Engines, weapons, navigation, communications: check. Systems all green. THAT is cleared for takeoff!

Dear Friends and Readers,

After much deliberation and hard work, THAT has now moved to our own domain! From now on, join us at www.THATanimeblog.com

We’re all looking forward to having our new site operational and having you join us there. Our own domain will allow us to have more control over the technical details of our site and better serve our readers. Please update any feeds or bookmarks you may have. This AB.net site will be staying up to redirect our readers to the new one, but all new content will be on the new site. We would like to thank the AB.net crew for the home they’ve given us since we started out and we wish them and the AB.net community the best.

Additionally, the excellent and difficult work done by those who helped set up our new site must be acknowledged. Many thanks to Crusader for securing the new address, to Kabitzin from Sea Slugs Team and our own Mabdese for their work in setting up the layout and importing files, and to mercenary computer security engineer extraordinaire Agruktos for getting down into the messy, buggy depths of such a complicated undertaking and managing to resolve our most persistent issues. The journey was long and arduous, and much more technically infuriating complicated than we first suspected, but now finally it is done. In the next few days some minor tweaks will be done to the new site, but these do not relate to the main functioning or appearance of the site. Starting tomorrow I (EO) will be remaking all the ‘premium subscriber’ logins for our friends who use them, so please be patient if you regularly use one. And please let us know if you encounter any technical problems, we’ve had so many it’s hard to believe that there isn’t one last gremlin lurking somewhere. Thank you for reading THAT, and we look forward to seeing you at our new home.

The THAT team moves our precious squid plushy and other materials over to the new site.

We are Oscar Mike! Stay frosty.

Bring it down Biribiri.

It’s been a while since my last Railgun post, most of it was because I was trying to over come my disappointment with Kuroko over her un-lady like behavior in 13 and dismay that Mii was in love with a dude… The BIG FIGHT with the hyper ugly baby thing was satisfying enough though through the course of these episodes Biribiri’s limited understanding of others and her unwavering sense of justice has come out in full force. The fight it self was pretty good with Biribiri’s close combat skills shining through, heavily reliant on her powers though it may be. With the arrival of the candy lady I guess we are getting hints of something bigger at work once again. I am more sympathetic to Biribiri’s never give up attitude, but having been enlisted for over five years now I don’t think kicking quitters to the curb is the proper solution. For every broken person there is always a way to rebuild them though scrapping them for spares is not yet ethical…

The obligatory swimsuit episode was well…rather disappointing. In my humble opinion swimsuits ought to be stylish and fit for a lady sadly Mii’s was rather small, which they made much effort to point it out. Still Kuroko was the worst offender of them all, thankfully after a while the initial nausea wore off. It seems that Kuroko had yet to learn the importance of style form Alphard and Liang Qi who must have been greatly disappointed at how Kuroko showed more than she needed to and lacked the fashion sense to go with something more appropriate. I for one think Kuroko should have gone with the one her onee-sama had her eyes on. Maybe then Biribiri would have given Kuroko a bit more notice… I suppose the lesson is that you don’t have to show that much skin to look good. The only highlight was how Kongo-san dug herself a deep hole while Kuroko was gleefully grinning in the background. Judging by the sound advice they were trying to give on swimwear I guess the Railgun team has had first hand experience with swim suit FAIL.

Saten’s special lesson actually brought a better conclusion to the level upper arc, and it was rather fun to see the collection of level upper offenders in one place though I thought that the dark haired invisible girl didn’t listen to bad music. I wonder if Ane-go is going to be a recurring character, she was fairly amusing even if she got owned by Anti-skill CQC. I was hoping that Saten’s yuri stalker friend would make bold decisive moves but I suppose not. I guess Saten only has Uiharu in her heart when it comes to this and that… Yomikawa’s push it to the limit trick was pretty much ripped out of every Drill Instructor routine I have seen though with a lot less yelling and fake cursing. Hopefully one day Saten’s hard work will pay off, but I can sympathize with hitting a wall well sort of. The only thing that gets me frustrated long term is video games though after having yelled at many a system I have learned to put it down for the day instead of trying to fight my way through it and getting more frustrated. I don’t agree with giving up but do advocate a disengage and reassess approach.

The next serious arc after the level upper incident was a minor foray into Mii territory about her gangsta days, I have to say it was as inoffensive as can be though most biker gangs or rather biker clubs I have seen are made up of older folks that don’t fit the popular stereotype as hard drinking troublemakers. I could not help but laugh a little that Kurozuma had almost he same haircut as Zartan from the old GI Joe cartoons who incidentally also rode around with a biker gang. It was nice to see a little history on Mii though I don’t really approve of how they make a point to mention how well endowed she is. My respect for a slipped a bit when she lost her sense of duty and reverted back to her old loyalties though I guess love makes an idiot out of her as well. Iwas looking forward to seeing Biribiri and Kuroko trash those thugs but I guess guess Kurozuma and Mii deserved to have a fight as a couple though I did enjoy watching fists fly and faces getting smashed in interesting ways. Mii’s CQC may not be as powerful as Kuroko’s but it is reassuring that she has some combat capability since her first outing when Kuroko was a little loli was unimpressive. As for promoting a Certain Brand of Milk I wish they would have gone wild promoting fake products. The Capacity Down should have had more bass but I guess it couldn’t be ghetto FABULOUS and be a ECM device at the same time. I guess with the increase in illegal weapons and common thugs having uncommon weapons that we’ll be going into another arc that goes into the dark side of Academy City. At any rate Mii’s roommate totally needs jump Mii and bring her back to the yuri side doing this and that.

Mama…

Just making sure you’re not from Black Water or Executive Outcomes…

Judge her by her size do you…?

She sucks with kids…

That is a weird camo pattern…

IN A NURSE OUTFIT RIGHT?!

We missed that you.

Feelings…

Just like an overgrown kid, not that there is anything wrong with that.

We have no need for Spiky-kun to induce blushing.

Well I think Kuroko earned it.

If only…

So you did get Liang Qi’s guile.

All you had to do was agree in the first place.

Victory.

We must see this and that animated at some point…

FUCK YEAH PHOTOSHOP.

One day Kuroko will grow into full womanhood like Liang Qi and Alphard…hopefully there will be a time skip to see the results.

…

Some people just never grow up.

Well don’t be in hurry to grow up now, your not there yet…

Well that is Stylish Saten for you.

Kuroko, Kuroko, Kuroko, it’s not how much you who but how you show it…

Good looking our Uiharu we must not let this Yuri Party be ruined by a male presence…

I trust that it is at least SPF 30.

Pretty much captures the spirit of the series.

Some how I don;t get the sense that Kuroko is really resisting.

Look who’s talking…

The Droid invasion has begun, Google equipped and only on Verizon…

I see we have three adherents to the cult of Mac.

Now go bash something.

Seems Kuroko has a good grasp on her would be rival.

Rich bastards…

Think of it this way you are by far the best looking microwave to come a long in a long time…

I see some one likes their soup CAMPBELL’S CHUNKY.

I suppose Biribiri’s problem is one of concentration and not of power…

The feeling isn’t exactly mutual…

To memories.

Well that is one way of broadcasting your weakness.

If only Kuroko could see this…

Your thoughts betray you onee-sama…

So long as you give Kuroko something in return…

Yeah your crew looks shitty.

Good to know that these girls don’t like boys.

Lolis are evil…

By the way does she get a happy ending when the massage is done?

Ah it’s Saten’s yuri stalker.

Your logic is impeccable.

Well it’s not legally torture…

He runs on Energizer.

This is some dance class…

Do you plan on doing this and that to Saten-san by chance?

Motherfuckers hating on yuri again.

Indeed…

Having been raised by Alphard and Liang Qi, Kuroko knows a thing or too about villainy.

Kuroko’s happiest day yet.

You didn’t have to milk the bull you know…

Ah yes shameless product placement.

I share Kuroko’s dismay.

Because LOVE WILL NEVER DIE!

I suggest renaming your home…

You know surprise does hinge on the minimum of people knowing about it…

So let Kuroko protect the feeling of love in onee-sama’s heart.

Biribiri can get quite frisky when she is in the mood.

Unlike her parents Kuroko actually gives people a chance to surrender.

Also your purple van was ugly.

Big Spider meet the new Snakes…

Why can’t TSA agents be that pretty…

Sure what ever you say.

Silly suicide bomber your trigger is most lacking…

Damn you heterosexuality!

Let’s share this special milk that Kuroko bought…

An episode where a lot of things happen but nothing really happens at all.

I’m feeling quite torn with my impressions of this episode. I was bored with the first half of it with all the minor things that happen that do not seem to have much relevance to anything. But, the second half was a thrill ride all the way through. But despite all of that, we just keep getting more questions and no answers. Well, I guess it IS only episode 3.

Izaya and Shizuo really do seem to steal the show whenever they appear. If it wasn’t for characters like them, I wouldn’t know what the fate of this show would be in the hands of the weak Mikado. Masaomi is great, but him alone just isn’t enough.

So after Mikado is assigned as class representative along with Anri, him and Masaomi go out to flirt with girls (well more Masaomi than Mikado of course). After a while they find Anri who is being bullied by a group of girls and one “thug-life” guy and with the help of Izaya, they chase away the bullies (again more Izaya than Mikado). After introductions were through, a trash can comes flying in and pegs Izaya right in the head. This, of course, is the work of Shizuo who apparently knows Izaya from before. The two are about to fight when they are interrupted by Thug-life and his G-unit. The fight then turns into Shizuo vs G-unit and when Izaya starts to run away, Simon jumps in and stops Shizuo from throwing a vending machine at him.

Creepy teacher returns.

It seems like Anri has already noticed how creepy he is and is already beginning to avoid him. Good job Anri, good job.

A bit of self-promotion?

Japanese cell phones are quite durable aren’t they. I bet if that was an iPhone it would be in pieces by now.

Thug life fo’ sho.

It seems kind of interesting to see how Masaomi’s personality changes when he’s talking to Izaya. Maybe it’s the whole “don’t make an enemy out of him” deal or maybe something else is going on between them. They seem to have an obvious past since they know each other, but I wonder what went on to make Masaomi talk so differently around Izaya… or maybe he just talks like that to all his elders, who knows.

Greatest scene of the episode. Even better than Izaya getting a trash can thrown at him.

Looks like Simon has a bit of supernatural strength in him too. Of course not as much as Shizuo who seems to have rearranged Simon’s face by the end of the episode.

Way to be the main character Mikado.

I really dislike weak main characters like Mikado. They just annoy me to death. I can only hope he mans up by the time this series is over. But at least he’s trying right? …Right?

SENSITIVE INTELLIGENCE REPORT – RESTRICTED DISSEMINATION

SUBJECT: 1. COMPLETE REJECTION OF FINAL KURUMI ATTEMPT ON KAZEHAYA.

……………2. TOTAL COLLAPSE OF ORGANIZED KURUMI RESISTANCE, FORMAL END TO CONFLICT DESPITE POSTURING.

DATE: LATE JANUARY 2010

1. CEASEFIRE WAS FOLLOWED BY CONTINUED NEGOTIATIONS WHERE KURUMI ADMITTED DEFEAT TO SAWAKO AND ALLIED FORCES. OUTSIDE OF FORMAL PEACE TREATY RATIFICATION, KURUMI APPROACHED KAZEHAYA, WHO FIRMLY REJECTED HER LAST DITCH ATTEMPT ON HIM. AS A CONCESSION, HE DID AGREE TO HER DEMAND TO CALL HER UME ONCE.

2. INTELLIGENCE HAS INTERCEPTED SEVERAL MIXED SIGNALS FROM KURUMI HIGH COMMAND, ON ONE HAND ADHERING TO THE TERMS OF THE PEACE TREATY, ON THE OTHER POSTURING AS IF SHE HAS NOT BEEN DEFEATED. THIS COULD INDICATE AN INTERNAL (TO THE BRAIN) POWER STRUGGLE, OR PERHAPS SIMPLY POSTURING FOR THE SAKE OF PRIDE WHILE THE WOUNDS OF HER RECENT DEFEAT ARE HEALING. THE WAR MAY BE OVER, BUT WE MUST REMAIN VIGILANTE UNTIL THE SITUATION STABILIZES. THE PROSPECT OF A FANATICAL ELEMENT SEIZING CONTROL AND RENEWING AGGRESSION CAN NOT YET BE RULED OUT.

The war is over! Kurumi has admitted to Sawako openly that Kazehaya does not like her, and that she has no chance against Sawako. Furthermore we have a thorough rejection of Kurumi by Kazehaya, as well as the addition of his statement of love for Sawako. And the finishing move is made, the definitive ‘thank you’ reply to Kurumi’s confession, the words that signal defeat to all who hear them. However Sawako is most merciful, and offers Kurumi the hand of friendship and continues her decision not to let Kazehaya know of the extent of her foe’s transgressions. Kurumi tries to throw a pity party and talk about how others have used her due to her popularity, while conveniently never mentioning how she used others to destroy True Love and Friendship as far back as middle school. I can have no sympathy for one who gets burned by the very fire that she starts! In the end, all she got from Kazehaya was his acknowledgement that the rumors of her and Pin are false, and for him to call her Ume once, which is more than she deserved.

Day two of the sports festival ends badly on the sports front, but this is of minor consequence given the great victory for True Love and Friendship. Kurumi tries to hide her shame and embarassment behind a pair of sunglasses, but the goggles do nothing. Seemingly oscillating between admitting her loss and wanting to menace and threated Sawako, Kurumi claims that they’re rivals, though Sawako and the rest of us respond with puzzled looks since to be a rival one must have a prospect of being able to compete. Her defeat must have shaken her to her core, because it seems like she’s developed some sort of multiple personality disorder, or at least a severe case of indecisiveness. Even Pin’s teasing seemed to have given her ideas. Therefore, we must be on our guard until she completely accepts her defeat. What she can do now is beyond me, after admitting defeat and being turned down by Kazehaya. But at least for that evening the members of the Sawayakyaa Alliance have time to relax, singing karaoke and having a fun night out together. Kazehaya even gets a cute moment when he finds Sawako asleep on the stairs, blushing but proving his worthiness by not entertaining ecchi fantasies or trying to steal a kiss or worse, something that unworthy male protagonists often try to get away with in similar situations. Double standard, I know, but such things are only ok in cases such as those of KimiKiss’s Mao stealing a kiss on Koichi or Nyan Koi’s Kanako making an attack on a sleeping Junpei.

Crusader’s Record of Kazehaya War

The story of your life…

Following Kurumi’s glorious defeat it was inevitable that she put out some propaganda to try and justify her war on true love. Suffice to say she cried a river, a pity she did not drown in it… Fortunately for Ume, Sawako was not about to institute a Carthaginian Peace upon her. At any rate while Ume’s story was plausible in that she manufactured popularity for herself to be the perfect match. However her popularity was but a sham as those girls around her were just as vile and treacherous, though I still put blame on Ume for handing out notes individually instead of in groups to avoid unnecessary complications. Funny how Ume’s own cowardice and slavery to public opinion had killed her attempt at true love before it even began, I scoff at her plans for she disregarded Sun Tzu who had advised against long campaigns and advocated swift aggressive action. After all what is the worth of public opinion compared to True Love? Ume finally does confess but the ugly fail that she is now started seeping out and despite her assertions that Kazehaya will not find a cuter girl than her, it is a proven fact that Sawako is superior. I confess I relished every second of Ume weeping for her lost cause and the rumors regarding Pin, I hoped Kazehaya’s words on the matter of Pin were SUGOI hurtful in the extreme for though it may seem cruel it is fitting punishment for Ume who knew what it was like to be at the center of a rumor and yet did not hesitate to do the same to Sawako who had never demonstrated hostile intent. After the the confession FAIL Ume was prancing around in a Quattro cosplay. It seems that despite her defeat Pin’s lies have given Ume new hope (a fool’s hope but who ever said Zekes were smart…) and now she leads an Neo-Ume effort to claim Kazehaya. Our worst fears have been realized as Ume was a goddamn Zeke all along (though the rumor mongering and unrepentant evil were indicators that she was Zeke) and must already be planning colony drops to further her madness…

Ume being a treacherous Spacenoid aside, Sawako already has won Kazehaya without much effort as her genuine heroism and stoicism in the face of adversity proved more mighty than the shallow looks that Zekes pride themselves on. Zeus showed Kazehaya great favor as Kazehaya was allowed to spend a few minutes chastely with a sleeping Sawako. That made me DAAWWWWWW. Next time it seems we have a recap ep, though I would be more than happy to be proven wrong.

I am glad they’re all bunched up…time to pass a firing solution to Big Tray.

The lesson of the story is to never start and introduction with a lie…

We sunk her battleship yo!

Funny I thought Ume was always thinking about what was best for Ume….

He already did dumbass!

Only now at the end do you realize…

:3

Let the Zeke scum cling to their false hope, reality will always have its revenge…

Her name is Quattro and she is looking for a girl named Ume have you seen her?

That assumes that you are somewhat equal, it doesn’t work when you are vastly inferior…

Just wait until your first Yuri Tea Party…

ExecutiveOtaku’s Unadulterated Adoration of Sawako and Current Intelligence Report

Sawako is so compassionate! Where one would be justified in finishing off her opponent, she sympathizes with her and takes pity! How noble *clenches fist to chest and cries many tears of admiration.*

Mmmm, delicious imagery to accompany delicious victory.

Not only does she commit her crimes in pursuit of her own interests, she actively sabotaged the love of others just for kicks.

I was very happy to get a heavy dose of scenery porn this episode. Ah, beautiful.

Kazehaya was nice to her all along. One has to wonder why one so devious and superficial would be interested in such a caring and honest person as he.

WAAH WAAH! CRY SOME MORE!

More devastating than a Colony Drop. How appropriate that an attack similar to Operation British beats the French harlot.

Only now, when it is too late, can you speak without deception.

Not even a moment of shock or hesitation from Kazehaya. Good man.

Not so much.

Confession + (response = thanks) = romance FAIL. Taking a cue from Mayama, Kazehaya lets her down gently, not really having any other appropriate words to say. When it happened to Yamada it was the end of her chances (though she would still hold out hope), and Kurumi is no Yamada.

The lovely scenery and shot framing compliments the rejection of Kurumi perfectly, like a fine wine perfectly matched to a scrumptious meal. Mmmm, satisfying.

Because it’s more fun that way.

GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC! GO TO DMC!

With the defeat of Kurumi, one has to wonder if there will be peace and the development of Sawako and Kazehaya’s relationship, renewed Kurumi aggression, or a new enemy. I’m hoping for the first option.

Wait for it…

Kurumi decides to take the dictator fashion route and hide her shame behind some opaque sunglasses. In doing so she follows a long line of oppressive dictators, terrorist leaders cum political figures, and war criminals.

Or perhaps she was trying to rip off Sheryl Nome? How dare she! This is no Zaku, boy, no Zaku you’re no Sheryl, girl, no Sheryl!

Yeah, I don’t know why Kurumi is acting like she still has a chance either.

Continuing down the petty dictator road, she now has her underlings follow her around for her to complain to and abuse.

Sports may not have gone her way, but Chizu can’t carry the entire team.

Kazehaya rallying the troops.

I for one welcome the return of ‘hair-down’ Sawako :3

Such refreshing honesty, both with herself and with others.

Once again Ayane makes the subtle moves to get everyone where they should be.

Why didn’t they show this on screen?!

Pursuing True Love and Friendship take a lot out of you.

EO’s DAAAWWWW of the Week: it made me crush my scouter it was so cute.

As the UN personnel begin to learn more about the alien artifact found near the island, the anti-UN forces plan to take it for themselves while increasingly strange things begin happening as the fighting comes to the island in earnest. Sara tells Shin that it’s his fault that this is happening, that the UN forces are ‘weakening the bond’ between nature and the island, and somehow this relates to the Protoculture artifacts but no one is quite sure how. Now that the generator is fixed, the islanders are becoming ever more entranced by the offerings of modernity, much to Sara’s dismay. And Mao suddenly makes her move on Shin, while his reactions indicate that he might have some sort of thing for her older sister. Ah yes, it wouldn’t be Macross without a love triangle now would it?

Shin, trying to distract Aries and Edgar by…doing a witch impression?

Loved Sara’s facepalmstaff.

Mao, NO! Oh gods, the kancho has spread to even this remote island. Maybe it was occupied by the Japanese in WWII? Though after getting a wikipedia link to make the reference, apparently this happens in South Korea and the Philippines too (Koreans and Philippinos, confirm/deny that this horror lurks in your countries as well) . You learn something new terrible everyday.

For all that Macross seems to promote the virtues of pop culture, the scenes of people greedily turning the generator on during the day to watch TV certainly weren’t portraying it as a good thing.

Kind of reminds me of Qoo. Also, is this an actual language or something made up for the show? Reminds me of Thai, but I don’t know enough about what that language looks like to say.

Edgar feels like a third wheel, but hey, at least this Shin actually deserves the girls that go after him, unlike a certain Gundam pilot of the same name *cough* Shin X Lunamaria WTF *cough*

Commercialism already existed on this island!

Right after Sara notices Shin watching her and stops singing, the rocks immediately fall to the ground, all of them seemingly having runes carved into them. When he asks how it’s possible, she just replies that he has brought a Kadun to the island and that it’s weakening the bonds on the island, though I suspect something to do with anti-gravity generators similar to those aboard the Macross. Perhaps they are part of the Birdman machine buried under the island and something is causing them to malfunction…or work as designed? Sara cautions Shin not to tell anyone what he saw, but replies that no one would believe him anyway. While she agrees and tells him that he and the other UN personnel have a Kadun attached to them that only lets them believe what they see, clearly meaning it as a negative, I for one am all for reason and science. But it’s a matter of one’s point of view, and from my point of view the Jedi are evil. Aside from this, Sara is also angry at the researchers and the UN presence on the island, thinking that they’re corrupting the people by bringing them modern standards of living. Certainly the islanders are now very eager to watch TV inside instead of being out in nature, but to be honest I think this is a bias of the writers and of people who live in advanced industrialized societies in general, that being out in nature is superior and ‘purer’. If we all lived on islands, were at the mercy of weather for our food, had no antibiotics, and never saw a TV we’d probably wax poetic about progress and technology. Soon after this conversation, Mao takes Shin by the hand to show her her ‘treasure’ a site underwater that they must dive to get to. We get a long scene about the wonders of marine life, with fish, coral reefs, an octopus, and diving birds swimming along with the two humans. Just as the two are oxygenating their lungs before the deepest part of the dive, Mao asks Shin if he likes her older sister, but before he can answer in any form he dives down. Coming to a cave opening, they stand before a Protoculture artifact with an eye that opens and follows them. Shin is so surprised that he panics and loses most of his air, and Mao kisses him both for romantic reasons and to pass air to him.

Some really bright, beautiful shots of the coral reefs not far from the islands shores as Shin and Mao swim through them.

Mao swimming along with the diving sea birds, certainly suggesting the link between her (and the people of the island) and the natural world.

I saw this in a movie once…

They recreated this scene shot for shot in Macross Frontier’s ‘Tori no Hito’ movie, the only real change being that Mao/Ranka asking Shin/Alto if he loves Sara being in a voiceover during the kiss in the movie version.

You almost can’t tell the difference.

The Mao/Ranka surprise kiss attack. Oh Ranka, I really was cheering for you at the beginning, but you had to go and betray everyone.

While the two are off on their scuba dating, the Celestial Being forces are planning on seizing the Protoculture artifact from the hangar bay of the Asuka while simultaneously sending a submarine and amphibious force to the island to secure other artifacts. Sara senses a disturbance in the Force, and the UN carrier battle group seems to have some advance warning as well, scrambling Valkyries and Ghosts shortly before the enemy VFs approach the fleet. But even with this notice the UN battle group is loses a destroyer and takes damage to the Asuka II in the attack. But just when the Old Man and his wench of a sidekick Lesser Selvaria start entering the hangar deck, what at first looks like a Destroid ‘THIS IS SPARTA!!!’s the geezer’s VF out of the bay and jumps to the deck of the carrier to fight back. Lesser Selvaria is sent to the island to reinforce her allies there, while Roy Focker in an armored VF-0 fights it out on the deck, at first looking destroyed and then purging the extra armor around the VF-0 and continuing the fight. While this was happening farther from the island, Shin picked up the alert on his radio just as Mao was trying to consolidate her romantic gain with conversation. He tells her to head towards the island when Edgar shows up in their VF-0D and floats it on the surface to pick Shin up, just as a torpedo from an anti-UN submarine heads towards them. Shin quickly scoops up Mao and gets her inside the cockpit, then takes inspiration from the seabirds he saw earlier and dives the Valkyrie into the water in pursuit. A nice and realistic touch was his firing the main cannon into the point of entry for the Valkyrie, helping to break up the surface tension that could have damaged his Valkyrie. Destroying the sub in close combat and seizing an artifact it had recovered, he sees the larger amphibious force move on the island, fighting it out with the Destroids from the UN camp.

A breakdown in traditional social order caused by rapid modernization. Though I don’t think it’s quite so bad as Sara seems to think it is, at least it hasn’t gotten that bad at this point.

AHHH now I want one, possibly two VF-0 models and an arming crew model kit!

Quite possibly the coolest shot of a Destroid evar, I really liked the grainy green light from the missile exhaust.

These Destroids featured Code Geass-style wheels at the heel of each foot for added mobility.

This is Roy’s house!

The Macross team certainly likes their external, detachable armor. They even brought it to Gundam when some of them worked on 0080.

The Birdman was all YAKK DECULTCHA!

Carrying the girl to safety in the hand of your Gerwalk-mode Valkyrie: a retrospective.

The island sees a lot of destruction as Shin delivers a traumatized Mao to Sara, then jets off to try and protect the artifact from the enemy. Meanwhile Mao is MedEvac’ed to the Asuka along with Aries and a group of UN troops and about to be given a transfusion of the blood that was leaking out of the artifact, as it matches her own blood type. But just after the helicopters leave UnterSelvaria dives down on Shin, her ammo low but her fanatical determination in full supply. After a running battle she send the VF-0 down in flames, and secures the artifact, only to have Shin steer the flaming wreck INTO HER FIGHTER! Hell yeah! Ejecting just in time, he and Edgar parachute to the ground, but find themselves confronted by their rival once more. Things are going to get…interesting.

That’s some regression. Also, Mao as prototype Ranka: loli with psychological issues due to trauma.

Indiscriminate attacks on populated areas to take out a few military units? Check. And you wonder why I call them Celestial Being.

Ah, more cool cockpit sequences. I wish Gundam did first person views like this more/at all.

Tsun tsun, tsun tsun, kuroshitai hito wa pirotto!

Oh my. If only you weren’t evil.

Final Thoughts: - As I watch more Macross, it’s becoming quite clear exactly how much influence it has had over Japanese arcade flight sim games like the Ace Combat and Airforce Delta games. Two enemies in Airforce Delta: Strike look a lot like the enemy pilots in Macross Zero, for example. And then there’s the song bringing everyone together from the end of Ace Combat 5 that was very reminiscent of the final battle scene in DYRL. Along with Area 88, Macross seems to be a huge influence over the genre.

- The original series and DYRL had elements of environmental concern to them, though in DYRL it was also tied in with an anti-nuclear message. Zero seems to put more emphasis on with the coral reef scene and the generally positive portrayal of life on Mayan Island. Which I think can potentially be kind of hard to reconcile with the franchise’s love of pop/consumer culture and the way that it argues the virtues of that culture. Depending on which level the environmentalism/nature argument is made. If it’s more about just taking notice of and valuing the natural world, the feeling I got from the original series and DYRL, then it’s fairly compatible. But Zero seems to be idealizing, at least at this point in the story, a sort of goodness/virtue of pastoral life. That living in close contact with nature and actively avoiding modern technology and culture is a better way to live. Which, excuse me if I sound cynical, seems to be only the daydreams of people who have grown up in and lived in advanced societies. It’s all too easy to forget about the myriad of very bad things that people are subject to when living outside of modern societies. Low life expectancy, easily curable diseases, living one drought or storm away from starvation, lack of communication and education, the generally oppressive nature of traditional societies towards women and anyone defying the norm, etc etc. But there exists, and has existed probably since Rousseau if not earlier, this longing for a more natural and ‘purer’ way of life that’s seen as the cure-all for the ills of modern society. It just seems like human nature to want these elusive things, even opposites to what one has. The old PC adventure game The Longest Journey commented on this nicely when you were in the magic-filled world and people wished for all kinds of modern things to solve their day to day problems, while in the futuristic world people were wishing for magic and adventures while complaining about how the world has no mystery.

- Zero’s dogfights continue to be the best Macross battles I’ve yet seen. I even went back to Frontier to refresh my memory, and they just don’t compare. Zero’s fights are just more fluid, they utilize cockpit points of view more, and they focus more on the battle itself instead of one individual machine. That is not to say that I didn’t find Frontier’s dogfights and battles gorgeous, just that I find Zero’s approach much cooler and more like the original series.

Unlike that honor these do not require a beheading…

With the passing of 2009 we thought that it was time to recognize those who showed individual competence during the course of the year. While it is the habit of many to judge series here we prefer to recognize the characters that made their shows a little bit better even as their series was weighted down by anchors that exceed the weight of Big Zam. While there are many who are worthy we decided to only bestow honors to those who gallantry we have borne witness to so while air dates may vary, they are just as deserving if not more so than some of the scum that crept forth from the dirt this year. After much deliberation and table pounding we have finalized the list for those exceptional few who made 2009 so much more bearable and outright enjoyable. These are but the first in a long list of names that have scrawled their names upon the pages of history with the blood of their enemies.

The Reinhard/Yang Wen-li Distinguished Service Cross

Origins: While Yang Wen-li and Reinhard have long since passed from this world there is still a need to give due recognition to exceptional commanders who rise above their respective series and demonstrate a superior grasp of strategy, operational art, and tactics that would have both Yang and Reinhard eager to recruit them into their personal staffs. Thus was created this award in the 35th Century (1982) to honor superb commanders of formations large and small who display tactical skill and outstanding leadership in times of great crisis.

Brigadier General Katie Colasour – To put it simply Katie was in the wrong series, at the wrong time, and on the fated to lose side. Surely she deserved better than to have her plans thwarted by pixie dust and havoc physics, but at least while she had screen time it felt like it was almost Macross with Patrick trying to show his undying love for her. Unlike most of the cast she had a fully functioning mind in stark contrast to her closest rival who was getting drunk and was refusing to put out for the booze she got. Still, for winning out in the end in life Katie is here by awarded the Reinhard/Yang Wen-li Distinguished Service Cross for conspicuous gallantry in the face of a plot armored foe, and for refusing to surrender in the face of unbeatable odds or worse join them in a idiotic Three Ships Alliance or something to that effect. She demonstrated competent tactical thinking despite having technical inferiority that only grew more disparate with time and managed her men well, under the most horrid of story conditions considering she was saddled with Andrei. On the behalf of mein Kaiser Reinhard-sama and The Honorable Fleet Admiral Wen-li have a wonderful honeymoon, General.

Lt. Arleen Nazon – Having been betrayed by the man who supposedly loved her Nazon was condemned as a criminal for the deed of one dirty Zeke. In her quest for revenge she turned her understrength platoon from a few mechanics to top class pilots that helped make Operation Odessa a resounding success. While often the first to be sent in as cannon fodder they adapted well under the command of Major “Giggles” Colmatta whose leadership is rather suspect. Having accepted that death was a distinct possibility she turned herself and her mild mannered mechanics into berserkers with exceptional cunning that got the better of many a Zeke. While the Zekes already had the data from her beloved RTX-440 that did not deter her in the least as she punched a hole right through Zeke lines to wreak havoc upon their artillery. For demonstrating superior leadership in leading her RTX-440 platoon under the most dire of combat conditions during Operation Odessa and having destroyed 13 Zakus,  6 Magella Attack Tanks, countless Zeke infantry, two Doms, one Gouf, and two Dabudes. Sadly this honor is a posthumous one as Arleen did not live to see the end of the war though her sacrifice and that of her unit resulted in a significant loss of Zeke heavy equipment and personnel.

Grand Duke Jouslain Tytania – The clear successor for the title of Grand Duke of the House of Tytania. Gifted diplomat, generous and kind leader to his fellows, and most dangerous enemy to his foes. He began his rise to distinction with swift political action to end the crisis caused by Ariabart’s unexpected defeat by rebels. Continuing on, he incorporated brilliant minds that were dismissed by his peers into a tight knit group that could act in all manners necessary to the conduct of politics and war. Lord Ariabart, a solid commander that was sneered at by his rivals for one unforeseeable defeat; Princess Lydia, viewed by others as merely a hostage to ensure her planet’s loyalty, but in fact a valuable social asset; and Lord Bal’ami, the son of a traitor who was held in the same contempt as his father by others was turned into a valued source of ideas and shows promise as a future commander and leader. All were brought under Lord Jouslain’s influence and protection, showing his vain and impulsive rivals that it takes a team to run an empire, not just a leader.

Oberstein Order of the Velvet Glove

Origins: Created to honor all those who work indirectly, get inside the heads of their enemies, and manipulate friends and foes alike for the greater good. These skilled men and women often go unrecognized by the nature of their work, but they are often of the highest importance to their causes, whether it be galactic empire management, yuri shipping, pursuit of True Love and Friendship, or many other worthy causes.

Tsumugi – Sometimes your own side needs a little manipulation to make the most of things, and Tsumugi used her gentle facade of an oujousama to quietly steer her friends towards The Yuri. Skillful and elegant, Tsumugi secretly worked to optimize the Light Music Club without ever betraying her intent. Innocent comments such as ‘I think that’s alright’ were used to take conversations in a definite shipping direction without suggesting Tsumugi as the initiator of such thoughts. And her ability to call upon vast resources helped bring the club together and provide them with the training-vacation time necessary to BE FRIENDLY. An outstanding manipulator and schemer if there ever was one, leading to her deserved nickname ‘the Machiavelli of Moe.’

Ayane Yano – One of the best analysists in modern shoujo intelligence, Ayane is currently leading a team that has scored several successes against Ume Kurumizawa and her war on True Love and Friendship. While Sawako is out on the front lines and Chizu itches to escalate the conflict, Yano has quietly worked behind the scenes supporting the effort. She was the first among personnel in the field to warn of the threat posed by the evil Vichy-tan, and the first to take action. Adept at gathering HUMINT, she scoured the area for both friendly and hostile witnesses to Kurumi’s actions to piece together a complete picture of her methods of attack. Her recent actions including [SPECIFICS REDACTED DUE TO SENSITIVE NATURE OF ONGOING OPERATIONS] have earned her this commendation and our gratitude.

Kana Minami – Good supervisors are just as invaluable as the higher profile field agents and analysts, and Kana Minami has demonstrated great skill in managing several covert operations. The continuing Operation Mako-Cakes has been her responsibility since its inception, and she has also overseen liaison efforts with Fujioka and Tomo as well as numerous shorter duration operations and actions during her years of service. To this day Operation Mako-cakes continues with its cover intact, despite extremely difficult situations that would have compromised Makoto’s identity many times over if it had not been for her quick thinking and intimate knowledge of those she handles.

Baron Ashura – Despite being the butt of a long string of jokes Baron Ashura nevertheless got the last laugh with a single act of subtle treachery that led to the demise of Dr. Hell and made all the efforts of the titular heroes all for naught. Baron Ashura was never the strongest and despite numerous attempts at defeating Mazinger Z he inevitably failed each and every time. He was made into a traitor to his own people by Dr. Hell but his love for Mycenae was so deep that he endured every disgrace and beating just to fool his enemies into underestimating him. He fooled the smartest woman in all of Mazinger Z into taking him in and deceived Koji into thinking that he was an ally while he waited for the time to strike back decisively. Baron Ashura not only made up for his past treachery but also brought about an invasion to avenge the loss of Mycenae when the heroes thought that they had finally triumphed. For treacherously ensuring that there will be a sequel, the person we least suspected, Baron Ashura, is hereby awarded the Velvet Glove for manipulating the heroes into destroying all that Zeus had fought and died for.

Roy Focker Cross

Origins: Following the heroic sacrifice of Roy Focker in defense of the SDF Macross on 30 November 2009, UN high command designed and began to award the Roy Focker Cross for service and sacrifice. Sometimes the cause of righteousness must be watered by the blood of brave men and women, and their supreme sacrifices are honored by this most somber of awards.

Prince Ali al-Sarshes – An ace pilot who also took the initiative in rallying forces to fight the terrorist group Celestial Being for many years, he made the ultimate sacrifice for the U.N. during the final battle of the war. He served when called in the service of several of the pre-Federation armies, both in and out of uniform, was instrumental in the destruction of 2/3 of the Gundam Throne forces, and without hesitation joined the forces of the Federation and A-LAWS when they were created. While stalking known Irish Republican Army terrorist Lyle ‘Lockon Stratos’ Dylandy, Ali al-Sarshes was killed by a chance shot, no man ever able to best him in honorable combat. Despite Celestial Being remnant claims to the contrary, his fatal wounds did not match the weapons signatures of any CB weapon used by Dylandy. He is survived by his sister Alphard al-Sarshes.

Kikiyo – A unit commander, superb markswoman, and healer for many years in the fight against Naraku, she ignored her wounds to save Miroku and take the fight to the hated Naraku despite the extreme personal risk. Waging her own personal war against the terrible foe for several years, she was the first to develop the Shikon Purification Strategy and brought others into her plan. Putting aside her rival’s lack of worthiness in both combat and love, she tirelessly worked to assist all who oppose Naraku, even when they did not understand the necessity of her methods. In the end she gave her remaining life force in the operation to purify the Shikon Jewel while Naraku was attempting to inhabit it. The war continues, but her sacrifice will never be forgotten.

Herman Yandell – The age of Zeke ascendancy was a hard one for the poor soldiers who made up the EFGF, they fought against a technically superior enemy that pushed them to their limits of endurance and courage. This long and bitter fight had caused numerous wounds on Lt. Yandell, both psychological and physical, unlike those pretty boy engineers in the Zeke wasted weapons program. Despite the personal hardships, his grief, and his endless nightmares Yandell never backed down from a fight. While the Type 61 was no match for the Zakus they faced, it did not stop Herman Yandell from taking the fight to the enemy and in his final moment of supreme triumph felled the White Ogre. Sadly his victory was cut short by a Zeke RPG team, while Yandell and his beloved Type 61 have gone into the mists of time, his name will forever remain on the honor roll of the honored dead who have gave all they had and more in the fight against the vile Zekes.

Arleen Nazon, Karppi, and Kuzuwayo – Operation Odessa was a hard fought campaign that cost many a Feddie his life to expel the hated Zeke invaders from the Earth, among them were three engineers who were betrayed and had the blame thrust upon them by a traitor they once called friend. Despite having years of work undone by a base act of treachery, and despite being relegated to becoming penal troops neither Nazon, Karppi, nor Kuzuwayo cowered in some jail cell to weep of the injustice that was inflicted upon them. Instead they sallied forth with all the courage they could muster to endure the insults and get back into the fight at a most important hour. None of them had any previous combat experience yet they rose to the challenge and met it tread first and built a fearsome reputation for getting the job done. The swathes of dead and dying Zekes was a testament to their righteous fury. But it was during their first mission with the 44th Independent Composite Brigade that they met a a tragic end, but their deaths were not in vain as they successfully annihilated an entire Zeke Battalion and their supporting heavy artillery in their last charge. Even when confronted by a traitor professing love and friendship they did not heed his lies and blew him straight to hell where all Zekes go when they die. For their tenacious efforts between the time of their sentencing to the their last charge they were granted amnesty and the Focker Cross for performing above and beyond the call of duty and making the supreme sacrifice under conditions that were harder than they needed to be.

Lieutenant Colonel Barack Ginin – The war against GN Terror cost many good men their lives, but one in particular stands out for his sins were few and his conduct noble through and through. Unlike the terrorists he did battle with, Ginin was never the one to moan every other episode about how Kataron had killed his wife in a terror attack, and maintained his composure in front of his subordinates including one very lost Louise. His loyalty was first and foremost to the men who served with him and despite Louise’s lackluster performance early on spared no effort in giving her praise when she did well and never failed to bail her out when the rookie got herself in trouble. While terrorists such as Klaus and Shirin are hailed as heroes for bombing civilians, Ginin was condemned as a criminal for merely killing members of a terrorist movement. While the quality of Ginin’s beloved Federation might have been less than that of the Federation that Yandell, MacKenzie, Nazon, Burning, Monsha, Sanders, Bate, Synapse, Adel, Amada, Joshua, and many others defended, his courage and bearing were equal. To set the record straight and to honor a man who made the supreme sacrifice so that his team might live and Katie’s operation might succeed it is with great pride and sorrow that we are to award the Focker Cross to one of the few true heroes of Gundam 00.

Seems Noel took one valuable lesson from Gulf War I, don’t sleep in your tank.

I am pleasantly surprised that three episodes in I have yet to find reason to shout WRONNNNNNGNGGGGG! at the screen for something woefully inconsistent with military life as I know it. So far it is is in line with instances of garrison life in an all volunteer force though things are different for the poor dumb bastards who get conscripted. Morning ceremonies seem consistent enough with a reveille and morning colors, cleaning is common enough though the practice has largely died out where bases contract out for civilian janitors who get pretty good pay state side though I hear that in the field the TCNs taking out the trash aren’t making bank despite their salaries usually being better than most other jobs in the area. I like how Felicia listed ammo as the first thing on her list of needs since ammunition usually gets first priority. Being low on ammo means they are probably expending it and that means range time. Other things I did like were the rifle PQS though Kanata has poor muzzle discipline as she was flagging Kureha, but at least Kureha and Noel weren’t flagging anyone and it wasn’t at a range. I could understand if the room was crowded but I can forgive Kanata since she isn’t squared away yet. I like how they had Noel teaching rifle and Felicia teaching tanks since it usually goes that way. It is also good to see that Rio has some basic first aid training, though she is no medic.

Setting-wise it seems that while the 1121st is a black sheep unit they certainly aren’t lacking in heavy equipment with a motorcycle and two Kubelwagen in their motor pool in addition to Takemicaduchi (I guess that’s the “proper” spelling at any rate from the UI screen). The place keeps getting stranger and stranger with the addition of German Heavy Equipment but with the driver placed in such a way that it is British. Also the fortune cookies have fortunes written in the Japanese style, but in French or some other romance language. Nevertheless even if it is rather odd it certainly seems to be a better blend of monoculture where the engineering is German though since there are Kar 98ks one has to wonder about the existence of M1 Garands and Gewher 43s. The church being back in the medical business is case for some concern as it implies a sort of dark age where science and medicine have gone back to alchemy and local remedies of dubious use. For now at least the local remedies are good enough though I doubt they have the ability to perform surgery or reset a broken bone. It’s not that bad as Rio was able to voice some skepticism about religion and seems to have come to blows with the local clergy over their gaggle of kids. Still malaria as the diagnosis seems to be a bit of a stretch though it could be just general ignorance that came with the loss of medical science.

Rio got more character development or at least more of her background was hinted at. Rio lost her mom early on and seems to have fallen out with her dad, also it seems that Rio and Kanata have the same personal hero in the form of the Blonde Herald (her name will come up eventually I think). For now Rio is conforming to how a senior NCO should behave in the people first mentality. Her panic over Kanata wasn’t too alien to me since my first day at boot camp had one guy undergo a panic attack which left the whole squad bay at a total loss of what to do while we waited for help to get there. Cursing the supply corps. is  nothing new and is as old as standing armies are since there is always a shortage of something. Whether they intended to or not Rio showing concern for Kanata isn’t too alien these days since “walk it off” is no longer considered the solution and much more has been invested in mental health and training NCOs to look out for the mental well being of their subordinates. Even Rio creating a relationship based on trust and understanding is the ideal norm since the new school of though is to get away from just using your rank to get people to do what you want in the case of NCos, though officers are still free to just point to the collar device as far as I can tell. My admiration of Rio has certainly grown as she demonstrated that she remembered where she came from and that she too was once a lost little E-2 who didn’t know how to march. I wonder what trouble Rio cause with the local clergy but I do applaud her for sucking it up and asking for help, for now I agree with not calling in HQ since they were farther off and would have taken a while to get there anyway. Still I have reasonable suspicions that Rio didn’t call HQ because her dad might be top brass and she had personal issues with him. Certainly Felicia’s comments about Rio having poor manners indicates that her father was some one who had the time to bother with fuss and feathers. Judging from Rio’s example it seems that despite being lax when it comes to rules and regs they do train regularly despite having an inoperable tank. For that the 1121st is certainly earning brownie points from me since they haven’t skipped training and seem to take it seriously enough that Rio knows how to operate some functions of the Takemicaduchi.

Kanata seems to have the same reasons for enlisting as many guys I know including me, I was delighted that unlike that stupid Zeke blond boy from IGLOO (that ranted on about some nonsense about defending the Zeke Republic headed by a family of tyrants), Kanata told the truth when it came to her enlistment. In my experience enlistment isn’t always about patriotism and there is a degree of personal interest mixed in when it comes to the older folks. In the case of the younger kids, including me, it was more about getting out of the house after high school and seeing the real world. I can sympathize with the desire to gain or regain one’s self esteem, I lost mine after not getting into a big name college out of high school, at least in my case I found that and more. During hard times military enlistment seems like a better alternative to unemployment regardless of the accusations (most are gross exaggerations anyways) from the anti-war camp. Another point of interest seems that the age of an adult in this society has been drastically lowered as Kanata is an adult though she is roughly equivalent to an 18 year old in the US. She can still be viewed as a kid though she is for all intents and purposes an adult. Talk about taking one huge step back in time when the age of adulthood was pretty low during periods when women were marriageable once they were able to conceive, though mostly it was due to high infant mortality rates and the need to maintain a population in societies where disease was much deadlier than it is now. All in all it seems to be a keeper after garrison duty on a Monday, it’s relaxing though oddly it errs more toward the hard military fiction side of things.

Unlike me Kanata seems to have little trouble getting up at the crack of dawn.

I was pleasantly surprised that Rio bothered to get up around the same time, usually it’s “do as I say, not as I do” with higher ups.

Thank goodness it wasn’t cooking fail moe.

Good to see that ammo was on top in terms of priority.

I guess having them post the colors ensures that they are out side for colors…

Ah the old military pastime of field day, I guess they’re too poor to have contractors do it.

On the one hand I am glad they are doing weapons PQS, on the other hand Kanata is seriously flagging Kureha…

I hope that’s a diagram of the enemy tanks otherwise…it looks French or Italian…

Seems some one watched the Book of Eli.

…

ORLY?

Let’s see they got German military equipment, Japanese cultural habits, speak and write in French, this is some monoculture they have going…

Ah yeah the Kubelwagen, for a unit of Five they certainly aren’t lacking in heavy equipment.

It’s a pretty standard question.

At least she is honest, patriotism isn’t exactly the number one reason people enlist…

Usually the case though the odd lifer does come up in the crop of the “I had nothing better to do” crowd.

The Military Musical Monopoly…

Try a kiss it might just work…

Seems Rio lost her mom early in life.

Taken out of context this seems so yurilicious…

I see Rio read last month’s mishap report in full…

Report is as follows: So this E-3 Aviation Machinist’s Mate had to cross the Coronado Bridge back into San Diego on his motorcycle, and for some reason he was in a heckuva hurry, to the tune of more than 80 miles per hour.

I don’t know if you’ve had the pleasure of driving across this bridge. If you haven’t, I recommend it.

Outbound from San Diego, it offers a nifty escape from the city, arching over the blue water far below and curving down toward scenic Coranado and NAS North Island. I do not, repeat, do not recommend that you try to do it at 80 miles per hour, either on two wheels or four.

But wait, you ask, maybe traffic wasn’t too bad, a hilarious suggestion given that this was Southern California, and it was 4:15 in the afternoon. Not only that, but once, driving across the bridge, I entered the dense fog they call “the Marine Layer,” and let me tell you, the visibility went from excellent to 10 feet in about one second.

Back to our E-3, who was inbound to San Diego. Where the bridge curves left, he was in the right lane, his view blocked by a box truck. When he got a glance ahead, lo and behold there was a car in his lane, not going 80 miles per hour. He managed to slow down to 60 before rear-ending it.

He sailed off his motorcycle and slid to a stop.

Unspecified injuries to multiple body parts, which is believable. One week of Light Duty, which is less so.

Testimony to some good PPE, at least.

That is some diagnosis, either she is horribly wrong or all the medical specialists were wiped out and religion is back in the healing business…

We’ll just call her Doc.

Hey so she did stop crying….

From a distance it looks like such a beautiful place.

She sounds like me and every other kid that joined to get away from home for a while.

Well the UI sure is friendly though it has no idea that it’s crew is all female.

I am surprised they bothered to learn how to operate it given its condition, not that I am saying they shouldn’t.

At least they didn’t leave it out to rust.

I guess way back when everything was an MP3 player…

I guess they did have wireless, and then they lost it.

I’ll interpret this silence as an admission of yuri.

Hey a choker.

Seems the Blonde Herald was a local hero.

Loli Rio :3

…sounds about right.

I see that they went the same direction we have gone with the kinder gentler military. Not that it is a bad thing as “embrace the suck” is not a real cure all for everything.

Hey watch it there, don’t get malaria just to get nursed…if you do we’ll let Kanata be the corpsman.

SENSITIVE INTELLIGENCE REPORT – RESTRICTED DISSEMINATION

SUBJECT: 1. CEASEFIRE AND FIRST ATTEMPT AT NEGOTIATIONS CALLED BY SAWAKO.

……………2. FIRST PUBLIC DECLARATION OF MEANS AND INTENT BY KURUMI.

DATE: MID JANUARY 2010

1. THE FORCES OF KURUMI ROUTED AND HER PLANS THWARTED, A FINAL DEVASTATING ATTACK WAS MADE AGAINST KURUMI HERSELF BY AYANE AND CHIZU. SEEING THE DEVASTATION BEFORE HER, SAWAKO INTERVENED TO STOPPED A PLANNED PUNITIVE STRIKE BY AYANE AND UNILATERALLY DECLARED A CEASEFIRE. NEGOTIATIONS WERE ATTEMPTED, ALTHOUGH COOPERATION BY KURUMI WAS NOT FORTHCOMING. IN THE FUTURE SAWAKO HOPES HER ENEMY WILL BE MORE RECEPTIVE TO BEING BROUGHT INTO A FORMAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES, THIS PREVENTING THE RESENTMENT THAT COULD BRING MORE DESPERATE ATTACKS DOWN THE ROAD.

2. AFTER THE FINAL ATTACK BEFORE THE CEASEFIRE, KURUMI ADMITTED TO HER MOTIVATIONS AND MEANS OF HER AGGRESSION. UNREPENTANT THOUGH SHE WAS, SHE WAS CLEARLY IN A MOMENT OF DESPERATION AND CLOSE TO COMPLETE BREAKDOWN. ANY PEACE TREATY MUST ENSURE THAT THIS RESENTMENT AND FEELING OF HELPLESSNESS IS DEALT WITH CAREFULLY LEST SHE TAKE UP ARMS AGAIN. CEASEFIRE IS TENUOUS AT BEST UNDER THESE CONDITIONS, AND ALL ALLIED FORCES AND ASSETS MUST REMAIN ON HIGH ALERT IN CASE THE ENEMY DECIDES TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SAWAKO’S OFFER OF PEACE.

Wow, there was so much revelations about plots, strategic thinking, discussions with the defeated enemy, and shifting of power this episode to be worthy of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. With Kurumi backed into a corner by Ayane and Chizu’s proof of her dark deeds, and Sawako standing before her unable to believe the extent of her maliciousness, she drops all attempts at control and lashes out at Sawako while crying. She admits to spreading the rumors, to seeing Sawako only as an obstacle in her path, to being intensely jealous of her, and that she has no problems with using anyone and everyone. While she claims that others use her so it’s ok for her to do the same, such petty justifications fall on deaf ears and Chizu lays into her in a moment of furious and uncharacteristic eloquence. Sawako keeps asking if all this is a misunderstanding, for she is most merciful, but Ugly Ume displays why she has earned such a title and all but spits in her face, crying and yelling that she hates Sawako and was never her friend. Ayane finds her lack of repentance disturbing and walks off threatening to tell Kazehaya, and despite Kurumi’s encouragements to go ahead and tell him she clearly is fearful of the justice that is about to be done upon her. But along the way to the volleyball match Sawako stops Ayane from doing so, feeling pity for her defeated foe and calling off the shoujo equivalent of the ‘Highway of Death’ – having the one the rival loves hate her.

Things just get worse for Kurumi when she skips out on her teammates and they think that they actually did better without her. Piling on the damage, Pin, as predicted last post, just can’t keep his mouth shut and talks all about Kurumi being in love with him in front of her teammates and Ayane and Chizu. Kazehaya drags him off and tells him to shut up, but the rumor is already lose, Kurumi’s teammates talking about it immediately after hearing about it. Sawako continues feeling bad for Kurumi and runs off to find her, offering the olive branch and letting Kurumi know that she’s serious in her love for Kazehaya, that she’s not just someone who’s coming in to ruin Kurumi’s day for no reason. Not that Kurumi is being any more gracious about this attempt at a peaceful resolution to the conflict, and she even goes on to say how much better she is for Kazehaya. While the thought enters Sawako’s mind for a moment, she’s grown strong enough from past confrontations to acknowledge but ignore this attempt to make her feel insecure. Kurumi really lets the tears out this time, and while she seems determined to take one last action, I very much doubt that it will work. Even if she takes a page from Sawako’s book, reforms, and goes about her attempts on Kazehaya  in an honest way, she’s lost too much momentum at this point to make a counterattack that will provide her with any lasting gains. And the forces of True Love and Friendship always have ‘the bomb’, Ayane’s willingness to tell Kazehaya about Kurumi’s misdeeds should that option prove necessary.

Crusader’s Record of Kazehaya War

With her cloak of deception cast into the fires of retribution Ume is to suffer insult upon insult that has been long over due for her propaganda war on true love. Sadly Sawako is distressed that Ume was no friend and tries to mend fences despite the fact that Ume is not worthy of such efforts. It was wonderful to see that Ume was incapable of bluffing and was considered to be useless in sports. Her class’s victory is attributed to her conspicuous absence as her replacement proved to be superior in every way. While Sawako decides to show mercy Zeus ensures that Pin is unable to keep his big yap shut and thus grows the tale of Ume’s shit taste in men and love for Pin. The word is out and long may Ume suffer for it just as Sawako suffered at the hands of Ume’s vile lies. It is much more delicious as Ume’s own false facade created this rumor which was based on glorious misunderstanding instead of petty jealousy. With that concludes the last real battle that Ume was able to muster for in any considerable amount of force, I am sure that the rumors of her love of Pin, spread by Pin himself will take up most of her time in her futile efforts to quash them. Sawako may forgive her, but I shall forever laugh at Ume’s love of Pin, and long may she visit the tree of confession for True Love will never answer to one so vile as her.

Needs to be made into an omake.

They are trying to find the one that causes a critical meltdown.

That she is, that she is…

But you started it…

Let’s see if your pretty face is a match for Chizu’s FIST.

That is the dumbest question I have ever heard.

The bluff is weak…

Thus did Ume wait fruitlessly at the tree of confession…

No that would be Ume…

I had to check the IFF to see if it was Tomoko and Eriko, thankfully it wasn’t them.

But what they spoke was the truth.

See no one stands up for Ume, what great friends Ume has….

I felt like throwing up…

Yeah and we though Ume had an ego…

Pin commissioned many a cheap shody shoujo background.

Yes she does and HOW!

Well I don’t…

Not my problem that you put all you eggs in one basket…

ExecutiveOtaku’s Unadulterated Adoration of Sawako and Current Intelligence Report

Kurumi can’t stand the site of True Love and Friendship.

Not so keikaku doori, eh Kurumi? Muahahaha, her indignant, spiteful words of failure are music to my ears!

Kurumi is without honor and behind her carefully maintained looks is an ugly soul.

For the day would come when Kurumi would know fear.

Let me see your war face!

Chizu is GAR! At least, for a moment.

Oh yes, you’re just the poor innocent victim here.

“I’m not as good-natured as Chizu.” Be still my heart, I love evil Ayane!

EO’s DDAAAWWWW of the Week: Sawako fidgeting in front of Ayane and Chizu.

She’s probably a team-killer, perhaps they should consider giving her the boot.

INTIMIDATION!

All too easy.

I really love these half-face staring shots this episode, it’s a perfect way to the ‘O RLY?‘ feeling.

Pin is ready to get up and do his thang. He wants to get into it man, you know, like a, like a sex machine, man.

…

Kazhaya’s minor bit in this episode, trying to keep Pin from doing any more damage. Perhaps even Kurumi doesn’t deserve that kind of BAD END.

Behold the face of True Love, Kurumi, for it is a power you shall never conquer!

This episode got back into using some of the more creative shots and ‘camera’ techniques that I enjoyed in previous episodes. This pan up through the fence is one, as well as the traveling through the branches of leaves of the autumn trees and then the pan up to the sky followed by rotating in a complete circle off to the side and then back to the ground.

This heart beats with an awesome POWER!

Peace negotiations. If Sawako can make Kurumi see the error of her ways and become her friend then her victory will be total.

The rivals face each other amidst the starry universe. Ano Sora wo Yuke, Sawako!

Finally you realize the futility of your actions.

Perhaps this defeat will make her reflect on things, but I’m not letting my guard down until comes out with a definitive ‘I’m glad I fell in love with you’ admission of defeat before Kazehaya himself.

This image is 200 proof pure shoujo.

So basically episode 2 was episode 1 but with the main focus on the young miss Rio Kamichika who was part of the attempted kidnapping. Rio wanted to commit suicide when she found out that her father was cheating on her mother and was supposed to meet someone by the alias of Nakura. Nakura, or Izaya Orihara (his real name), told her that he simply wanted to observe her reactions and emotions the entire time. What his real motives are, if any, are still unclear. Rio decides to go ahead and proceed with the suicide attempt, but is saved again by the headless rider, Certy. She departs with a single message for Rio, “The world isn’t as cruel as you take it to be.”

It wasn’t that great of an episode in terms of content, but I do like this style of story telling. Being able to see what goes on from different perspectives is always fun especially with so much going on. We get to meet a few more characters, both entirely new and some from episode 1 with more exposure. There’s so many that you can’t help but wonder how they will all interact with each other.

So Izaya is supposed to be the sinister badass of the show I guess. At first I thought he wasn’t going to be a bad guy and that the whole thing was supposed to stop Rio from wanting to commit suicide. But boy was I wrong. The guy just wanted to observe humanity like some sort of god looking down on a petri dish. Of course, this makes him a perfect candidate for the “villain” of the series if there’s supposed to be any.

I honestly liked her better with her hair this way… not much else to say about this character.

Creepy teacher is creepy. Already checking out the students on the first day, eh?

This guy seems like a prick. If you’re not going to come to school then don’t show up at all.

Despite the show’s natural realistic setting, it’s a bit nice to see some supernatural elements embedded in. We of course have Certy (or Selty? Which is it?) the headless rider. Now we have Shizuo Heiwajima who we saw during the opening and a little bit in episode 1 throwing around vending machines. I’m not sure how this will all play out in the end, but it certainly does make me curious enough to watch the show even more.

This is a bit off topic but I’m kind of liking Erika Arisawa’s character design. It’s strange since the character seems so plain, but just the outfit itself is a bit unique and somewhat refreshing among all the school uniforms, plug suits and fancy clothing you seem in anime these days. Or maybe I just have a thing for plain looking women… who knows.

On a side note, I thought including sort of a summary of what happened in the previous episode in the middle of the opening sequence was kind of clever, but that’s just me. =)

Typical anime cliches has never been so refreshing. Instead of going to school we have a ‘going-to-work’ version this time round.

Sorry for the sugoi late post! Quite busy this week round!

So, after pondering what I want to blog for this season (Since Katanagatari only releases 1 episode every month), I decide to go on with this one instead (Until I get pissed off, if that’s the case). Not in the best of mood, but it somehow rather reminds me on my kindergarten days…

Wait, I hardly remember anything from kindergarten. ROFL! From what I’ve seen, this resembles my days in kindergarten (Except that I don’t hit guys randomly and think that climbing trees is an extremely noble past time.).

They better not transform this into another Kodomo no Jikan. They better not.

NOOOOO!!!!! I’m not some perv guy with a loli complex! I’m just a normal guy working in a kindergarten!

So our protagonist starts work in the kindergaten with the same name as the anime itself. Big deal. He rushes to work, but then thinking that he’ll be late anyway, he sees a loli, pushes his brakes and then starts hitting on her…wait, am I in the wrong show? She’s only 4, and he’s only in his 20s (I think).

Or maybe our little loli right her watches too much anime. Or rather boring soap operas that bored you to tears, but you think that these crap really are tear-jerking after all.

So he left Anzu behind, and how does he know her name in the first place when it’s the first time you met her? It’s anime after all, we can defy the laws of gravity and whatnot. That’s why. If a stranger I don’t even know of starts hitting on me, the first thing my mother would do is to kick that man’s ass instead of striding it off as if nothing ever happens. Hey, what’s with guys hitting you when you are 4?

Erm, no. Why are you putting me in a spot? You started it all right.

If I was her, I would be screaming for my mother horrendously, and wouldn’t be Anzu be scared of falling in high places? Well, it’s anime after all.

I kinda remember the time when I was in elementary school, and my mother sent me to a childcare center since she was wayyyy too busy to looking after me then. It wasn’t such a bad experience, I get to meet some new friends, but then I hardly ever seen them again when I completed 6th grade. Coming back to the story, well, yeah, kindergarten is fun, sucks, embarrassing and all the shit you can come up with, but Anzu, when the teacher is talking, you should be listening to them, not start wondering around and gossip around people that you’ve hit your very own kindergarten teacher…

SHHH!!!

And coming back to my experience in a childcare center, yeah, so there’s at least 2 male caretakers in the center. So it’s not very uncommon for male caretakers to take up the job but over the years, the number has declined. Don’t ask me why, but most people in society think being a caretaker is only for ladies, drag queens and the gays. Well, society: A big, fat WRONG!

Parents: He’s gay, he’s definitely gay.

Gay…not! I love women very much, especially one with a G cup bosom! Thank you very much!

So after the introduction and all, things are starting to calm down…not with those three ‘rugrats’ around when a big wind blows and skirts will lift up like flying a kite. Now, Koume’s ribbon given by her elder brother was now stuck on a tree. How convenient. ANZU RANGER TO THE RESCUE!!!

Noo, it’s Ranger Yamamoto-sensei to the rescue!

At last, Ranger Anzu was saved by Ranger Tsuchida, and really; if I was Anzu’s mother I would be screaming at her to get down this instant and instead call someone else to bring a ladder and bring down the ribbon. So, next time, guys who have premarital sex in high school, remember, being a parent is hard work.

So, that make you gay, Tsuchida-san?

You can use the female restroom, if you like. We won’t tell anyone about this, scouts’ honor!

And so once again, the first day is saved. So everyone goes home, talk about their first day and…what?

Meow! I’m a catgirl. Daddy bought this for me!

Tsuchida and Anzu’s mother, Sakura are schoolmates in high school, and it was quite surprising that Sakura has premarital sex with her high school teacher. But since it’s Japan, they make it sound as if nothing serious has ever happen to them. No wonder the world’s turning upside down, but I’m not against that kind of relationship. I mean, shouldn’t you wait till you graduate from high school or something? Yes, I know, Japan needs more babies, but ethics comes first if you ask me.

…and be late for work tomorrow, again! Ooh, is that a PS2/3? Want play!

The next day, our dear Tsuchida rushes to work, AGAIN, and meets Sakura and Anzu. So, what did Anzu say…

I knew it! You’re not gay…you’re a pedo! With a loli complex!

Yeah, this first episode was quite interesting, though nothing special really turned up except for a twist or two. Fortunately, not much obvious fanservice (Thank god, Gainax), but you may never know. My favourite character: Hii-chan. And with the next preview…

She wears a safari suit. I wonder if she has a maido uniform, or a cheongsam, maybe a Lolita dress… (Thinking about dirty thought, but meh!)

This season doesn’t disappoint. Except for some shows that are so unworthy to be mentioned. I’ll see 4 more episodes before I decide if I would want to continue but for now, I’ll be sitting on the sidelines.

Already Sergeant Major Rio is showing superior intelligence. Good call is good.

So far I am pretty surprised at how this has turned out so far. While granted there are those who blast it as a joke on military life, I think they have first off never seen an Air Force Composite Unit and second even the members of the 1121st know that they are the black sheep unit of the whole army. Also since this is an all volunteer force for the sake of recruitment once in the field decorum gets much more relaxed unless it is for a formal ceremony or inspection. Not even those uptight Marines are above goofing around during work. For me at least they seem to come off less as Army and more like Air Force given how they pack all their snivel gear for a short patrol of an abandoned school. Also since the Air Force seems to have a disproportionate number of good looking people compared to the other branches, I think the analogy is pretty good. I also started read the summary of mishaps that goes through the message system since I got a better grasp of how to do my job. Suffice to say military life can be fun, and it can be funny.

I probably would be more harsh had I not had to train with other branches and met some interesting units in various states of cohesion. Seeing as I have seen some strange units in action, I don’t have the inclination to be hostile since they know that they are dumping ground and don’t operate under complete ignorance of this fact. While there is a degree of moe-fication at work here they act like how I sometimes wish the actual military operated. Case in point when Noel could not get up before first call I actually applauded Kureha for dragging her out of her rack. Were they in a fuss and feathers unit Noel would have just been left there and she would have been written up in a heart beat or they would have just fucked with her while she dozed off and you can bet that prank would be posted in youtube and the pictures put up on facebook. In my experience people not getting up is a common enough occurrence and most active garrisons will tolerate it to a degree unless the person makes a nasty habit of it or doesn’t bother to call the lead NCO. Even then it appears that this army is already in sharp decline from a war footing as they make clear that most of the population died and having large schools are practically unheard of. It seems that education for certain subjects is not taught publicly and that music is only taught on a military level. Under normal circumstances having child soldiers would be controversial but it seems that with most of the population dead and in light of how Kureha and Kanata are orphaned the Army seems to be willing to take in kids with no where to go and ship them off to crap billets.

Even if the cast appear to be K-On whether they intended to or not they got some of the archetypes you might see at a typical unit right. To be sure Felicia comes off as more of an OCS officer than an academy grad as she isn’t flashing her rank every chance she gets. It’s not so much that officers always clean but it’s nice when they clean their own weapon or clean their own berthing areas instead of grabbing a bunch of enlisted to do it for them. Again it’s more the exception than the rule but its a nice fantasy nonetheless. Kureha reminds me of plenty of Private Majors (E-3s who get egotistical when put in charge of E-2s) who can wreak interesting havoc if left to their own devices, the funniest thing is Private Majors have a habit of exaggerating what a unit typically does (all of a sudden specialized units become Special Forces…) and Kureha created quite a story regarding the elite 1121st. I have to say they did pull off a Kawamori class troll with the mecha, though I guess I should have seen it coming since it was Kureha talking about it. I have to give them credit though for being honest that they are the yard bird unit where other units dump off old equipment in lieu of driving all the way to a DRMO (basically a military junk yard though I hear some of the stuff gets sold to less well equipped armies and military surplus stores) and filling out a 1348. In every service there seems to be one type of unit that becomes the dumping ground for the local units usually the reserve unit that is a little more gung-ho than the rest.

While I could give Kureha crap for being a bad shot I actually witnessed cops with holographic sights take hours to zero their weapons, and I also ate a lot of humble pie when during a night fire where only 11/30 of my rounds hit a man sized target at 50 meters (you only need 7/30 to qualify). I got Sharpshooter for the combat course but when it got dark I could not see worth a damn through those iron sights, I guess it was to hammer home how lucky we are to have NVGs in quantity even if they hurt your eyes after awhile. Also I’ll cut Kureha some slack for using a full sized rifle that is bigger than she is after seeing one of those tiny little Air Force gals try to shoot her M-16, she made it in the end though. As for the rats…I have yet to see any one panic from rats, but spiders seem to freak servicemen out, supposedly it’s why the Army makes special mention of camel spiders (it’s chasing you to get in your shadow, not because it wants to eat you…or at least that is what they tell us) and scorpions so that people don’t freak out when one is chasing them or crawling on them. Oddly enough Kanata reminds me of those kids who sign up who have never been outside of their home state and as such are amazed at some of the things I consider mundane, I suppose it’s pretty much the same with first time deployments since most of those places aren’t highly attractive tourist destinations.

While we did get some background, they did hint much more about the setting which is pretty interesting without being too depressing. As mentioned before it seems that in this post war period both sides seem to have fought until their strength was all but spent. War seems to be the last thing on their minds as the draft is gone but they are still taking in kids as a sort of uniformed welfare to cut costs. I wonder if 1121st is actually made up of all orphans since I don’t see parents being too willing to let their kids go off to some far away post. Certainly it would lend more credibility to the setting with the state being nearly bankrupt with a deteriorating army that barely keeps its units supplied. The lack of education suggests that they did scrape the bottom of the man-power barrel as education took a nose dive with elective course like music gone the way of the dodo. The advent of lost technology is probably most indicative of all as they have gone from shiny MBTs to bolt action rifles. All in all i don’t mind the vacillation between moe anime tropes and the interesting setting they seem to be competently building up. I did like how Rio took the smart approach to teaching Kanata and was delighted at how she got Kureha all pumped up and ready to go, only to throw her under the bus on ghostbuster patrol. Reminds me of the time we had to do OPFOR for an exercise when one of the E-4s had an ego trip and was being pretty vocal about it. The Chief egged him on only to later make him the driver for all the vehicles entering the ECP for the exercise. Suffice to say the E-4 found out how effective those positions work and how thorough a search can be…

All in all it ever so gently reminds me of past experiences whether directly or indirectly, so it’s a nice series to relax to at the end of my military day.

Last note on how like everyone else the military has it’s share of people with NICE IDEAs here for your reading pleasure is one of the mishaps that occurred during December, it’s unclassified and verbatim, though I’ll spare you the ALL CAPS format.

In this week’s “Confession is Good for the Soul” Department, we hear from an Air Force E-4 who had whipped up a batch of rice krispies treats for himself. He gobbled a few. “I followed the directions,” he notes, “and nowhere did it say to grease the pan or to not leave the treats in the fridge overnight.” This disclaimer, you perceive, is in preparation for the events of the following day, when our hero was again struck with a hankering for more of goodies after work. He initially opted for the tool of choice, a plastic spatula, which promptly broke, due to the rice krispy treat having been transformed into something more like rice krispy pavers. The airman’s next implement was a butcher knife, and soon he was treating himself to a major gash in his wrist. Two hours late her left the emergency room with five stitches. He missed two days of work and was on light duty for the next three weeks. Yum.

Ah yes the time honored tradition of yelling insults across the parade ground.

This should happen more often, but reality is that the military is rife with pranksters and they like to post on youtube.

Alright a TANK!

Good Morning Private Major…

I do that too when the Bull Ensign is showing the new Ensign around…

The worst thing you can do to an E-2 is let an E-3 run them around…

Wow Treize has his own town.

I guess Mugi did the Captain-sh thing and elected to only have one weapon to clean…

I guess this is analogous to a post on the Canadian Border…

I bet it’s not even a secure line…

Yeah Square IT.

Pfffftttt…

We need to save water, oh and you only get five minutes…

It’s real bad when the ghosts out number the living…

FUCK YEAH MBT!

It’s MECHA!

AND IT’S A BIG ONE!

Wow you guys must be really something to get entrusted with that…

FUCK…still that troll was worthy of Kawamori.

Glad they are being honest about it, if they weren’t I was going to tear them a new asshole…figuratively of course.

Oh ho the E-3 wanted to less grunt work I see…

Onee-sama…

The HORROR THE HORROR.

Way to get her all pumped up…

…

Way to throw them under the bus…

It’s always the E-2s and E-3s that are the excitable ones…

I guess there are people who appreciate having school.

It’d be pretty funny if they found Shoujo Manga instead…

I guess vampires got rolled up into the ghost myths.

This kind of close contact happens more than you would think…

I wonder what made that trench.

Dang if the Capital City doesn’t even sport a bigger school education must have really gone down the tubes.

Oh crap the E-2 has a NICE IDEA…

Having only hit with 11/30 rounds during a night fire I guess I can’t pound her for failing to kill the bird.

If Owl is now on the menu then I hate to imagine how much beef costs.

Hey they are pretty PR savvy.

The skirmish between the UN and enemy VFs continues about Mayan Island as the villagers take shelter and Shin goes to find Mao. But the fighting isn’t limited to the skies above the once peaceful island as Valkyries use their gerwalk and battroid modes to get close to or on the ground. Shin and Mao barely manage to dodge a crashing VF-0, while the merciless anti-UN pilot strafes the crashed UN pilot in front of them. Seeing this brings back terrible memories of a previous massacre perpetrated by anti-UN forces in Shin’s past, and doing his best Shiro Amada impression he uses the now one armed Valkyrie to fire back at the SV-51 above. But this skirmish is only a small part of the story. Sara’s words and rituals are now seeming to align with some of the archaeological facts being discovered. The Asuka anchors near the island and pulls a large alien artifact from the waters, missing its head just as in the Mayan legend. As training for the new Valkyrie pilots is overseen by Roy in the air, a research team headed by Dr. Aries lands on the island and begins looking around. After convincing the locals to provide some blood samples, Dr. Aries has found something interesting. The islander’s cells have some odd properties and start to become abnormally active at the same time that Sara is standing naked at the island’s waterfall singing a song in French of all languages.

Roy gets into a duel with a familiar face: Ivanov, apparently an old instructor of his. Why he decided to join the dastardly forces of Celestial Being is unknown, but one thing is for certain: when Roy left he was but the learner. Now he is the master.

God of Wind? I didn’t know Talim was from Mayan.

The duel continues down into the canyons of Mayan, both combatants constantly changing forms to take advantage of the terrain and evade each other’s attacks.

The way the main gun tracks with where Roy looks is really cool, kind of like the chain gun on an AH-64 Apache.

Shin is not letting that CB scum get away with mowing down a defenseless man again, though he nearly gets Mao killed in his single-minded rage.

The enemy plane takes a hit and dives down at Shin’s nearly disabled VF-0. The pilot is some woman who looks kind of like Selvaria, but without the sense of honor or duty of the ill-fated Valkyrur. Ah, Selvaria, I miss you already *runs off to replay Valkyria Chronicles for the third time.*

She can do a Char Kick too, though fortunately for Shin the Skull Squadron was still in the area and took notice.

Roy lands after driving off the Selvaria-impostor, and seems a bit more worried about Shin and Mao than one would think from he would allow to show.

After the skirmish ends due to low fuel on the part of the enemy forces the Asuka moves into the area to raise the alien artifact found by earlier scans. Shin is brought back aboard and reunited with Edgar, who apparently survived their F-14 being shot down but had to remain in sick bay for several days due to his injuries. With their carrier destroyed, the two orphaned pilots are given a new home in Skull Squadron and its compliment of early model Valkyries. Training is arranged, but for the moment the pilots have time to relax while the scientists take a better look at the artifact. Aries has a little chat with Roy after she emerges from the artifact’s isolation dome, though we’re still left to wonder about the details of their past. All that is certain now is that the two went to college together and that Aries knew Roy back before he was as cool and self-confident as he is now. They may have been a couple once too, though Roy’s ass-grab may have just been his natural lecherousness. The next day the first round of training takes place, with Shin and Edgar in some sort of different Valkyrie model while Roy in his VF-0S acts as the aggressor. After mid-air refueling the exercise takes place and it’s not a good day for Shin. He hesitates to engage gerwalk mode to slow his descent, nearly crashes, and then gets eliminated first. And when he tried to get a shot in on Roy even after being eliminated he gets his Valkyrie tripped up in close combat by Roy and handed another defeat.

The Asuka’s battlegroup begins raising the artifact for study, something that seems to have a place in the mythology of the islanders.

Adding a little Evangelion to this Macross series.

There’s no better place to be.

Roy does not care to admit the mistakes caused by his youth.

Aries is a smooth woman, definitely has to be to be Roy’s senpai.

Really cool mid-air refueling sequence. In keeping with the real world aircraft we have S-3 Vikings refueling the Valkyries.

Not off to a good start.

Despite Shin’s objections this is a new era in combat and pilots just might find themselves having fight on the ground as well as in the air.

More training is scheduled, and surely Shin needs it, but that evening the crew relaxes by watching some sparring while the mechanics get to work fixing what Shin broke by flying his Valkyrie so brashly. Nakajima is not happy with Shin making his team pull the engines and work on them all night, but he later tells Roy that he’s happy to see a pilot that’s willing to push the design to the limit. On the hangar deck Shin enters a sparring match with a tall female Marine and gets his ass handed to him every which way. She points out his weaknesses: he doesn’t understand his opponent and keeps forgetting about his center of gravity, which are the same problems he had while piloting the Valkyrie against Roy. The latter point is an interesting training tie-in with Frontier, since the pilots-in-training use their exoskeleton suits to develop a similar awareness, one that is necessary to piloting a fighter whose center of balance can change rapidly as it switches from one form to another. Afterwards Shin is feeling pretty down, but Roy joins him and cheers him up a bit by letting him know that Nakajima isn’t as upset with him as it sounded. And instead of training the next day, Roy has a special assignment for Shin and Edgar: escort Aries’ team to the island and stand guard.

Interservice rivalry.

So much for that. If Cima Garahau and her fleet taught us anything, it’s that Marines in mecha are not to be messed with.

Shin forgot to Remember Love (for his engines.)

A pretty sweet detail.

Sara greets the UN landing party coldly, refusing to allow them in with their weapons and referring to them as Kaidun, but after they agree to stay outside of the town and lower their weapons they’re allowed to stay by the other islanders. Dr. Aries begins collecting blood samples under the pretexting of checking the islanders’ health, though with all the research going on concerning the artifact and possible alien manipulation of ancient humans and their genetic structure this is likely just a cover. Sara is extremely against collecting blood and thinks that their souls will be stolen, though everyone is convinced to give a sample when Aries offers them delicious soft drinks in return. That night the scientists return to the Asuka while Shin works on finishing his repairs to the island’s generator. Mao joins him and asks why he’s working on it again, but a promise is a promise to Shin. But just as the two are about to start it up Sara stands outside the hut glowering at them. She asks if he’s there to steal the stars from them by starting the villages’s electric lights up again, her understanding of light pollution coming from an old story passed on to her. But Shin informs her that Mao wanted the lights back, and he turns the power back on. In all honesty there’s little light pollution that can be produced by the few houses on the island, but Sara is nonetheless displeased. Out at sea, a huge anti-UN submarine is also closing in on the island, the Celestial Being SV-51s stored aboard it. We get a bit of the enemy mindset from wannabe-Selvaria, who apparently thinks that sharing technology for the good of mankind in the face of possible alien invasion is theft. She must read a lot of Ayn Rand and applied the concepts to interstellar war. The next morning on the island Shin is walking near the waterfall pool when he hears singing. Approaching he sees Sara standing naked in the pool, singing. Continuing his Shiro Amada act he stands and watches, but then notices that the plants around him are spontaneously growing and the rocks around him levitating. And back on the Asuka at the same moment, Aries cell samples start acting oddly. Unbeknownst to her the alien artifact in the isolation chamber has started bleeding or leaking some sort of red liquid in response to the song.

I don’t know Sara, that sounds a little too Hitler-esque to me.

Reason 1, superstition 0! I <3 you Aries.

A variation on ‘come to the Dark Side: we have cookies.’

One thing about Macross, it’s always been pretty positive in regards to commercialism.

A nice shot visually contrasting the two worlds that each character comes from. Sara under the natural starlight but in darkness while Shin is inside with artificial lighting repairing the generator.

As much as they deserve to die I kind of hope they live long enough to witness the arrival of the Zentradi to show them how wrong they were.

So…um…do you have to sing naked for this to work?

I hope the text that was cut off says that she showed no signs of malaria and tapeworms. Parasites are kind of not moe.

Something crazy is going on on this island.

Final Thoughts: – The dogfights continue to be amazing, especially the one between Roy and Ivanov at the beginning of the episode. The VF-0 is very cool, and even the SV-51 is looking better now that I’ve seen one that’s not in ‘rival ace’ fuchsia. Though I’m wondering what’s going on with the Valkyries that Shin and his group used since they’re definitely a different model from the VF-0 Valkyries that Skull Squadron has used so far.

- Continuing on that positive approach to commercialism thing, I’m getting the feeling that it’s a running theme in the Macross series. That seemingly insignificant commercialized things like soda and pop music are a way to bring different peoples together into a larger human culture. It worked on the Zentradi in the original series, and it seems to have a lot of influence on Mao. Frontier showed it too with the full integration of humans and Zentradi aboard the colony ships. That if a globalized (or interplanetary) monoculture is established then it will be the way to lasting peace. Which might not be unusual coming from a country as monocultural and commercial as Japan (seriously, I thought we Americans were supposed to be the commercial whores, then I lived in Japan for a year.) But even if these things seem to lack substance, they’re given purpose with how they build common ground between people who share in their consumption. And in that way I think Macross tries to show us the value of seemingly artificial and ‘pop’ cultural elements, redeeming them from being dismissed on their lack of inherent content. It’s an optimistic view, but I have to say that even with ocassional backlashes against globalization I agree that moving towards some sort of Macross-like monoculture is probably the best way forward for mankind in the long run.

Shokkeru here. Back after a long hiatus with a mini review of various shows of the Winter Season. Keep in mind that these are merely my impressions based on the first episodes of these series.

Today’s Menu:
Baka to Test to Shokanju
Dance in the Vampire Bund
Durarara!!
Ookami Kakushi
Seikon no Qwaser

Baka to Test to Shokanju
Students are divided into six different classes based upon their placement exams. Each class serves as a ranking within the school ranging from rank A all the way down to rank F. The facilities in each class are also a reflection of their rank with rank A being the luxurious suite and rank F being the run-down shack. Classes may also battle other classes in order to have their classrooms changed using summoned avatars. The power level of these avatars are based upon the student’s test scores, thus motivating the student to do better theoretically.

The Good:
-Test scores are the key to victory!: I kind of like the idea behind this series. Having students’ battle powers be based on how well they score on tests certainly does seem like an interesting idea. If only our education system was like this, maybe some people would be more motivated to do well in school… maybe.

-Transformation!: While some of the character archetypes are rather cliché, I still find them enjoyable. Hideyoshi being the obvious trap character even has his own “mahou shoujo” transformation scene. My favorite characters so far have to be the clever Yuuji, who appears to always have a plan and the perverted Kouta, who tries so desperately to sneak a peek.

The Bad:
-Idiot Main Character: I understand that these guys are supposed to be the “worst” students in the school (one of them being the obvious exception) but Yoshii is a little too dumb for my tastes. Not to mention, his summon seems to be a bit useless as well.

Verdict:
Not too shabby even though the first episode did seem a little rushed… well maybe not. Regardless, this is a show that I probably will continue to watch if not for the character interactions then for the interesting battles.

Dance in the Vampire Bund
Thanks to a series of murders where young females are left with bite marks on their necks, rumors begin to surface of the actual existence of vampires. The rumor makes its way onto a TV show where five judges decide whether or not it’s true based on discussions and evidence presented to them. Despite the notion that vampires are not real, one of the judges turns out to be a vampire himself. He is then pursued by other vampires as well as the vampire princess herself. After disposing of the “criminal”, the princess, Mina Tepes, officially announces the existence of vampires and their new home.

The Good:
-It’s SHAFT: I’ll be honest, if it wasn’t for the fact that SHAFT is producing this, I probably wouldn’t have given this a chance. The first episode was a bit slow paced, character designs are a little bland and I wasn’t sure what to think during the whole TV show portion of the episode. But, in the end, it did turn out to be something interesting and I’ll have to check out the next episode for sure.

The Bad:
-What is that, an iguana?: Vampires are cool an all, but transforming into lizards wasn’t something I expected. I understand that this guy happens to be one of the lesser vampires, but I hope not all of them turn into lame animals.

Verdict:
It wasn’t a spectacular first episode, but I’ll be checking out the second for sure.

Durarara!!
Mikado Ryugamine moves to Ikebukuro to attend a new school with his childhood friend Masaomi Kida. When he arrives, Masaomi takes him around town showing him the sights and introducing him to a few acquaintances. While taking his tour of the city, Mikado happens to be “lucky” enough to see the appearance of what appears to be a modern day headless horseman (except that it’s female and rides on a motorcycle).

The Good:
-Awesome OP: The OP for the series is just so cool. It’s probably my favorite of this season so far. Very hip indeed.

-So many characters you won’t know what to do with.: Just judging based on the OP sequence, the amount of characters that would appear in this show is just amazing. Some may see it as a bad thing just by having to keep up with all the names and such, but I for one think it opens up a lot more possibilities with character interactions. Let’s just hope I’m right.

-We’re just so hip and cool.: I just absolutely love the character designs but then again I am a sucker for a lot of things urban themed in anime.

The Bad:
-Are we there yet?: This seems to be a trend amongst shows recently. The first episode just seemed to go by so slowly for me. It seems that they spent a lot of time explaining things while not really explaining anything at all. We got to meet a few of the characters and the modern day headless motorcyclist in action, but despite all that, I’m still not sure what this whole show is about. In short, I kind of feel annoyed by having to wait till episode 2 to fully understand the basic flow of the series.

Verdict:
Definitely a candidate for one of the best shows this season. I’m watching this show till the end and may even end up blogging it if I find the time to.

Ookami Kakushi
Hiroshi Kuzumi and his family move into the town of Jouga (seems to be a popular opening to a story) where everyone seems to be more than welcome of his arrival. The town is divided into the old town and the new town and apparently residents of each are not too fond of each other. At night it seems that people are killed off by a strange wolf cult just before going mad.

The Good:
-Something’s strange in the neighborhood.: I got to admit, I can’t say no to a good mystery. Despite the mood the beginning part of the episode conveyed, you could feel the eeriness of the entire town especially when all the of the students were drooling over our main protagonist. It had a very “Twilight Zone” feel to it. However, I have a feeling that it’s going to take a majority of the series to find out just what the hell is going on in this town.

The Bad:
-Too sweet for my tastes.: I’m not a fan of the character designs at all. They’re much too cutesy for me and I find it very hard to watch the show because of it.

Verdict:
I don’t know if I’ll be watching this show for very long. The only thing keeping me attached to it is simply the mystery itself. Once that’s solved, I may not care for the rest of the show… if I even make it that far.

Seikon no Qwaser
Alexander “Sasha”, a Qwaser, is able to manipulate metal (Iron I think) and use it however he wishes. He does this in order to chase down a criminal who can control magnesium. What fuels their powers, you ask? Why it’s Soma of course… in other words, breast milk…

The Good:
-At least the main character is kind of badass?: The only reason why I decided to even try this show was because of the main character and just how badass he looked. I also liked the idea of alchemy. But sadly, this alone won’t save this show.

-Ending theme is catchy.: The ED song is actually kind of good even though the visuals are quite questionable… well nothing compared to the actual content of the show.

The Bad:
-Seriously? Breast milk?: I heard that breast milk as a main plot device for the series, but I never imagined to this extent. Now it just seems to be an excuse to show as much boobies as one possibly can and still try to take itself seriously. I mean breast feeding to power up just seems a bit wrong does it not? Not to mention all the other fanservice in this show just disgusts me and I’ve watched and read To-Love-Ru all the way through.

-Censorship is bad ‘mkay?: Fanservice is one thing, but I absolutely cannot stand censorship. If the show is bad enough that you’d have to censor 1/3 of it then you might as well not show it at all. Not to mention that the censoring job on this was so terribad. However, I do hear that there will be an uncensored version airing 2 week after the censored version. So, if you still want to feel a little hot and bothered, you can get your jollies there.

Verdict:
A big no thanks on this one. I may just watch the uncensored version just to see how bad it is and for a few laughs, but other than that, I’m staying away from this one.

There’s something inherent in being a fan that compels one to want to experience the shows you love in various forms. Watching anime is the start, but the community abounds with different ways that people delve deeper into the experience of anime and the community surrounding it. Blogging, making AMVs, cosplaying, and drawing are just a few forms that fans use to further their experience. Having recently watched and retroblogged the original SDF Macross and the ‘Macross: Do You Remember Love?’ movie, I’ve been itching to get a hold of a Valkyrie model kit and build it, both to have and to get a better understanding of the fighter and the mechanical design philosophy of the franchise. So I ordered and received a ‘VF-1S Valkyrie Super Figher’ kit a few days ago, the VF-1S with FAST Pack being my favorite mechanical design from the original AD 2009-2010 time period. Over the last three days I’ve built and painted the Valkyrie, as well as building and painting a set of same-scale ground crew and a stand/background made to look like the hangar deck of the Macross.

Day Zero: Getting inspiration

While I waited for the model kit to arrive from the store on Amazon that I bought it at I went through all the screenshots I took while retroblogging Macross and DYRL to get an idea of what I wanted to do with the model. One of the things that I loved about Macross was its attention it paid to the background features of (space)naval aviation. This included the use of elevators, specialized AWACS craft, and there were plenty of scenes on the hangar deck and bases on Earth where Valkyries were being serviced and repaired. So right after I ordered the kit I also ordered a Hasegawa 1/72 scale USAF ground crew and equipment set with the intention of setting up a hangar deck or flightline scene. As far as a Google search would tell me, there was no US Navy equipment/crew set, but the USAF one would do nicely.

The series featured several scenes where Valkyries were undergoing repairs and arming, as did DYRL even given the time constraints of a movie.

Day One: Valkyrie assembly and painting, part 1

Models as they arrived.

After listening to Animetal’s cover of the series OP several times to get in the mood (thanks to Sakura at Calamitous Intent for making me aware of this 1 minute 38 seconds of awesome), I opened the boxes and got out my painting supplies. First day I set out to do all my large area painting with spray paint for the black and white areas and my airbrush for the blue ones. However, the airbrush at first had the wrong sized hose for the propellant can. And after buying an adapter I still had tons of problems getting it to work, even though it’s nicer and has more features than the old airbrush I bought in Akiba (and I couldn’t find a can or adapter that would fit the Japanese brush here in my corner of the US.) So the blue was on hold for the day, but the rest went off without a hitch. I then started the small, hand painted stuff, which I’m a lot more used to having painted a fair amount of wargaming miniatures. The cockpit of the VF-1S was a lot of fun, there were plenty of details to paint. I even tried painting Misa on the central MFD as she would look when communicating with the pilot, though this was more of a suggestion of Misa because I’m not some insane micro-portrait painter (my camera unfortunately couldn’t get a clear image of the small cockpit details though.) Put together everything but the FAST Pack sections that day and painted the ground crew.

This image was used for inspiration for the cockpit details, though with more Misa (center MFD panel) and no Minmay.

Day Two: I have to paint what?!

Second day I still couldn’t get the airbrush to work right, so I went on to details and decals on what I had already put base colors on. And it was at this point that I realized the model kits back in the 1980’s were only for the dedicated. As I got to the engines and thrusters, I realized that some of the instructions were not making sense. And I noticed on the sprue that there were gerwalk-mode parts AND heads for different Valkyrie models (VF-1A and VF-1J) as well as others that didn’t belong. The model kit was from 1985, and I guess they wanted to cut costs by making a kit that could build any Valkyrie type, with or without FAST Pack, with series or movie decals, in fighter or gerwalk mode. And then I got to the decals. In all of the instructions there were only two places marked for decals. Guess you just have to look at the picture to figure out where the rest go. Then I got to the decals themselves: there were no decals for big, important things like the stripes on the wings! I HAD TO HAND-PAINT LONG, STRAIGHT LINES. WITH A BRUSH. I’ll admit to being a bit spoiled by the few models I have done before, more modern Gundam and real life aircraft models with every decal or sticker you need and then some, but what the hell was this? So I taped off straight lines on the wings, did my best to hope that they were of even width on each side and where they should be, beseeched sacred Misa to guide my hand, and painted them on with a broad paintbrush. I was relieved to see that they turned out alright, but wow was that nervewracking. The whole model could have looked terrible if they didn’t turn out right. The model builder of the 1980’s must have been, as men who live outside a polis, “either a beast or a god.”

Painting the wing stripes using scotch tape to mask off the edges.

End results of day two. Fire extinguisher and ground crew didn’t require blue paint so I did them by hand. Went with Millia-green hair for the female ground crew member, since post-war the UN forces surely included some miclonized Zentradi.

Day Three: FAST Pack, ground equipment, and staging.

Having given up on the airbrush until I can ask a more experienced friend of mine for help, I went out and bought blue spraypaint for the FAST Pack and conformal fuel/coolant tanks. Since the maintenance equipment in the series was also blue, I used the same color as a base for those as well. For whatever reason the blue paint took forever to dry, much longer than the white, black, and gray ones. After it dried I finished assembling, detailing, and applying decals to it: the VF-1S was done! Moving on to the ground equipment, for the time being I just assembled the M32C-10 Air Conditioner and M32-A-60A Generator Set, though I’ll move on to the others later. Assembling them was a bit shaky though, the way they’re designed to fit together is not very precise. With the models ready, they needed a home. So I went over to Construction Junction, a building materials recycling place that sells used and surplus materials to look for a tile to form the base and a piece of wood to serve as the background. Along the way I also picked out a couple interesting looking pieces of metal and wire to try and make the scene look more like the inside of the Macross. Found a perfectly colored and textured tile (the texture looked like what I’ve seen in pictures of carrier flight decks and sounded like it had a similar finish to the epoxy surface described by the DoD here) and a piece of unfinished wood of the appropriate size. Total cost: $1.45. Spraypainted the background panel, used two pieces of metal to both better secure it to the tile and to look like more ’ship interior’, and then painted on a line and an ‘03′ berth number on the tile. When all this was done, it was just a matter of positioning the models and taking pictures. Needless to say I was really excited to have my first Macross model, and pretty happy about how it turned out. There’s still some gaps on the FAST Pack boosters and nosecone of the VF-1S, but otherwise I’m quite happy with it. Next project: something from Frontier, perhaps Mikhail or Luca’s VF-25.

The tile and wood background with assorted metal and wire bits. Two more metal wires would be added later.

The finished setup. Went with yellow for most of the crew as per the series and orange-brown for the operator’s clothing (for variety), as per DYRL.

VF-1A being serviced, image for comparison.

Left side of the scene, one crewman at the generator, the miclonized Zentradi checking the front landing gear.

Topdown view.

Groundcrew member attaching hose from the air conditioning unit. I really like the hoses that came with the groundcrew kit.

Operator directing the pilot (Hikaru).

Wings extended, and I have on crewmember working on the U-shaped bend in the metal strip that I painted and put decals on to make it look like something functional.

Staged rear view of the VF-1S.

The scene’s home, right next to my mecha and sci-fi manga on one of my bookshelves. Had to put it in a central place in my apartment, hehe.

The Valkyrie now has a prime location in my nerdiest of bookshelves. Full resolution of all images is here.

Doing the dreaded triple review of episodes to catch up. I’ve been really tied up through the holidays and I know there’s even more episodes out and the new stuff is starting to pop up around the interwebs but you’ll have to take it at my pace. After two great episodes I wasn’t surprised by Episode 9’s absolute snore fest of mediocrity. If you waited, and had great determination to get past episode 9, at least episode 10 was enough reward to keep going as Fujimoto’s background story was cute and sad and happy. In Episode 11 it just occurs to Kobato to get a part-time job.  And my CLAMP radar only goes off about twice. Please join me for these three episodes (and maid outfits!) after the jump.

Episode 9

“What to make a totally boring episode Girl #1?” “Oh sure, Girl #2! Let’s pretend to hate it each other to waste everyone’s time!”

Okay, so I lied. I’m pretty much skipping this episode. This episode was the bane of my existence and the number one reason I really don’t like drama-girls-anime. This episode added absolutely nothing to the story and the whole time I just felt angry at it. Here the jist: Girl #1 and Girl #2 used to be BFFs. Girl #1 is a stuck up prissy bitch. Girl #2 is too nice and likes camera. When they grow up they start growing apart because they want different things and Girl #1 wants to sabotage Girl #2 because ??. Anyway in the end they are BFFs again and they can embrace each other differences. Then I throw up with sappy happiness. The redemption of this episode?

I should get a new kimono…Kobato’s is so cute!

Episode 10

Woah, it’s another episode with plot forwarding elements!

Sitting through episode 9 is not necessary when you can skip to the plot filled goodness of Episode 10 right away without missing anything! Episode 10 is what I’ve been holding out for this whole series and while it was a little disappointing in terms of simplicity, I wasn’t about to complain after the last episode.

“Yay I’m never getting my wish but hanging futons is so fun!”

One summery day instead of trying to mend hearts Kobato goes the nursery to help out Sayaka-sensei. Very noble but she needs to ramp up on those hearts so, also somewhat stupid of course.

This picture is somewhat off putting, I think Sayaka is thinking of throwing him down a well

Sayaka-sensei starts telling her about Fujimoto-san in the past complete with flashbacks galore.

Good to know that 10+ years didn’t change him

Meet tiny Fujimoto.  Sad. Super scowly. Sayaka’s family takes him in because his parents left him. Sayaka does the best she can but since he won’t play with anyone it’s pretty hard.

One day some boys come into the yard and step on the flowers all the kids had been nurturing. Sayaka busts out some anger on them but all the kids are depressed still.

You show ‘em girl!

Sayaka tries to put the flower back but it doesn’t really work. Then all the kids hear some organ music and run inside.

Now everyone loves him magically. Because of this? Really?

Seems that Fujimoto-san can bring happiness to people with his organ. Ugh. Even I cringed at that joke.

Sayaka-sensei is concerned about how Fujimoto’s grown up that he works too hard and shuts out people and that is life is probably a painful ball of nothingness. I too am worried about Fujimoto.

After this it’s time for Kobato to go home and do something embarrassing because it’s been nearly a whole episode without her falling over something.

Incoming in embarrassment in 3, 2, 1…

Blast off!

Fujimoto of course gets angry and accusing but in the cute way where he’s mildly indigent. Chitose, and the twins want to see picture too~!

Episode 11

Maybe she should let Kobato do some fund raising if she’s going to freak out about money all the time?

This episode starts with Kobato finishing her day of work (for free!). She asks Sayaka-sensei if there’s anything else she can do for her but she tells her to go home. Kobato sees this:

I kind of wish we had books like that…

It dawns on Kobato that she can get a part time job and help out with the creepy loan shark at the nursery. Since I’ve been thinking this for a while, I’m glad it’s actually happening. When she goes home to discuss it with Iroyogi-san he shoots down all of her ideas.

“You would just suck at this”

Looks like Iroyogi popped a leak so Kobato takes him to Chitose to get stitched up and asks her if she knows anyone who might need someone part time.

She gets her rent free I’m sure Chitose is confused but polite enough not to ask why.

Chitose does know someone – someone Kobato knows too! It’s umbrealla guy who apparently owns the bakery even though he was just standing outside holding the door for some reason last time. His staffer was hurt so he’d be happy to take her on part time.

And your help now, and your help when she probably drops a cake.

Yay maid uniforms!

Yumi (the staffer) tries to help Kobato figure out the ropes of the bakery business.

As much as I rag on her, this is probably exactly what my face would look like if I had this job.

Even some familiar faces come in to the bakery. Kobato is able to give Marina-chan her birthday cake!

Awww. That is all.

Or is she?

How uncanny, this cake also says “Happy Birthday Marina”

EPIC FAIL.

I feel that Kobato’s charm point (clumsiness) helped Yumi open up to her later on anyway so I guess it’s a good thing. When I watch her fall over though I want to shield my eyes and go “ahhh not again”.

Yumi opens up to Kobato about spending 4 hours with her, world record!

Yumi says that her manager has been really cold and distracted lately so Kobato wonders if it’s a money issue. The bakery is doing well enough though so Yumi doesn’t think so. Instead they go to the old stand by to figure it out: spying.

Truly, these are our greatest hiding places yet.

Sneaking in on the bakery guy doesn’t seem to help. He just sighs a lot and looks wistful. Great, he’s emo. Luckily a customer comes to break this James Bond moment up.

It’s Sayaka-sensei!

Somehow this sentiment seems really rude…

Sayaka has a husband?! Or maybe she just had one because of how sad she looks when Yumi says that. Maybe he’s blackmailing her for a sex scandal! I have to stop thinking of Sayaka-sensei that way. But you know what this calls for?

How did you spy on people so long without knowing what a detective was? What the hell were you doing?

We needed more spying!

This isn’t exactly what it looks like because it looks like a date. Yumi freaks out and Kobato starts yelling to try and keep her quiet. I don’t see why a grown man can’t have a date (even though it’s not a date). The baker runs down the street after Yumi trying to set the record straight.

Kobato is a third wheel…more often than I think

He was interviewing people because he thinks he is overworking Yumi. How…cute? I think this is probably very sweet but for me, I would have wanted a raise. And he could have told her he was hiring more help.

So here we are, having our cake and eating it too.

Yumi had hurt herself trying to bake cakes for the baker probably to woo him. Her cake looks pretty darn good so I consider him officially woo’d. Mission accomplished!

Sherlock Kobato and Wats-roygi.

Kobato does one last bit of detective and realizes that Iroyogi has been eating sweets from another bakery every time he gets information. This is reasonably awesome of her to deduce this which is also why Iroyogi gives her a 100 (and doesn’t take it away!)

Kobato did too many good things in this episode so here’s Fujimoto to bring you down.

Last Thoughts:

- I’ve already watched episode 12 so I feel like I will accidentally sneak something in here if I try too hard.

-I really enjoyed episode 10 even though it was very simple. I guess sometimes it’s best to stick with your guns and go with what you know.

-Episode 11 was great but isn’t Yumi the chick that whathisface from Chobits was in love with? She looks reasonably similar but he voice sounded different so I’m not sure it was suppose to be the same person

-Misaki (Angelic Layer) was selling beer alongside Fujimoto in Episode 10. I lol’d. (edited: fixed, thanks Son Gohan!)

-That’s all for now but I promise next one in a timely manner. I got steamrolled  by Xmas and trying to do things to speed along our move to the new site hence the delay.

Look forward to next time!

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