Minimalist mode on, prepare for a rush and for a double feature with even more minimalism.
Tonari, Btooom, and Seitokai will be doubled up for a rush to get the series reviews underway. Remeber that I usually skip out reviewing the last episode and save that for the series review.
So to finally clarify, Tonari’s episode 11+12 will be covered here, Btoom’s episode 11, Seitokai’s 7+8, and our regular Magi and Jojo
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST:
NEWJOJOOPENINGNEWJOJOOPENINGNEWJOJOOPENINGNEWJOJOOPENINGNEWJOJOOPENINGNEWJOJOOPENING
Tonari no Kaibutsu: 11: Yamaken shows repeating signs of interests and self denial over Shizuku. Haru comes to stop them on their daily walk to the studying session but of course, always ends up hitting Shizuku while aiming for our favorite blonde. Yamaken is a bit distraught when he remembers Shizuku telling Haru her feelings too quickly. Shizuku feels a bump on Yamaken’s head and offers to take him to the nurse’s office but he politely refuses to, and later gets extremely happy when he deduces that she finds him appealing. On his way back home, Yamaken finds Haru and the two begin to talk. Yamaken remembers the younger days when he met Haru since grade school and how they met eachother again in highschool when his group was in a fight and Yamaken got hit. Other than that, Haru explains his fear of being alone. A flashback seems to suggest Yuzan was a lot different that he is now. Yamaken leaves the scene and Haru is found by Shizuku and we have our 5th? 7th confession of the series.
New Years is around corner and Natsume tries to get her feelings across to the cool man behind the counter, and Sasayan being the only normal person in the group figures her out. Our weirdo group spends the New Year in a lazy daze but when invited to attend the festivities near the shrine, everyone shows up. Shizuku, Haru, Sasayan, Natsume, and Yamaken’s crew all partake in the events and later goes to Haru’s uncle’s roof to set some fireworks. Episode kinda focused on Natsume’s feelings on guys in general and she ends up with an indirect confession to Haru’s uncle at the end.
We add yet another semi one sided love story with Natsume’s interest with Haru’s Uncle (I can’t stop calling him that so screw it). Quite honestly, Yamaken and Oshima are the only reason I stuck with this through episodes 5-10. Haru and Shizuku remain hapless as ever and Oshima needs more screentime. We also get introduced to Oshima’s friend/family/Idon’tknow, Yu. Anyways, series review along with seitokai on its way.
Seitokai no Ichizon: 7: Sugisaki is ordered by the girlies to follow around Lilicia. When asked why (after repeatedly calling him a stalker) he says that the student council wanted to focus on a character who didn’t get a lot of screentime for a while, thus Lilicia was chosen. When he asks where everyone is, Lilicia gave them a day off as she needs time alone to finish up the final product. Sugisaki labels her a sub-heroine but commends her that her status as a blonde-rich girl is a nice start on the road to being a main character. When she boldly tells him that she has no flaws (added with the trademark ojou-laugh) Sugisaki nails the point on why she’s a sub-character. With her mold broken, she asks how she can stop being a side character. Lilicia hears out Sugisaki’s words and enters the student council room acting out the character archetypes of the tsundere, childhood friend, and clumsy one. Lilicia leaves the emotionally confused student council and returns to Sugisaki. Raging aside, Lilicia embarks on another quest to find news when she overheard the Prez wanting to go shopping with Mafuyu (Sugisaki tags along).
Lilicia see’s a small falling out between Mafuyu and Prez when Mafuyu learns that she was basically bundled with Minatsu’s character. More angst when Mafuyu finds out that the Prez is just wasting time (doesn’t really matter even if I try to explain). Lilicia finds gold as she takes note on everything happening. . Turns out for the Mafuyu, that the Prez took her here to buy a matching outfit for future use when Mafuyu and Minatsu eventually leave the school. The falling out turns upside down and the two make up. Seeing as how Lilicia’s scoop has turned sour, Sugisaki asks her what she plans on doing. While she devoutly says she will publish this article focused on the falling out part, she shows some honor in a sense that she won’t focus on them making up as their promise “won’t be their’s anymore”. Sugisaki is pretty moved by that statement and tries his best to contain his “player” mode, but he indirectly pulls a move on her anyway. When asked what she wants to do after graduation, she answers back with marriage to Sugisaki’s suprise (and horror). Sugisaki walks her home while she explains that the marriage is mostly for family ties than actual love. Lilicia tells him to stay safe and Sugisaki is unable to contain his indiscriminate love for every lady and tells her that he respects her decisions but he is ready and willing to stop her if he finds Lilicia unhappy with the marriage. Completely stunned, Lilicia is unable to say anything, but Sugisaki laughingly states that it was a joke and runs off. Elise shows up and asks her sister why she lied to him and Lilicia answers back because she wanted to make him worry.
Episode 8 finally reveals Matsubara Asuka, the girl Sugisaki was in a relationship with before he transferred to academy he attends with his beloved harem. She takes him to a mountain resort to talk about something urgent. She books themselves as a married couple and they put up a guise as newly-weds. When they are alone in the room, they apparently have a thing for facing off against eachother in small games. Asuka drops the game and just wants to cuddle though. Sugisaki tries to fight off the loving trance but he reminds her that the only reason he showed up was to talk about the urgent matter. The two head off to the hot springs while on the other side, the student council tries to find him. They get sidetracked into the baths themselves and Asuka finally talks to Sugisaki about his harem. She wants him to give up that dream and more or less, get back together with her. He passionately refuses the offer, not about the confession though, he wants to keep the harem dream alive and put her in there too. Asuka, somewhat heartbroken accepts the future offer. The way Sugisaki puts it is infinitely more eloquent that I just put it but let’s move on. The duo encounters the student council and Asuka effectively guns down their personality flaws and flaunts her relationship with Sugisaki to them. They’re not as weak as she thought and eventually, they grow a liking to her.
Yet another girl falls for Sugisaki’s irresistible devotion. Lilicia was a character that wasn’t really looked in to so I guess the show itself realized that and sent our Player to give us her appeal to the series. The first half was albeit painful and hilarious to watch. Nothing makes you cringe and laugh at the same time when you see a really haughty character act out of character. It dosen’t really fit Lilicia’s character and it would be terrifying/adorable to see that side of her actually be expressed honestly by her. The 2nd part was more entertaining in a sense that we got see Sugisaki inadvertantly(or not) woo Lilicia. The honorable reporter thing was something even I didn’t expect. The last scene with Sugisaki was adorable too, Lilicia just became so adorable now. Too bad she’s gonna get lampshaded by another character…
Asuka is just so awesome. I wouldn’t want to go against Sugisaki’s wishes but, I would personally find it appealing if he just sticks with Asuka. Her suprise voice actress (at least for me) was kind of shocking. A Top grade voice actress showing up out of nowhere in the penultimate episode of a 9-episode series. Anyways, Sugisaki holds his dreams strong and has no intention of letting go, even if asked by his previous “lover” to drop it. Asuka had a hilarious little fight with the student council but I guess they’re too nice against anyone that isn’t Sugisaki to be fazed by it. DAMMIT, WHY CAN’T THIS SERIES LAST 12 EPISODES?
Btooom: Continuing off from last episode where Sakamoto gets a BIM detonated on his face, we rewind the clock 5 minutes to see what Himiko was doing when the guys were trying to find some meds. Himiko was explaining the current situation to Murasaki and when she asks where might the meds be, Murasaki points her to the window of the supply room. There Murasaki finds the man who was responsible for her shape. She warns that he will betray them at a moments notice and when Himiko notices the BIM she rushes down to warn Sakamoto. As we saw from last episode, Sakamoto gets insta-gibbed and Himiko falls into distress over what to do. Date approaches her and readies to kill her, of course Murasaki in a rage stabs him in the back. The wound is not fatal so he gets back up and chases them outside. Murasaki uses the BIMS on Himiko to combat Date and when he flees, he lures her into a trap and gets by a BIM from behind the wall she was standing near. As Date approaches the forelorn Himiko, she accepts her death and just waits for Date’s cracker BIMS to blow her to pieces. A hilarious scene where the bomb bouncing off her chest show that the BIMS are not working for Date, and when he checks the radar, Sakamoto returns alive. We then begin the 2nd flashback to 5 minutes before. Sakamoto was successfully able to remove the case and survive the blast. Anyways, Date tries to pull the feign retreat stunt again and readies his detonator once Sakamoto gets close. When he pulls the trigger, he hears the beeping near HIMSELF. Sakamoto tells him that the reason he was late to the party was because he re-arranged Date’s bomb placements. Date is incapacitated and the duo approach his weak body. Murasaki trudges out of the ashes to confront her nemesis. Date pleads for his life and Murasaki is very willing to end his life…but is unable to. Sakamoto mentions that he wants to visit a few places before they return to their base. He wants to check on the corpses they never picked up the chips with. However, when they do backtrack their steps, they find no chips on them at all. The only one who knew about these chips other than them was Taira…Sakamoto tries to cast away his doubts but when the duo comes back to the base, they find a flying BIM approaching them and Sakamoto knows only one person who owns those kinds of BIMS….
I honestly thought this fight would last longer, but then they wouldn’t have time for Taira’s betrayal in the end. Much like the episodes before, it follows the manga well and the finale will be just as emotionally packed as it was in the manga. I’ll just take this moment to honor Taira I guess. Just a man living his life, doing the best at what his job required him to do. Sure, maybe he was an ass beforehand but that was his job. He mentioned it himself in episode 3-4, he gets real scared when Sakamoto leaves to fight their battles, and Sakamoto did exactly that. At this point, his fingers are cut off and his paranoia reached his peak. It’s almost understandable why he’s snapped, he’s not really skilled at the game either so he really has no way of getting out until his companions return, something that hasn’t been happening a lot.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Continuing off from last episode, Jojo unloads an entire round of tommy gun fire at Straits, while devastating the diner behind him. Jojo finds that Straits is barely harmed from this attack but he hasn’t finished off his barrage of modern day fighting (and smack-talking) as he tricks Strait using a mirror and punching his face full of ripple. Straits however wasn’t wearing that fancy scarf just for show. The scarf apparently was made of a significant number of insect muscles to counteract the ripple. Jojo then pulls a grenade on him, but what seems to be a single grenade turns out to be a booby trap that pulls a dozen others behind Straits. Jojo finds that Straits is starting to reform, so he hatches a plan and starts running to a more secluded location with Smokey following him. A local newbie news reporter finds hot news….and a naked Straits and is taken hostage. They meet eachother at the bridge and Straits threatnens to brutally kill the lady if Jojo doesn’t come up and fight him. Jojo tries to provoke him first but when the lady’s tooth gets pulled out, Jojo leaps to action. Straits uses the dickish eye beams to get at Jojo, and once again Jojo uses a piece of glass to redirect that shot. Straits is injured but makes one final leap to kill Jojo, and Jojo finishes him off with a ripple filled punch. Instead of letting him fall to his death, Jojo grabs Straits’ arm and demands answers.
Straits begins telling him about the pillar site in Mexico and how the blood was being drained to it like a tree. Straits threw the bodies in the river and then warns Jojo of the pillar men. Straits declares that as long as he dies in his youthful state, he has no regrets and says farewell to his enemy. Jojo now with knowledge that Speedwagon is alive and his fate told to him, travels to Mexico. Speaking of Mexico, we’re introduced to a Nazi higher-up, Stronheim. He has treated Speedwagon’s wounds in exchange for information regarding the pillar man. Speedwagon refuses to answer and Stronheim readies a load of sacrificial blood to reawaken the slumbering man within the pillar.
SWEET BALLS OF THE LORD, THIS OPENING IS FUNKY AS HELL. I honestly never thought they could outdo the first opening but this…the visuals are just plain orgasmic while the beat is just godlike. Enough fawning though, Jojo proves himself to be superior tactician and fighter as he able to trick Straits multiple times (with an arensal of weapons) and end Straits off with a single punch with a weakened ripple (at least in the end). It was a fight episode for 3/4ths of the episode, and that parts ends with Straits defeat as he goes down content with himself. Speedwagon IS ALIIIIIIVE….aaand he’s captured by Nazi’s in Mexico who are about to awaken the Pillar Man with the blood of locals. Dickish, but hey, they’re Nazi’s. I can’t really stress the fact that this series just gets better with every episode and I have nothing more to say than it’s amazing.
DAT OPENIINGGGGGGGGGGG
Magi: Judal gets the living crap beaten out of him by Hugo and a (heavenly voice) questions who has done this to their Magi. Ugo still remains out of control and confronts a group of people flying on a carpet. Ugo confronts the group and he is met by the fancy looking girl who reveals to everyone that she happens to be a dungeon-clearer and she draws her weapon to defeat Ugo. Ugo seems to have enough brute force to take her down but the girl is about to take him down with little effort. Aladdin tries to reason with her but she responds in a rather sour way, so she readies her weapon once more. She also orders the larger goons behind her to assail the people below. Before anything gets too serious, Sinbad stops her. Her lethal looks melt into a helpless little girl as Sinbad pleads her to stop the madness. As the chaos ends, our crew tries to remedy the sick and ingured. Morgiana tries to help Alibaba with his wounds and after an embarassing encounter, they visit Aladdin who has tired himself out of magoi in trying to resuscitate Ugo. Sinbad tells the crowd once again that he will try to gain audience with the royals once more as the crowd’s hopes are restored. In the midst of the crowd, a carriage pulls up carrying General Barkak and the deputy king who comes to support Alibaba and Sinbad’s cause. The two come to tell everyone of the current king’s wish to sell the entire country of Balbadd to other countries and to treat its citizens as collateral. Obviously, EVERYONE wants to stop this from happening.
Half fight, half self wallowing episode. Princess Kogyoku finally shows up and of course, doesn’t really show any signs of cute until Sinbad stops the fight. I’m damn sure the people who kept up with my horrible writing thought: hippiefreak is into crazy girls? Well to answer that question I just asked myself, I’ll just say she becomes immensely more relatable to our main cast once this arc is over (and after another character makes a significant development). Sinbad once agains takes the lead to rally the people up and more help to overthrow the corrupt king’s plans are coming to fruition. The only thing I’m concerned about that this point is just how far are they going to take this series. Are they going to do the Fate Zero style season part or the full on show. Anyways, Balbadd’s arc is reaching it’s climatic point very soon.
Lair of the Idle 