What a way to kick off year five of this adventure with a recap of what I have watched over the last week. Without having to watch 50 odd episodes, I can actually provide a little more detail than I did last time. That doesn’t mean there is little on my plate, however, so I haven’t been compelled to catch up on anything I dropped earlier. As far as the real life stuff that this space is known for, I’m in a bit of a transition career-wise, but I still have the time to engage in experimental cooking in my spare time.
Currently Airing Top 5
Jormungand
This week’s episode wasn’t particularly special as far as plot. Tojo’s lengthy exposition put the character’s to sleep even. However, it does well enough in executing the action with a bit of comedy formula well. The whole scene with Kasper’s crew seemed to be written more as a comedy where nothing was taken seriously. Jonah’s expressions were also a highlight. Without words, he provided enough commentary on what the viewer was probably thinking. Why the need to pack so much weaponry when taking a trip to a highway service station? You’ll find out Jonah, you’ll find out.
Robotics;Notes
I’m going to use this space to make a point about exposition. This week’s episode began to set the plot down the path of international government conspiracy that the semi-colon franchise is well known for. What was really more impressive to me was the fact that they held back long enough on the reveal that the Earth’s environment had been screwed up for years. Too often you see a show try to set up its world by having characters tell each other the plot as though they had never been in that world prior to the series beginning. That said, Kai is still insufferable as a protagonist.
Space Brothers
While Mutta and the rest of the astronaut candidates will have to wait a week after Hibito lands on the moon to know if they were successful, the story of this episode was Azuma. The reclusive astronaut and his family open up to Mutta and we get some perspective on who Azuma is as a person. He had someone to look up to at NASA who realized that he wasn’t handling the pressure that came with being a historic figure, which is why Hibito was chosen to be the first from Japan to set foot on the moon. Azuma could then end up working without the pressure while also being able to say that he didn’t just let Hibito have the glory.
Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb
I’ve been down on this show, but it can do some things well. The character driven stories involving Yuno and Miyako in the first part and Hiro and Sae in the second part were done well. The first part conveyed well the idea that it may truly be impossible to get to know everything about a person, but in a cheerful “I learn new things about them all the time” sort of way. The second part was about dealing with uncertainty in the face of having to move on with life and actually had Yoshinoya give good advice.
Psycho-Pass
I’ll admit I can sometimes be drawn into a show by the most mundane of things. This week’s episode of Psycho-Pass wasn’t particularly good for resolving the mystery of the avatar killers. What I was really interested in at the end of the episode was incentive systems. The whole world in this series is driven by technology driving a person’s future and what they are and aren’t able to do. So at the end of the episode, it is revealed that Kougami was demoted to Enforcer for the crime of trying to be a good detective. It now makes sense that some of the stupidity coming from the detectives is motivated by not wanting to be considered a criminal.
The Rest of the Week
Sukitte Ii Na Yo
The title and main theme of this show seems to be Yamato’s quest to get Mei to say she loves him. In this episode he does things that are contrary to that mission. His simple inability to turn down the modeling job after having rejected offers last week makes little sense. He also seems to be a rather poor judge of character and unwilling to see that he has all of these women doing everything they can to separate him from Mei. It just made it a frustrating experience this week.
Seitokai no Ichizon
Ah yes, uncertainty and thinking about the future again. This time it’s done more comedically, so really only Chizuru ends up on a realistic career path of the group. The real star of the episode was Mafuyu and her uselessness at life. Projecting a life where she is married to Ken while also spending most of their money on games, anime and manga rather than food was pretty funny.
To Love-Ru Darkness
I’m convinced there is a proper story in all of this. Unfortunately, it just happens to always be about 5 minutes hidden within another 16 minutes of perversion. So yes, Run’s tribulations about falling in love as an idol was a proper story. That did come after several minutes of Momo sharing sexual techniques with Mea and the white blur continuing to exert its influence as the main character. As for the separation scene, it was rather cringe-inducing.
Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai
The boys’ ranking of girls gets leaked and Isshiki has to deal with losing some of the 20 years he thinks he has left with his hair. In the process he becomes a hero to the rest of the boys in his class for taking the fall. Plus, he seems to develop a bit of a crush on Kumin afterwards. Otherwise, the show seems to be stolen by Dekomori and Nibutani in a good way as the latter’s attempts to seem normal are in vain.
Hayate no Gotoku
We finally get the reason why this series opened the way it did. The family’s secret treasure is locked in a vault in Las Vegas. Other than that there was character development between Nagi and Ruri that really should have taken place a few episodes ago. Overall, there wasn’t much comedy either, so this was about as plain an episode as there was this week.
Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo
Sakurasou has a new resident, and there was much hilarity that ensued. I so wish that was actually the case. Instead, we are treated to Nanami putting in a shift as soon as she moves in because Sorata is so much of a traditional harem lead that he doesn’t realize women have feelings. There was no fundamental resolution to Nanami’s problem here other than cockblocking Sorata, I guess. But that was a perception problem rather than a real one. I’m giving this episode too much credit now.
Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne
One thing this show does have going for it is the ridiculous amount of t-shirts Akiko seems to be able to make. A lot of this week’s episode was sitting around in a room dealing with the issue of how to separate the siblings. Sure, Akito doesn’t seem to care about the women around him at all, but at least he’s upfront about all of it. Rather the women have taken on the selfless task of trying to protect him from Akiko. Also, they threw in that he has a fiance just to spice things up I guess.
Zetsuen no Tempest
This one’s rapidly heading to drop territory. It was another episode that looked fantastic, was well produced in high quality. But after watching it, I still couldn’t recall a single thing that actually happened. The men in this series really have no defining features beyond just executing their role in the plot. Sadly, they dominate everything that happens in each episode. Something needs to happen next week.
Little Busters
I will just wait for the next colloquium on this.
Updated Fall Season Ranking
| Season Rank | Year Rank | Change | Anime |
| 1 | 2 | ↓1 | Sukitte Ii na yo |
| 2 | 8 | ↑2 | Jormungand |
| 3 | 14 | ↓2 | Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo |
| 4 | 15 | ↓2 | Zetsuen no Tempest |
| 5 | 18 | ↑3 | Uchuu Kyoudai |
| 6 | 21 | ↑8 | Robotics;Notes |
| 7 | 24 | ↓4 | Hayate no Gotoku: Can’t Take My Eyes Off You |
| 8 | 28 | ↓4 | Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai |
| 9 | 30 | ↑5 | Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb |
| 10 | 31 | ↑2 | Psycho-Pass |
| 11 | 33 | ↓3 | Little Busters! |
| 12 | 38 | ↓2 | To Love-Ru Darkness |
| – | – | – | Seitokai no Ichizon Lv. 2 |
| – | – | – | Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!! |
Many down arrows this week as Sukitte falls off the top spot. Jormungand takes advantage of the week field to move into the overall top 10. Unfortunately, as this is an average, I think it will take some time before this list beyond the top 2 reflects how I actually feel about it this season. It will probably take another month though.
Terribad
Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gautaman and R
Go Nagai would have been proud if he had made this, but he didn’t. Instead, we got something by the director who would go on to make Isshoni Training before dumping him for someone who would make a career-ending performance as a director. As for the R at the end of the title, that was the name added to the 2nd episode. But what about S, SuperS and Gautaman Stars? While I’m sure those would have been fantastic, they never materialized.
So Gautaman is the story of a multi-religious school that is under attack by evil Buddhists with little respect for copyright. In addition to the Darth Vader mask before, the final villain is literally a Terminator. So Mari ends up being given the ability to turn into Gautaman to protect her yuri ship Saori by a statue of Buddha that likes to jump in and reveal her weaknesses to her opponents. She then falls in love with the mid-boss of Black Buddha, is attacked by teenage mutant ninja octopi causing the first legally obligated use of a mosaic in terribad, before the final battle with the Pope, who is that Terminator from before. There’s also her disturbing father who figures out her secret identity from seeing her ass in pictures beneath the sumo belt.
This was terribad of the so bad it’s funny sort of way that makes it a good watch, so it shouldn’t be tedium of the likes I’ve had to watch lately for this. Also because of the title change and desperate decline of production quality between the episodes, they are rated separately.
First Instance of Female Nudity: approximately 20 minutes
Gautaman rating: 40.1/100
Gautaman R rating: 43.6/100
Lower Mid-Table 
I think Yamato’s taking up the modeling role for a day (It isn’t clear that it will go past that point yet) doesn’t seem out of character for him. From what the series has portrayed of Yamato, because he had been afraid of bullying, he tries to be as inoffensive as possible and is sometimes a poor judge of character as a result of this. Because Nakanishi ending up as a victim, Yamato will try to help out when possible, and has developed a reputation for being kind to everybody. This leads to him helping Megumi because she doesn’t always explicitly wear her malice on her face like Hayakawa (Episode 4) does. think the series has portrayed that his lifestyle has stunted his growth as person, although in a different way than Mei has.
It just feels like they’ve somehow portrayed Yamato as a character who is pretty much the prototypical harem lead that we all want to hate when looking at shows like this. Yet, he’s someone that is seen as aspirational here. I think for the most part Yamato is easily dragged along and that he needs a blunt instrument to tell him how he should act. Not unlike the typical teenager anyway.
You make a good point on Psycho Pass. I was surprised by the revelation that Kougami had been an inspector too. But then everything fell into place; the lack of drive and skill shown by the inspectors so far, is a testament to their psychological or emotional ‘innocence’. Anyone with a burning ambition to accomplish something might have their psychopass clouded and be subject to sanction. It seems like a society were mental purity is rewarded above competence and results.
Most definitely. Purity is one of the defining features of this particular society. There’s a larger point that could be made by this series, but it will have to wait its time until the end. Right now, it’s simply just trying to find its feet.