I was doing some cleaning this week post-Valentine’s Day and all, when I came across one of them myself. I can’t say it was entirely meaningless, but rather it ends up feeling more like a sign that I still haven’t paid this person back. That’s probably a personality flaw on my part that I keep a running tally on debts or favors owed even if the other person was not expecting anything back. I also found some other strange items along the way, but the most tragic were the Canadian pennies. RIP.
Currently Airing Top 5
Zetsuen no Tempest
An episode of this quality was rather unexpected. I think it built brilliantly off of the last episode in portraying Yoshino’s feelings. Unlike Mahiro, who had set out to get revenge against anyone or thing that caused the death of Aika, Yoshino merely continued to exist. Finally, the totality of it all got to Yoshino as he broke down. Confiding the truth in Hakaze may have been the best thing for him as he was a broken man up to that point. On the downside, though, it made Hakaze’s love for Yoshino, or as she put it her Yoshino, much more intense. I would probably be keen to see someone do some sort of comparison of Aika and Hakaze in their feelings toward Yoshino. It seems rather like a love versus lust situation, only with the logic of the entire world at stake.
Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru
The final girl in Eita’s harem gets a thorough introduction in this week’s episode. Fuyuumi Ai, the hall monitor, is clearly infatuated with Eita, but absolutely must hide that fact from the club she shut down. So she invents a boyfriend who is foreign and attends Tokyo University. Completely logical selection there, Ai. No one is going to question that at all. Kaoru, as Ai’s childhood friend, tries to help her get closer to Eita. She just can’t pull the trigger on confessing though. Kaoru does serve an important role in making Eita ask himself why she is acting that way. I guess he just has to figure out what she is doing, as if trying to tear every girl close to him away. It wasn’t as bad as an episode as I’m making it out to be. Honest.
GJ-bu
The younger sisters of the cast members get introduced in this week’s episode. Mao and Megumi’s younger sister is rather disturbing as if that haunted mask she wears on the side of her head wasn’t enough of a giveaway. Kirara’s younger sister is a completely accurate portrayal of all young Canadian girls since they all are either catgirls or fair-haired maidens. Kyoro’s younger sister is most disturbing of all. You remember Akiko from Oniai? Yes, it’s the same voice actress in her 2nd role as a younger sister of a lead male. How can someone be type cast in their first 2 jobs? I digress, but this was the best episode of this show so far this season.
Senyuu.
This week’s episode tones down the budget for the animation, obviously on purpose. Either that or Yamakan didn’t realize they paid JAM Project a truckload of money to do the end theme. This week, Alba finds himself a fugitive for helping Rche run away from danger. That was after a scene where Ross replaced his armor with a Where’s Waldo outfit. It’s a great disguise, come on Alba. Also, lolicon knight got sentenced to death by the King. That was always likely to happen for one reason or another.
Little Busters!
This is a Kud episode, you should have no doubt about that. This episode does a pretty good job of going into her background as a foreigner who seems to struggle with studying. It’s a classic dilemma, she’s very intelligent to the point of being able to take exams for fun and being a year younger than the rest of the class. However, having never taken tests under stress prior to transferring in, she’s not very good with them. However, there was a revealing moment in this episode. When Kud and Kanata are talking about multi-world theory, you just know somewhere that a certain Mr. Maeda was patting himself on the back for being the genius who brought this idea in. Just wait until it actually happens.
The Rest of the Week
Robotics;Notes
The Robotics Club is disbanded, but only to go underground with the help of the very same people who were instrumental in making it what it became. At the same time, there’s a grieving process after Mizuka was killed and Subaru was almost killed. It just doesn’t feel really well executed though. Also, Aki’s inferiority complex is becoming a tad annoying by this point. Finally, Kai has evidently fallen into an epic trolling attempt by Kimijima since that last report simple sent the rest of the reports out to the rest of the world at once. I don’t see what difference it will make though. If the people who pay attention to that Gunvarrel anime, got that, they would know it’s effectively the same thing as that last episode that got leaked.
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT
Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo
Sometimes it feels as though I have nothing but contempt for this show. I can’t say this week’s effort was much better than the last. Sure, Jin’s marriage proposal had been coming, but to suddenly have Misaki change her attitude to Jin at the end felt really contrived. The whole point must have been to set up that lengthy series of flashbacks that in no way connected me further to either Misaki or Jin. So Jin got into a bunch of fights when he was younger, so what? Those really are the two most powerful words in the universe, and Sakurasou hasn’t been able to answer them.
Kotoura-san
The fun and games of last week continue for another episode, and it’s just as generic at the same time. Most people who have seen a lot of anime know the trope about abandoned hospitals, and it looked like this would have been a good chance to explore Haruka’s powers for good if there were ghosts. Nope, it’s just her grandfather dicking around and splashing cash on his own amusement park like he’s Michael Jackson or something. Damn, that’s a terrible analogy. Anyway, it looks like this is only going to get interesting again when Haruka’s evil mother rejoins the series soon.
Maoyuu Maou Yuusha
Clearly they’ve stopped caring about the plot when putting each episode together. Sure they devote some time to it at the beginning and end of each episode, but the staff don’t seem to care all that much. They’d rather spend their time making this into a harem show. I can’t wait for Female Mage to get involved in this. Way too much time was spent on the fight between Female Knight and Demon King over who would get into Hero’s pants. This show can do so much better, that’s why this episode just made me disappointed in a way a parent disapproves of their child’s actions.
Space Brothers
This series has resumed service. Mainly in the form of dragging out the story as long as possible because this seems to pull in viewers. The favorable time helps to be fair. This week, Mutta visited Sharon’s place, then got his blue jumpsuit. To anyone marathoning this show when they eventually finish it, this episode can be skipped entirely.
Minami-ke Tadaima
A very uninspired episode of Minami-ke to say the least. The first part plays out like part of a beach episode with an overnight stay. Followed by Kana being stupid and everyone slapping each other. It just felt like it was missing the passion of earlier episodes. There’s no Hosaka lately, and while seeing Sensei of Sensei and Ninomiya-kun fame almost getting stolen from his lover was a good change on that, it was all the episode really offered for new entertainment.
Ishida to Asakura
They’ve now run out of material. That was my thought after watching this as Asakura contrives to have his transgender teacher hand him his daughter. Since she doesn’t have large enough breasts, he’s not interested. That’s the whole episode. I should just drop this, but I still feel like the writing is much more intelligent than Psycho-Pass so what the hell, I’ll just keep watching terribad that’s currently airing.
Updated Seasonal Average Ranking
| Anime | Season Rank | Change | Series Average Rank | Change |
| Uchuu Kyoudai | 1 | – | 3 | ↑1 |
| Maoyuu Maou Yuusha | 2 | – | 1 | – |
| Senyuu | 3 | ↑1 | 2 | – |
| Robotics;Notes | 4 | ↓1 | 6 | ↓1 |
| Zetsuen no Tempest | 5 | ↑1 | 5 | ↑1 |
| Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT | 6 | ↓1 | 4 | ↓1 |
| Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru | 7 | – | 7 | ↑1 |
| GJ-bu | 8 | ↑5 | 9 | ↑4 |
| Little Busters! | 9 | ↑2 | 12 | ↑1 |
| Minami-ke Tadaima | 10 | ↓2 | 11 | ↓1 |
| Kotoura-san | 11 | ↓2 | 13 | ↓2 |
| Ishida to Asakura | 12 | ↓2 | 14 | ↓2 |
| Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo | – | – | 8 | ↓1 |
Catching Up
KissxSis OVA
This is a completely classy OVA. Yes, I mean that in the same way as those classy anime I sometimes write about for The Classiest Anime. This is one of those series where I am actually caught up in the manga, so I can tell how this fits in. There, Keita and Yuuzuki are now dating, but that doesn’t mean the end of conflict. This 9th OVA (officially number 8, but there was an episode 0) pretty much follows in the same pattern as everything else. Keita ends up in contrived near sexual positions with whatever girl is the focus of the episode. There are a bunch of misunderstandings, but they get closer all the same. The key set piece here is the teacher Yuuzuki ending up on top of Keita on his bed and the two of them rubbing against each other without knowing any better. The end result, she gets an in with his parents, and they both have masturbation material for the night.
Queen’s Blade Rebellion Specials
I finished off the 2nd half of these specials which were included with each of the releases of the series. The 4th episode is dwarf fanservice, if anyone out there even thought of wanting that. The 5th is just a voyeur piece with a video camera. I don’t even know how that would even work in this show’s universe. Finally, Annelotte goes demonic berserk after she believes someone stole her pudding. That last one is the best of the lot because it is a pretty stupid concept that’s executed well. Well as far as Queen’s Blade fans are concerned. Overall, the specials pretty much did their job. Fanservice of every character included in each one. (62.08/100)
Terribad
The Laws of the Sun
This is pretty much standard Happy Science fare. That means lots of alternate history mixed with religious bullshit and voice actors who happily mail in their performance because they were paid handsomely by the cult. As such, there is no real character development in this movie because it is played straight up as a documentary. There’s tons of speeches given by the characters who happen to be featured in the great Laws of the Sun book, and Hermes features too for veteran Happy Science viewers.
Of course you probably don’t care about that, you really want to know what is most unintentionally hilarious. Remember, this is played entirely without irony from the production team. First has to be the passing of billions of years of history in the first 4 minutes. Take that 2001. Then there are the lizard people in the Andes. Plus Buddha being a lazy bastard who doesn’t care for his wife and child. Those are probably the 3 best moments of unintentional comedy here.
Moment of Female Nudity: 11 minutes, 23 seconds (just the creation of humanity and you see practically nothing anyway)
Rating: 44.5/100
Lower Mid-Table 