I’m really behind so minimalist mode activated
Friends coming over last week didn’t put me in a good spot, especially with a new game to fiddle about with.
Time to work on some more
Tonari no Kaibutsu: School festival finally gets underway and Haru’s friends show up like they said they would. Our crew’s participation in the school festival is a horror house, with Shizuku as one of the opening “horrors” to greet the guests. Haru’s friends aren’t really scared with Shizuku’s weak acting skills. While reading some books outside for a break, Shizuku meets Yamaken the dude who didn’t want the tickets sneaking in. The two talk for a bit and after Haru looks around for Shizuku (and Natsume hiding from the guys), the three meet at the back of the school. Yamaken gets a little to close to Shizuku and Haru tries to punch him, only to get Shizuku hit in the process. Of course, we have a recognizable falling out. Further reinforced when Shizuku has a falling out with Natsume who tries to reason with her. Because Haru made the mistake here and hasn’t done anything to remedy the problem, Yamaken decides to help her out, or rather keep her company. While walking around, the sight of Yuzan makes Yamaken pull Shizuku to a nearby classroom. A few seconds later, the same thing happens only with a different pairing. We have Haru bursting through the door with Oshima with him (cleary terrified). It seems that Haru saw Yuzan and did the same thing to hide. With his confidant around, Haru starts talking to her about love and Oshima (adorably) tries to get a few words out in her favor. Yamaken stands up, and before Haru can react a bit more violently, Yuzan walks in. On the other side of the map, we find Haru’s uncle talking to Natsume. Being the nice guy he is, he is able to cheer her up. Back in the classroom, Haru instinctively runs away using the window and Yamaken just stands here. Yuzan escorts Oshima back to her room while Shizuku goes off. She finds Haru lying down on the grass and she returns his shoe and takes back her harmful words. She also apologizes to Natsume who starts crying again. After the festival ends Shizuku finds Haru asleep in the back of the school and when she gets close, he wakes up. FINALLY, Haru addresses the problem of Shizuku acting like she’s in love but not actually doing anything but we have Shizuku somewhat break down as well as she in the end, asks for a little more time.
Character development on Shizuku’s part here. Which is a good thing because she’s the only one not moving foward. Yamaken is seriously making a move on Shizuku here and it seems like he’s the only guy among Haru’s friends that doesn’t get harassed by him all the time. Oshima found a new hairystle 🙂 Other than that, good move with Shizuku accepting her mistakes against Natsume and Haru. It had me on the ropes but now I’m getting my faith back for this series.
Seitokai no Ichizon: 3 of our student council members are missing due to some problems and we have Sugisaki and Pres as our focus. Mafuyu and Chizuru are off buying supploes (they don’t even do anything in the room…) while Minatsu gets into a conversation with her friend, Meguru. Meguru happens to be an idol and for some odd reason, she has an infatuation to our manly man Sugisaki. Only thing strange about that is, she never met him before. Meguru tries to hear everything she can about her Sugisaki from Minatsu and forces her in a cab and they are driven off somewhere. On the other side, Chizuru is taught classification techniques by Mafuyu on BL. All the stuff about giver and taker, now added with Chizuru’s own classifications of S and M. All the while, Sugisaki tries to get some of his usual pervy talk to Pres. The two end up playing catch with a tennis ball in the room. Seeing how boring it gets, they decide to turn it into a “I make a statement, you respond” sort of game while throwing the ball (yes I ran out of clever words to replace that with). Sugisaki’s “I love you” and other variations of the statement are flat out rejected, but when he asks if she would be alright if they would part. To that statement, the pres doesn’t even respond. She comes back by saying that everyone should stay together. With that, the rest of the student council comes back.
Later that night, Sugisaki searches for a serial code for an eroge he wants to play. It was completed before he got himself a new computer and now he lost the serial code to play the thing. He searches his one room apartment (he finds some interesting stuff) but his code does not surface. He thinks on for a bit and realizes that it may be back at his old house. Sugisaki calls his step-sister, Ringo who answers the phone still half asleep. He asks her to leave the comfort of her bed to check the storage room. The coveted serial code is indeed there but Sugisaki needs to coerce the numbers from his sister without revealing that it’s an eroge. That doesn’t last too long and Ringo gets mad. Ringo mentions that Sugisaki doesn’t really need to see these things because he has her, and with more statements like that Sugisaki’s stepmother/father overhear these things while Sugisaki screams in the background. Either way, Ringo would rather send pictures of herself than the serial codes for her brother’s eroge. Sugisaki is both overjoyed and horrified that this is happening but when he gets Ringo’s attempt at lewdness, he realizes that their defintion of lewdness are worlds apart. He finally is able to get the serial number out and when he checks the CG’s, he finds out that he installed the all ages version. With one last scream into the night, our episode ends.
First part definitely was a bit less entertaining than the second. Mostly because I don’t like the Pres that much and I don’t appreciate BL. Nice to see that Sugisaki is still a valued member, even by a character who never met him on a “personal level”. Just how much of a boss is Sugisaki having an admirer who rarely got to know him. Of course, we have Ringo finally show up from the lightnovels and she’s about to show up in the next episode with our regular student council members. Now if only gets subbed quicker…. (shitty pics are shitty)
Btooom: Before our perspective returns to the victorious Sakamoto and Himiko, we have a glimpse of another player using her feminine superiority to trick another player to to die for her safety against the lizards. Such brutality is monitored as well by the game admins at HQ. Before stuff turns more complicated, we return to the duo. Sakamoto knows how androphobic Himiko gets with guys so when they need to rest for the night, he says he will sleep in the other room. Himiko is stil scared by what happened and tells him to stay in the same room, without getting the wrong idea of course. Sakamoto starts talking about how crappy his life was, and how he found an online wife. Himiko on the other side is pretending to be asleep while she’s actually crying tears of happiness. The two are silent and they both fall asleep…until Himiko see’s a lady’s face. She screams and gets Sakamoto to go investigate. He searches around the building and eventually finds a small room. The “ghost” appears behind him but he knocks her out, she doesn’t have her left hand. When she comes to, she gets violent at the sight of Sakamoto and he leaves the room with Himiko talking her down. The ghost identifies herself as Shiina Murasaki, a former nurse and former participant of the game. She lost her hand and her life in general when she was tricked by a doctor she looked up to during her job at the hospital. A medical experiment gone wrong tarnished his career and she tried to change the records. When these were made public, the doctor blamed it all on her. She was sent to the island but so was the doctor. He put on the facade of a forgiving person and they worked together to win. When they got their 6th chip, the doctor betrayed her for the last time and threw a BIM at her. She used her bag and lost her left hand while he left the island. While the story really justifies her hatred toward a lot of men, Himiko is convinced that Sakamoto is different. Himiko tells the story and the stuff that will occur once 7 chips are collected. They leave in the morning and say goodbye to Murasaki (who is now in good terms with the duo). Back to our old man Taira, we see his wounds are mysteriously treated, and a man who’s face is covered by the shadows mutters on how he cannot believe he has been sent back to this island.
It was obvious that Himiko was “that” Himiko, sad of her to try and hide it. The trust issue is brought up once more (and it always will be) when our duo finds a woman who participated in the previous round of the game of death. A dickish doctor remains the dick he is and in the end, turns out that the doctor is sent back here to die once more. Good thing to see Himiko finally trusts Sakamoto completely. Looks like we found one more person in this series that isn’t gonna end up getting killed (as she has no “qualms” about our mains)
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Jojo’s new group storm Dio’s castle where we save Poco’s (little kid’s) sister from a doomed fate against a rather large zombie. Jojo’s skills with ripple are amplified due to Zeppeli’s powers and he is able to both negate the zombie’s poison and one-hit kill it. Jojo and co enter Dio’s top room and we get some epic dialogue. Dio is suprised that Jojo has survived his encounter with his two knights and is curious on what has happened to the man with the fabulous hat. What’s more suprising is that Dio had some sentimental thought regarding him turning Jojo in to a zombie. Something about growing up with him as turned him a bit soft, but since Jojo has beaten his sentimental thoughts to the ground, Dio has no qualms against killing him now. Jojo feels the same way, and as though un-gentlemanly as it is, he wishes to kill Dio for his personal grudges. Before that happens, Dire decides to upstage Jojo’s passion and charges toward Dio. Using the technique he used against Jojo, Dire isolates Dio’s hands from retaliation but Dio is able to see through this and freezes Dire’s entire body. While everyone watches in horror, Dio smashes Dire’s body. The head however remains alive and uses enough ripple to shoot a rose at Dio’s face. Dio is wounded with a small amount of ripple and Jojo rushes in to continue the fight. Jojo uses Bruford’s sword and thanks to Dire’s sacrifice, Dio’s right eye is unable to see Jojo’s advance. Jojo lobs Dio’s arm off and slices through his body, but Dio is still alive and stabs his finger through Jojo’s neck. However, Jojo’s placement of the sword near the torch behind Dio counteracts the freezing and Jojo lands a rippled punch to Dio’s face. Even that’s not enough to kill Dio though, even touching his face is enough to freeze Jojo’s hand. The two make their final charge against eachother but Jojo uses the torch behind Dio to light his FISTS on fire. Dio stops it with his icy hands but they’re not enough to stop Jojo’s rage filled punch. Dio is hit and the ripple flows through his body, ripping him apart. Dio falls down to his death and Jojo watches in both triumph and sadness. Jojo collapses out of exhaustion.
Only a true man would cry about another man he just killed. Even though Dio made Jojo’s younger days a living hell, it made him the man he is today by setting him on a path of justice. It’s kind of sad to see Dire die instantly against Dio, are vampires REALLY this strong? The fight in itself was completely filled with turnabouts (OR YOU COULD SAY ROUNDABOUTS OHOHOHOHO) because at one it seems that Jojo has the advantage then it shifts to Dio’s favor and rinse and repeat. Epic episode and the conclusion is bound to be tear filled to anyone who knows the manga.
Magi: Alibaba calms his crew down when he tells Kassim that he knows Aladdin. Alibaba tells Aladdin to recall Ugo as he is scaring his men. Aladdin does so but Alibaba doesn’t awknowledge his statement when he is reminded they promised eachother to see the world. Alibaba pushes him aside and his men proceed to invade the house. When footsteps of the army are heard, Alibaba summons Amon to aid his men’s escape. Back at HQ, our “good” crew ponders on why Alibaba would be like this. In the slums, the three guys who robbed Sinbad wish to join the Fog Troupe. Kassim approves of new memebers while Alibaba is willing but uncertain why Kassim is so enthusiatic about new members. The two encounter some kids on the way back, and they reminisce about their past. Alibaba returns home but finds Mor hanging on his ceiling, after some attempted negotiations, she forcefully takes him to Aladdin. There, Alibaba explains his reason for being with the Fog Troupe. Kassim and Alibaba knew eachother since their childhood years. They spent their time fighting a lot and had a large number of friends in the slums. Alibaba had a loving mother who worked as a prostitute while Kassim and his sister’s father was abusive. When their father disappeared, Alibaba’s mother took them in. She dies later on and Kassim see’s that he needs to protect his “family” now. He begins his acts of violence and thievery (he also meets two of his subordinates) to keep his family fed. Kassim tells Alibaba that he doesn’t need to dirty his hands. One day, Alibaba is approached by the king of Balbadd and is told that he is his son. Anise, Alibaba’s mother was a former maid in the palace and Alibaba resulted from that event. Kassim kicks Alibaba out, even from the start he knew that Alibaba was different. Thus began Alibaba’s palace life. He was trained to sit, eat, walk, fight, and behave properly like royalty. After 3 years of civil life, he wished to see the slums again and sneaked out. Back at the slums, he meets Kassim once again and they catch up. A few days later, Alibaba tends to his father’s health. That’s when he tells Alibaba that he wishes for him to succeed him. Alibaba is at a loss for words but when commotion is head outside the palace, he leaves to investigate. Alibaba is knocked out on the head, and he see’s Kassim with his goons burning down some royal property. Kassim allows Alibaba to live, and the rest fades to black.
I can’t really explain why I like Kassim’s character at the moment, that will come at another time. It’s an episode like this that makes people ponder at why people pair Morgiana and Alibaba together (JUST YOU WAIT, THE PAIRING WILL BE GLORIOUS). Speaking of pairings, another female character should make a rather un-elegant entrace sooner or later (but don’t worry, her character becomes more adorable). If I think about it, I don’t think they can end the Balbadd arc in 12 episodes….either that or the manga significantly made it longer.
-You know what-
Oniai: Honorable mention because Jojo poses ftw (and yes, that means the swimsuit episode lost over Jojo poses)
TLRD and Hayate
Lair of the Idle 