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 | Although episode four was enjoyable, I'm skipping past it in the interest of catching up to a regular blogging schedule, and also because episode five was just that amazing. The important things to glean from episode four are that:
1. Shu hugs Tsukimi on a Kuranosuke-chaperoned date to the aquarium and they both get nosebleeds from it,
2. Shu still doesn't realize that the person with running mascara that he gave Tsukimi's clothes to was actually Tsukimi, and
3. Kuranosuke finds himself feeling jealous of Shu and Tsukimi in spite of himself.
Kuranosuke also tries to encourage the girls to fight the inevitable tearing down of their apartment, only to realize that they're aware of the development plans and are blissfully optimistic (see: complacent) about the outcome.
Tsukimi doesn't have much time to sort out her embarrassing feelings for Shu due to a fax from Chieko's mother, the landlady, saying that she's planning on selling the building after all. Enraged, the Sisterhood decides to attend the local planning meeting regarding the development project in hopes of presenting their case and protesting the eventual destruction of their home.
Unfortunately, they stand out with their drenched appearance, shoddy clothing, and general inability to compose themselves throughout the presentation. This goes doubly for Tsukimi, who is forced to sit next to Shu. Shu doesn't recognize her in the annoying, "How can you possibly not know that Clark Kent is Superman, journalists aren't built like linebackers!" way, and Tsukimi assumes that he's blowing her off. When new character, Shoko Inari, calls the Sisterhood out on their disorder, and asks them if they have any questions, they promptly freeze up and run away. Tsukimi's encounter with Shu is only worsened when she sees him lending his umbrella to the scheming Inari, and begins to think that since Inari is far prettier than her, she doesn't stand a chance with Shu.
Meanwhile, Kuranosuke shows up to the apartment for hot-pot night only to find Tsukimi locked in her room. He runs into Banba, Mayaya, and Jiji, who are covered with trash bags in order to keep themselves somewhat dry. Asking them if they really went to the development meeting looking like that, the girls give up without a fight, saying that it's hopeless. This enrages Kuranosuke, who channels Saki Kasukabe from Genshiken and starts yelling at the Sisterhood, saying that they'd better fight for their cause. He runs back to his house, gathers all of the makeup, supplies, and clothes he'll need, and launches a full on offensive on the Sisterhood, beginning with Mayaya.
This leads to the crowning moment of this episode where Kuranosuke seemingly gets his point across through the incredibly thick skulls of the Sisterhood: yeah, it sucks that sometimes you have to dress differently, or present yourself differently to prove a point, but that's the only way that anyone will take you seriously sometimes. If you deem that something is important enough to fight for, sometimes you have to play the part to get what you want. It's a lesson that the Sisterhood needs to learn.
I loved how Kuranosuke emphatically states that it's not about changing their personalities, but changing the way they look so that others will take them seriously. In fact, I think that Kuranosuke would be disappointed if they changed their true personalities, since it's the Sisterhood's, and especially Tsukimi's, personality quirks that keep him coming back to their apartment as opposed to going out with his stylish friends. Also interesting was how the Sisterhood members finally seem to realize that they can't roll over, be complacent, and blame their problems on other people anymore. Or, at the very least, not without fighting first.
Oh and yes, even the mighty Kuranosuke gives in to Banba's ridiculous hair, opting for a wig to cover up the whole thing. |
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It's another average day at the island school when Wako invites Sugata along with her and Takuto to go repair Takuto's broken watch downtown. (Downtown e kuridasou!) Sugata, who seems a bit out of it, declines the offer, opting to head home alone. Towards the end of their pseudo first date, Wako tells Takuto the reason why Sugata hates his birthday. Sugata is the driver of the most powerful cybody known in existence: Samekh (named after one of the Hebrew characters that form the name of the Angel of Death), and it was on his birthday that he discovered that he would inherit this cybody, and not be allowed to leave the island because of it. Ever since that day, he has resented his own birthdate. Wako then apologizes to Takuto for using him to take Sugata's place. Later on in the episode, Takuto admits under his breath that it was his birthday too.
Takuto comes up with a plan to cheer Sugata up: stand Wako outside of his house and make her sing so that Sugata can hear her song, but not before he asks Wako if she loves Sugata. Wako skirts around the issue a bit, saying that she deeply cares for Sugata because if it hadn't been for him, she's unsure if she could have accepted her own fate, and similar confinement, as easily. Just then, the two are attacked by one of Ivrogne's cronies, Ondine. She uses her first phase only, Mermaidoll, so she doesn't activate Zero Time, and Takuto has to fight on his own. This leads to him, and Sugata's two maids, being beaten in a fight, forcing Sugata to use Samekh's first phase, King's Plllar, causing him to go into a coma.
Episode Seven mainly focuses on Takuto wavering on his friendship with Wako and Sugata, wondering if he was truly friends with them, or if he was only a third wheel to a couple. Thanks to a cheering up from the always awesome Sarina Endou (who I like more and more every time she appears for more than five seconds in an episode) he goes to the beach for a bit of Wako fanservice...I mean, to cheer Wako up. While they're there, Glittering Crux attacks again, this time with Ivrogne instructing Ondine to return to finish the job on Takuto, due to Head forcing Ivrogne's hand. Ondine loses to Tauburn, with Sugata waking up in the process.
Realizing that Sugata is awake somewhere, Wakuto head to Sugata's house only to see the King's Pillar go off again somewhere on the island. Takuto rushes to the scene only to find that Scarlet Kiss/Benio has been there first, and kissed Sugata. Despite this, Sugata seems to be awake, but is awkwardly cold to Takuto.
Star Driver implemented two incredibly overused plot devices these past two weeks, one in each individual episode. In my opinion, the use of Episode Six's, "Surprise! We have the same birthday!" isn't as bad as Seven's, "He's one of us now....and will be forced to face his friend and rival!" with the main problem with the latter being that Sugata and Takuto were never shown to be particularly close. Fortunately, most of Star Driver's audience, myself included, doesn't watch the series because it's especially original, but because it's entertaining, and has the potential to turn all of these standard plot devices on their heads. I'm hopeful that, despite not being a fan of recent developments, they manage to make it fun. |
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| Sorry for the delay in Index and Star Driver blogging, but I've been steadily working about 60 hours a week again, and therefore need to get caught up on everything. As you can see, I did a two-parter for Index this week, and will follow suit with Star Driver once episode seven airs. By then I should be caught up and hopefully back down to my regular 50 hours a week...hehe.
Lotus Wand
When in doubt, punch the loli battle nun in the face to buy your friends enough time to perform a gigantic magical spell. Or at least, this is the solution that Touma chooses, after briefly helping rescue Index, Stiyl, and the leader of the Amakusa from the group of nuns that jabbed pens in their ears. Before Touma sets this plan into motion, we also learn from Index that Orsola's method of deciphering the Liber Al vel Legis is actually one of the hundreds of false ways to decipher it, so the Roman Catholic Church's assassination of Orsola would have been pointless anyway.
All's well that ends well in the Anglican Church, with Laura Stuart implying that she only allowed the Amakusa to join the Anglican Church in order to keep Kaori somewhat subdued. Speaking of Kaori, she gets all flustered around Touma in the hospital, which allowed me to come to the realization that, yes, nearly every female side character remotely close to his age is going to want Touma's junk. Orsola doesn't count, she's a nun after all.
There were a few glaring animation shortcuts in this episode, which was unfortunate; however, the action sequences, especially between Touma and Sister Agnese, were enjoyable to watch. Since Sister Agnese and a few of her cronies are in the opening, I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up seeing her again down the road, despite the fact that Laura Stuart made it sound like the Roman Catholic Church was using her as a scapegoat. I have no doubt that we'll see both Kaori and Stiyl again at some point in this season as well.
Remnant
This episode starts off very innocuously, with Index enthralled by modern weather forecasting while Kuroko is trying to get Mikoto some risque underwear to better suit Tokiwadai's Railgun. Fortunately, this episode doesn't stay that way for long, as Kuroko is ambushed by another teleporter, Musujime Awaki, who handily owns her and re-claims some stolen goods that Kuroko was hunting down for Judgment. She also reveals to Kuroko that although the supercomputer Tree Diagram was destroyed, there is a group of people that are trying to reconstruct the remnants of it. Mikoto has been trying to silently stop this, since it would mean the rebirth of the Level 6 experiments.
There is a fantastic, and slightly painful, scene where Kuroko desperately tries to hide the fact that she knows what Mikoto is up to, while Mikoto attempts to hide what she's up to from Kuroko. As it turns out, neither of them does a very good job, and despite her injuries, Kuroko heads out that night after Mikoto to help her in any way she can. Realizing that she'll have to get involved in Mikoto's painful personal past, Kuroko ends up hiding from Mikoto in order to overhear a conversation between her and Musujime. At the end, Kuroko teleports away and vows to help Mikoto in any way, shape, or form. Closing out the episode, we see one of the Misaka sisters rise from her bed, saying that now is the time to act.
Having never read the light novels, I can't help but wonder if Index's complete shift from the Roman Catholic Church vs the Anglican Church to a personal story about Mikoto is largely motivated by fanservice. Yes, I realize that Mikoto's canon past is heavily referenced here, but that twinge of doubt will always remain whenever Mikoto Misaka, or even Accelerator, who we also saw briefly in this episode, is involved, simply because they are so ridiculously popular. Regardless, it was extremely nice to see a more serious side of Kuroko, who up until this episode has been a character who annoyed me to no end. |
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| "But if no one falls in love with her, does that mean she'll stay grubby forever?"
This week on Kuragehime, it's the Tsukimi makeover episode! I was certainly surprised at how it turned out, especially since we knew that with Kuranosuke around, Tsukimi's makeover was inevitable. What I loved about this episode is that it was actually far more focused on Kuranosuke and his relationship with his family than Tsukimi. More specifically, it showed the drastic differences between him and his older brother Shuu, to the point where it seems that Kuranosuke has classic "younger Prince syndrome." This turns even more interesting towards the end of the episode, where we learn that Kuranosuke may not even have the same mother as Shuu, or at the very least, his mother is no longer with his father. Tying into this is the fact that Kuranosuke claims to want to see his mother one more time just to look at her closet, and thanks to the flashback of young Kuranosuke in awe at racks and racks of clothes, we learn that he most likely inherited his love of fashion from her.
Everyone always says to, "be yourself," and sometimes as it is in Tsukimi's case, it can become a mantra to hide behind. If being "herself" is also being a painfully shy otaku, who's to say that she actually isn't using that phrase as an excuse not to go out and meet people, for fear of being rejected? I'm not necessarily positive that this is true for Tsukimi; however, the fact that this series continues to quietly address the idea of being labeled an otaku, or being labeled fashionable is quite remarkable. In most anime series, the otaku are almost always romanticized (even in harder-hitting portrayals like Welcome to the NHK), as to not alienate anime's premier audience, and it's refreshing to see that The Sisterhood seemingly act a lot more like real people. Sometimes they're right, sometimes they're wrong, and they have prejudices and flaws just like everyone else.
"Everyone else" definitely includes Shuu, who disapproves of Kuranosuke's cross-dressing, and disapproves of Tsukimi once he meets "the real her" despite falling in love with her made-over form earlier. To top this off, Tsukimi peeks out the window to get one last look at Shuu and manages to meet his eye, seemingly causing her to fall for him a bit. I'm sure this will be expanded on later since the reason that Shuu knew of her apartment complex in the first place is that it's scheduled to be demolished.
As a side note, I found this hilarious. Go Star Driver, go!
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I continuously find myself impressed by Star Driver. In particular, a lot of other anime series should take lessons from Star Driver in plot pacing and budget planning (the animation has been at a consistently high level thus far without too much use of stock footage). Keep up the good work, Takuya Igarashi! Another thing that this series does very well is continuously develop its characters. This past week was no exception, as the school nurse, Midori Okamoto, who is a gigantic fan of pretty young men. So much so, that she breaks into the Science Club's storeroom, steals Class Rep/Ivrogne's Mandrake love potion and, as Professor Green abuses her cybody's power to infatuate all of the young men in the school.
This causes earthquakes on the Northern Island to increase, caused by an already agitated volcano. Meanwhile the North Maiden continues to tell her cryptic story to Head, and we hear her song once more at the cybodies are going into Zero Time. Takuto is ready for her, as he and Night Flight figure out that she's from the Glittering Crux; however he's easily overpowered by her in battle. Only when Professor Green spaces out while looking at his delicious body is he able to gain the advantage. At the very end, the defeated Professor Green goes back to being the school nurse, and ends up catching the attention of a pretty boy who helps out Night Flight occasionally.
Despite the return to the regular formula in this episode, there were many fantastic moments throughout. I loved the drama club's way of providing "fanservice" in the opening scene, and can only hope to see more of Sarina's character in this series. She's a lot more interesting than Wako, anyway. Also hilarious was how easily outwitted Okamoto/Professor Green was by Class Rep/Ivrogne, since all it took was Ivrogne doing the "Kiraboshi!" pose to uncover Okamoto's identity. Ivrogne continues to be an interesting character to me. Since she was still congratulated by Head in the previous episode, and not soundly defeated like Professor Green was, I'm hoping that her deceptive illusion tactics will resurface in a later episode. Through Ivrogne, we also learn that not all Glittering Crux members know of each others' real life identities, although I wouldn't put it past Ivrogne at least to have figured them all out. The Glittering Crux seems like a very disorganized group that, for all of the various titles and sectors, doesn't focus on communication between the groups at all. It's also odd that the series chose to defeat such a supposedly strong character so quickly, leaving us wondering if Professor Green was a one-off, or if she's going to play a role in the decision-making still.
Next week it looks like we may learn a bit more about Sugata, and hopefully they'll delve into the meat of the plot a bit, or at least explain a few more bits and pieces. |
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This episode kicks off with J.C. Staff giving Touma just enough time to realize that he absolutely has to save Orsola because it's the right thing to do. He makes up a ridiculously lame excuse about finding a convenience store to Index and Stiyl, which in the end doesn't matter because the two of them end up tagging along anyway. This time around he doesn't beat around the bush with long speeches, opting to stop Agnese from beating the crap out of Orsola with her ridiculous platform shoes by solidly punching her.
As predicted, the cross that Stiyl gave Touma, who in turn gave it to Orsola is important. Since it places Orsola under the protection of the Anglican Church, allowing Stiyl and Index to officially enter the battle. This is all to the chagrin and annoyance of Agnese, who orders her battle nuns into attack mode, as to not allow Orsola to escape. The Amakusa pop back in for a visit to make the entire situation a slightly fairer fight, while Kaori watches from afar with pride.
It looks like the group has the Roman Catholic Church cornered, especially when Index sings her Sheol Fear attack, causing the nuns to writhe on the ground with lost faith and fear. However, this is handily avoided when Lucia and her group arrive on the scene and jab fountain pens in their ears as to not hear Index's song. All in all, this was a pretty good action episode, and it looks like this arc may be wrapping up already by next episode. From the way that Kaori was talking, I'm also wondering if the Liber Al Vel Legis isn't going to come into play in a latter episode, regardless of the fact that it wasn't actually ever shipped to Japan. Road trip to the Vatican?
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| "Because I wanted to see you."
Despite having fairly obvious themes, I always feel like I'm watching something special and exceptional when I watch Kuragehime. The small comedic quirks that are randomly inserted into various scenes are always on point and never feel forced, adding to the overall characterization of each Amamizu apartment complex member.
This episode finds Tsukimi at a loss as to how to get rid of her stylish guest. She fumbles around and finally convinces him to leave, telling him not to come back. He, of course, doesn't listen and returns to effectively ruin their communal hot pot night, causing everyone but Tsukimi to go into super defense mode and freeze up. When Tsukimi begs him to leave, asking him why he came over again in the first place, Kuranosuke simply replies that he wanted to see her, causing Tsukimi's brain to break. Note to everyone out there: sometimes telling a simple truth like that can have more power than you might think. Due to Kuranosuke's pushing, eventually all of the apartment complex girls leave, and Tsukimi walks him home, apologizing for the behavior of her friends, while trying to make him understand why they acted the way they did.
There's a built-in defense mechanism that one has if they haven't especially been a part of the "popular" crowd their entire life that makes it very hard to see the other side of things sometimes. This episode of Kuragehime does a great job of presenting both sides without getting preachy. It was especially cruel watching the way that they viciously turned down a gay couple who had applied to live in the apartment, and supremely awkward watching the oblivious Kuranosuke trying to coax each member out of their respective shells. In the end, it turns out that all he needed was some grade A Matsusaka beef for the hot pot to win them over. It's funny that Kuranosuke is painted as a has-everything stylish girl by the apartment complex group, but in reality it seems like he is much ostracized by his own family. I'm interested to see where they go with his personal story, as there's probably a lot more behind his cheery disposition than meets the eye.
Halfway through the episode, I had wondered why they brought up the vacant lot as the girls were walking home. Now, from the next episode previews it looks like Kuranosuke's brother is going to get involved with the apartment complex, probably with the idea of tearing it down. This ties in to the final scene where Tsukimi discovers that Kuranosuke's father is actually the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism. It could be an interesting plot device, but I hope that they continue to focus on building a relationship between Tsukimi and Kuranosuke over everything else. |
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This week it's all about Wako and Takuto. Takuto and Wako. Wakuto.
They end up frozen in an illusion created by one of Wako's drama club friends, Taiga (no not Taiga of Toradora! fame) who secretly wants Takuto and Wako to end up together so that she can have Sugata all to herself. She's too polite to do anything about it until she is fed an odd potion by Class-rep-chan/Ivrogne, who ends up also being in the school science club. As we know from previous anime series, that's never a good sign. The potion causes the world to freeze except for Wako and Takuto, manifesting an illusion where they are the last people on the island. The plan works in that Takuto and Wako talk to each other about various secrets, including when they first "apprivoised" and Wako's dream to become a singer. After Takuto summons Tauburn and disrupts the illusion, he tells Suguta that he's going to defeat all of the Glittering Crux Brigade's cybodies, implying that if he does, Wako can finally leave the island and become a singer like she's always dreamed of.
As for the KIROBOSHI brigade, we didn't see much of them this week, although we learned a few bits and pieces about Class-rep-chan/Ivrogne. She seems to be a bit of an outsider in the Brigade who does things her own way. Nevertheless, towards the end of the episode, despite the fact that Tauburn wasn't defeated, or even engaged in combat, Head congratulates Ivrogne on a job well done. It seems that bringing Wako and Takuto closer together serves the interests of the brigade as well as the personal interests of some of the characters.
Speaking of Head, it's well known that he broke the North Maiden's seal. Wako mentions in this episode that a maiden cannot leave the island unless her seal is broken. This is coupled by the fact that the chains in the North Maiden's cage don't actually hold her captive, and the North Maiden talks about keeping dark secrets from everyone. If we're seeing "breaking the seal" as not a euphemism for peeing but a euphemism for sex, it will be interesting to learn more about Head's actual relationship with the North Maiden, and how that comes into play later on. |
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Rie Kugumiya...erm...I mean Battle Nun Sister Agnese, gathers her troops and tells Stiyl, Touma, and Index to find Orsola among the Amakusa while they cause a noisy diversion in the form of a full-on assault. She also mentions something about re-capturing the Liber Al vel Legis and a few other tasks; however, as Stiyl points out, they need to prioritize and end up making Orsola their number one priority.
It turns out that Touma doesn't have to look very far. After Stiyl and Index split off to avoid the Amakusa, Touma literally runs into Orsola as she is trying to escape. He nullifies the insignia binding her hands and mouth, freeing her before having an awkward moment where he puts a necklace that Stiyl had given him around her neck, saying that it will better serve her than him. They look like they're about to kiss, but are interrupted with the arrival of more Amakusa and, eventually, Stiyl and Index. What follows are a few well-animated fight scenes (you can tell where J.C. Staff is putting most of their money this season, which is sad because I'd like to see a little bit more effort out of them with Bakuman), the end result of which give Orsola back in the custody of the Roman Catholic battle nuns.
Also in the custody of the nuns is the de facto leader of the Amakusa, who relays to Touma and Index that the Amakusa aren't actually the "bad guys" in this scenario. He claims that it's Orsola who initially came to the Amakusa, asking to be kidnapped in order to not be taken into custody by the Roman Catholic Church. Due to Orsola's unique ability to decode the Liber Al vel Legis, the Roman Catholic Church wants to kill her so that no one will be able to read the book, and effectively end the church. Touma is hesitant to believe him; however, it begins to look like he's telling the truth when they hear Orsola's scream in the distance, and two battle nuns end up attacking them. Luckily Index handily takes care of them and away we go!
This explains why Orsola was a bit resistant in the previous episode, hiding behind Touma when in inadvertently leads her right to the Roman Catholics. In the end, since she couldn't bring herself to trust the Amakusa either, she's now conveniently left with only Touma to turn to. Another interesting thing of note that will more than likely come up later on is the necklace that Laura Stuart gave to Stiyl, who in turn gave it to Touma, who gave it to Orsola. Orsola seemed to know of its value, but didn't say anything to Touma other than that she wanted him to put it around her neck for her. Another wild card in this situation is Kaori who, at this time, is still unaware of what's going on with her former organization. |
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Anytime the word "adult" is placed in front of anything, it usually means something sexual. Although we don't know exactly why the Adult Bank is named what it is, its leader, Takuto's green-haired classmate Kanako Watanabe who is also known as The President among her Glittering Crux peers, certainly fits that particular description of "adult." So much so, in fact, that she shocks our poor nerdy drama club members by brazenly announcing that she only married for money, and her husband only married her for sex.
Star Driver continues to follow a "giant robot of the week" format with The President inspiring one of her underlings to take on Takuto, saying that she doesn't want to be the leader of the Glittering Crux, and he can have it if he defeats Tauburn and Takuto. Of course, he loses, as Takuto further powers up and reveals that he has not just one but two star swords. This seems to impress both Scarlet Kiss/Pink-haired RA (who is relegated to the background due to her previous two losses) and The President, so they'll probably both continue to be after Takuto in the episodes to come. I'm enjoying how they're moving the plot and characterization a bit further each episode, with the same backdrop of Takuto fighting one of the Glittering Crux's cybodies. This could get old fairly fast; however, the way that the story gives just enough to the viewer each week to keep them coming back while still essentially keeping them in the dark speaks of fairly masterful storytelling. Don't let us down, Yoji Enokido!
We're also left wondering where Head fits into all of this, since he seems to be far more concerned with (and/or bewitched by) the captured North Shrine Maiden to do anything else but listen to her singing and drink. I'm also interested to see where Class Rep/Ivrogne fits into all this. Despite being a part of the Glittering Crux, she seems to dislike Kanako with a passion.
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