shows are pretty much decided now. Yeah, I’ve been able to narrow them down. One of which I’m looking forward to a lot, but the other one…Well it’s more like something that might turn out to be laughable trash, but I’m so so curious about it. Think back to when I thought watching Kandagawa Jet Girls way back when would be cool. Yes, it was totally ridiculous, but it was still fun to watch somehow. It’s not an isekai show, at least. The second cour of The Aquatope on White Sand and my out-of-season pick Super Cub will join them.
The Aquatope on White Sand Episode 9
How is the show doing in the meantime though, just as the Fall season is about to start? Well this week introduces something that I’m certain will crop up more and more as the show goes on. Another aquarium, Tingaara, is soon to open in the city, and so has sent Chiyu, an employee, for ‘training purposes’, when she is more like a spy.
Of course you anticipated the rest of them to be apprehensive. This is a new aquarium that plans to open in the city, and is potential competition for Gama Gama, providing that they’ll even manage to stay open for the rest of the month. However I don’t think that Chiyu was entirely painted as an antagonist here. It may just be me here, but she really makes the incredibly stubborn Kukuru open her eyes a little. Chiyu is a mature adult who has studied marine life at college, and has worked incredibly hard to get the job she has been able to get, in an environment where such work is extremely difficult to find. Kukuru, on the other hand, has grown incredibly stubborn, immature and set in her ways, and it really has felt like her role as acting director has been handed to her on a plate. Not doubting her own knowledge of marine life; the fact that she is clinging on to these old memories is almost what has made Gama Gama what it is. That might come across as me being super harsh on her, but someone has to say it.
The people at Tingaara all know how to run an aquarium, and one of the reasons why Gama Gama is set to close isn’t entirely because no one new is visiting there anymore. In fact this episode shows us that there’s so much that Gama Gama needs to do to stay open, and we really do get the impression that some of the staff no longer care. Equipment is old and needs constant maintenance, there’s precious little in their budget, they have no special activities going on to bring in new visitors, and what returning visitors they do get know every single fish they have inside and out. I go back to last week, where I said more people at Gama Gama have accepted the closure, and are simply making the best of what time they have left.
I may sound like a sour puss here, since the show is all about Gama Gama reinvigorating itself (so far), but even though they haven’t even opened yet, Tingaara is already leading the Okinawa aquarium game. The city (which is most likely Okinawa’s largest city Naha, although that is never directly mentioned in the show) already attracts a lot of tourists, and so what magic will Gama Gama need to pull out of the hat to even stand a chance of being competition? I know the show will document that journey/struggle, and I think it’s awesome how P.A Works are doing a good job in doing it.
The first cour is coming to an end, and we’ll definitely be seeing a lot more of Tingaara later on. I’m hoping Kukuru won’t be continue being so immature as she is right now, and we might get a little more out of Fuuka as well, since at the moment she’s really been on the back seat. Let’s remember that she promised her family that she’d return home at the end of August, so there’ll be some sub-plot around that in the second cour too.
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S Episode 9
We’ve had all sorts of episodes in this second season of Dragon Maid, but this week’s one was firmly the Elma Show.
She was brought in halfway through season one with the intent to take down Tohru, as a part of the Harmony faction, but we’ve now seen what kind of dragon she is, as well as the kind of dragon she was, before she came to this realm.
This Elma show gave us three separate stories with her at the center. Kicking off with her demanding workers’ rights, only for us to discover the only reason she’s doing it is so she can leave early to catch a limited sweets offer. Then, to be an accompanying adult to Kanna, Riko and Shouta who want to go camping. But the last story was the one that did it for me.
While we’ve already seen that Tohru and Elma travelled together and played their own parts in human society in their own realm, we finally see what the real animosity was. Tohru disapproved of how Elma was treated by a human settlement as a goddess, and effectively took advantage of their worship. Eventually Tohru was able to get her to see the error of her ways, but after finding Tohru becoming a maid to Kobayashi, she went on to call her a hypocrite. Have they made up now? Well, I’m pretty certain that they will still poke at each other a lot, but I think they have grown too tired to be hostile to each other. And I don’t think we can thank Kobayashi for this one; they have been able to do this on their own.
Season two of Dragon Maid remains awesome. And also, Elma is love and Elma is life.
Remake Our Life! Episode 9
Huzzah, I finally get to talk about what went down last week! The science-fiction in the show really hit us in last week’s episode of Remake Our Life! What we assumed was the show keeping to an easy pattern of the characters doing their stuff at art school turned on us, and made us remember that Kyouya was possibly brought back in time for a reason. Now what that reason is, we don’t know yet, but his actions have affected the lives of Shinoaki, Nanako, and Tsurayuki, and a butterfly effect has formed. What he decided to do in the ‘art school’ timeline would create its own future; this future we are in now. And here, Kyouya wakes up in 2018 where he is married to Shinoaki and also has a daughter with her.
All of this – marrying Shinoaki, having a daughter, having a good job – came as a result of Kyouya’s own determination to get that game of theirs finished. Tsurayuki ended up leaving art school to write on his own while everyone else graduated, but it seems that all of this creativity of theirs just fizzled away and turned into more of a chore than anything else. Both Kyouya and Eiko have been able to get decent jobs at a well-known games company, and Kyouya continues to be ‘the guy’ when it comes to motivating people, as we see this week where he gets an illustrator for the company’s game to get back behind the drawing tablet.
Yet he still feels troubled. He had put so much faith in their creative talents that he didn’t stop to think of how all of that can topple down so very easily. Fate can be a cruel mistress sometimes, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it – not even whoever was responsible for Kyouya’s time jumps. Yes, it does suck to see all of these lives change so dramatically, or rather become so different to what Kyouya was hoping they would be. I’ve only just come back from watching that What If…? episode on Disney+ (not an advert by the way) as well, where Doctor Strange decides to mess around with time because things didn’t go the way he wanted. Ehh, I’ve seen so many sci-fi shows and movies where main characters decide to mess around with time and end up having to pay the consequences. What went on in the Back to the Future movies was pure fiction compared to what can really happen. But all of that’s for a science blog, not here where I get to criticize seasonal shows.
Oh damn, I’m going on my own tangents here, sorry…
As this week’s episode finished, I was left scratching my head, but in a good way. Since there’s only 3 more episodes left, I think we’re going to remain here in this timeline when the show ends…unless something absolutely crazy happens in the finale, which is still very possible. This was a really good episode to watch, as it has all reminded us that this is a sci-fi show, not a lovey-dovey harem one. In these remaining episodes, Remake Our Life! will become the story of how Kyouya can get over what he did in the ‘art school’ timeline and make good of what he has now. I mean he has a daughter now; surely she should be his priority.
Lesson to learn here: don’t mess around with time…
Girlish Number Episode 9
After the last episode, where the mood was a little more subdued, here in episode 9 of Girlish Number, we see a lot of things turn around in the making of the second cour of Millennium Princess x Kowloon Overlord, with the arrival of Nanami.
This episode was a reminder to both Chitose and Gojo that their jobs can be replaced by any time, just like that. It’s also worth noting that the president immediately decided to hire Nanami at an event she just so happened to attend…just like Chitose was. And so in a very short meeting, she is cast aside as easily and swiftly as when she herself was chosen. And to add icing on the cake, the president assigns Gojo to be Nanami’s manager, meaning Chitose will end up with someone else. This means that she has lost the one person who still fights in her corner, despite giving her the tough love she needs.
One thing the president said this episode pretty much sums it all up:
“The privilege of youth is being able to chase their dreams. And it is our duty to sell those dreams.“
But will this be a wake-up call that Chitose needs in order for her to get over her massive ego? Well I know episode 10 carries on with this sub-plot of Nanami being ‘the new girl’ who steals Chitose’s dreams away, thereby forcing her to reevaluate her own dream as a voice actress.
This week has been another week of solid episodes. Remake Our Life! will end on a more serious note, instead of something more lovey-dovey, The Aquatope on White Sand will end the first cour with a rival aquarium in the big city, and Tohru and Elma may well have kissed and made up. Who would have seen that coming? It’s as if the Summer Curse™ I keep on getting never even existed.