This could have been longer, too. But probably not by much.
► FARMVILLE:
→ So, the new Let's Build feature? Where you can just select a building material once and then click click click click everything into any given structure? HOMG ZYNGA YOU ARE THE GREATEST EVER. SO MUCH TIME WILL BE SAVED. I LOVE YOU!! (Now please fix the vehicle parts to be similarly easy.)
→ I finally caved and got a polka dot ram from the market. 30 FV$! Ridiculous! But I couldn't stand it anymore and I bred the fuck out of mine so far. :D :D :D Though, I haven't been able to get anything but purple dots yet, I'm still working on different combinations.
→ I saw someone on my newsfeed with a Crack Willow Tree. INTENSE JEALOUSY.
→ I generally don't like designs (that look like things, rather than just a pretty setup) but this farm of the week looks AMAZING.
→ They redesigned the gift box! At first I wasn't sure I liked the new look, but then I realized you could sell multiple items of something at the same time and I instantly loved it! THAT WAS SO HELPFUL. Seriously, I collect a lot of the ducklings floating around because the brown ones sell for 1,000 coins and it's an easy way to make a little extra money, but trying to find them in a stuffed-full giftbox? Having to page through 11 pages to find wherever they went to? Such a pain! But now I can sell them all at once! And, even better, you can now SEARCH YOUR GIFTBOX, it has saved me so much time to just type "seedling" into the search field instead of trying to find wherever they'd gotten off to.
→ I am sort of super frustrated right now. Apparently, I hit the 100 bred sheep limit and so I was like, okay, I will just sell some and then be able to breed more! I have cute polkadots to breed, dammit! But, even once I'd sold about ten of them, it still tells me I can't have more than 100 bred sheep! THIS IS DEEPLY FRUSTRATING because I have about 80 bottles/potions (combined) and I could really, really use the space in my giftbox right now. I don't want to just get rid of them, it's a lot of work to collect that many, but I'm not sure what else to do. ;__;
→ New spring and england limited edition items are cute but nothing I went super wild over. Except HOLY MOTHER OF GOD I NEED THAT TREE AND I NEED IT NOW!!!!! EASTER EGG TREE!! I WANT IT LIKE BURNING OKAY.
→ So, as soon as I bitch about how I can't breed sheep anymore, no matter how many I sell, Farmville finally starts rolling out their newest updates and I can breed sheep again. Thank fuck, because now I can use all those bottles I had stored up!
→ A new farm of the week and, christ, I still don't like blue hay bales for water, but that looks AMAZING. I WANT AN ISLAND, TOO!!
→ So, we're getting pig breeding now? Really, Zynga? When we're still working on the flower basket stuff and all? Not that I don't appreciate new things to do, honest! Just... I'm kind of hoping for a new expansion soon instead? I'd really like a 30x30 farm, plz. Also, I'm wary of needing love potions for this as well--it's hard to collect enough just for sheep, now I have to spread them out across pigs, too? And I imagine it's going to cost farm cash to get the cute pig designs/patterns, too.
► TELEVISION:
→ Oh, Cougar Town is back and I watched the two episodes back and... okay, not everything about them was perfect, but "GHOST TRUCK!"? Beautiful. I just about shrieked with laughter. Also, the title cards have been excellent, too.
→ I watched the first episode of Body of Proof and I'm on the fence about it. It could be good, but... I'm not sure I'm 100% feeling it yet.
→ So, Supernatural is finally back--which means SPOILERS for 6x17:
This episode was sort of middle of the road for me. For each thing I thought was genuinely funny or neat, there was something that I thought they failed on. For every thing that made me want to drive a truck through their plot holes, there was something I genuinely enjoyed. Yet, overall, it wasn't a whiplash sort of episode (like it usually is when I enjoy some things and dislike others), it was just... there.
The opening was really violent, so I expected something really kind of epic, I suppose. Seeing the garage door come down on that guy's neck? Holy shit, they really didn't hold back there. I figured, with that much directly shown carnage, we were in for something pretty huge, right? Ehhh, not so much.
I did have to laugh at Dean pointing at the bus that had just run over the personal injuries lawyer with his ad on the back of it, because it was just so awful. And then, what? Too soon to make a joke about it, Sam? "Yeah, Dean. I'm pretty sure six seconds is too soon." I laughed again.
And I even laughed at "One Way or Another" when it came up as they were trying to lure the Fate out. And Sam's face at the street performers that they had to walk through!
I even liked that, hey, we got a supernatural creature on the show (a Fate) who was a woman, who held her own, and didn't die! I think that had to be some kind of miracle for Supernatural! At the same time, the reason behind everything that happened? Saving the Titantic so all those new souls would be born? Granted, that would have saved 1,500 people that would have been released into the population, but that resulting in 50,000 new souls? To get anywhere close to that number, those people would have had to have been breeding MACHINES, assuming best case scenarios. It was like they thought, oh, all the people that existed before would still exist, but then we'd have more on top of that! Forgetting that, hey, some people who were originally around would no longer exist because someone from the Titanic interfered with their parents' lives. Nobody mentions their lives being important at all.
It also asks me to believe that, when Castiel and Balthazar set things right, that Atropos will just go off on her way, not really minding that the important part of why she's pissed is that the Winchesters averted the apocalypse, that the Titanic people surviving was just the icing on the cake. (At least that's what her speech seemed to imply to me?)
And it makes you wonder, what is the point of Atropos at all, given that Death already exists in this universe? How does Greek mythology fit together with Christian mythology even? And yet... I don't know. Even though I clearly just wrote about a thousand words about this episode, I find that... I don't care? It used to be that things like this would drive me nuts, but I think I'm learning to let go of this show, because it's just so... bland, now, I guess? Idk.
► ANIME:
→ Link via _leareth: New Rurouni Kenshin anime greenlit, which is kind of awesome, but also kind of, "....what are they even going to animate?"
→ I've been catching up on this season's anime, since Siobhan worked her witchcraft on me and I have momentum with stuff again. It took me awhile to get to some of them, but I'm mostly back on track now! SPOILERS for anything listed, of course.
→ Tiger and Bunny ep03: I realize this is only the third episode of the series, but it sort of hit all the things that are making me frustrated with this show, I think. I'm tired of Kotetsu always being beaten down on for being super unpopular and cringing at scenes where he tries to give away cards of himself, I'm tired of him acting like a five year old when he's a goddamned grown-up. These things in small doses are fine, they're occasionally excellent even, but I feel like there's not a lot to balance them out otherwise. It was nice to see Kotetsu being pretty smart with the bomb placement, but when the rest of the public doesn't get to see it, it does become a little sigh-worthy.
The other thing that frustrates me is that there's not a lot of signs of an overall arc happening, that everything has been really episodic here. If we get 24 or 26 episodes, that's fine, there'll be time to develop everything later. But if we only get 12 or 13 episodes, that means we're a quarter into the series and there's hardly going to be any time for anything epic. If you're going to tackle a premise like this and get that many sponsors and have such detailed art, I expect something more than just episodic bad guys every week. (At least they didn't resolve who the bad guy was this week and seemed to imply that something bigger might be going on?)
But, on the positive side, I am still enjoying the dynamic between Barnaby and Kotetsu. The little moment where Barnaby just knows what Kotetsu meant at the last second before the bomb goes off, both of them using their powers as a real team, even as they're still a bickering duo? That is riiiiiight there on my list of things I want from this show, yes!
Basically: I'm still here, I'll still keep watching, but I'm sort of on the fence about whether or not this series is going to be one of the best of the season after all.
(Though, I do appreciate that mayonaise reference, because AHAHAHA PIXIV HAS BEEN ALL OVER THAT.)
→ Sekaiichi Hatsukoi ep02: One of the first things I noticed (now that I've caught up on the manga more) is that, wow, Yukina/Kisa really looks like ConYuu in the beginning of the anime. I-- I'm kind of anxious for them to show up, even though I want more time devoted to Masamune/Ritsu because I'm dyyyyying to know more about them!
I was less taken with this episode because a) I've already read through this part of the manga and it's so much set-up so not much is happening here and b) this is the point where I like Ritsu the least. When he realizes that Takano Masamune = Saga Masamune, they both confront each other about rejecting the other, both explaining what happened, when Masamune reveals that he wasn't laughing at Ritsu, he was just a stupid teenager, too, so of course he tried to cover his embarrassment! Ritsu refuses to accept that Masamune didn't do anything wrong, not believing him at first, then thinking that he shouldn't have done something that was so ambiguous! Completely ignoring the fact that he was the one who DISAPPEARED THE NEXT DAY AND MOVED AWAY.
It was better than I remember it being in the manga (where I think Ritsu had more of a NO NO NO THAT IS DEFINITELY NOT HOW IT WAS vibe, where he still fully blamed Masamune), but maybe I was just prepared for it? Either way, it's the point where I like Ritsu the least, so it's a little hard to get into. But it's still Sekaiichi Hatsukoi and it's still my new darling baby and I still enjoy every episode that comes along. Even if there's no countdown to when Ritsu falls in love. :(
Also, the voices for the series are pretty excellent! I'm especially in love with Masamune's actor, he's pretty much perfect for the role. The animation is lovely as well, I have missed Studio DEEN's take on Nakamura's characters. ♥
→ Deadman Wonderland ep01: The beginning of this episode was a little difficult to watch again because it was so hard to see Ganta go through that massacre all over again, to see him go through the trial, to see him first thrown into Deadman Wonderland, when he doesn't know what to expect and he hasn't started to adjust to this new life yet. He's one of those characters that's so young and naive, thrown into this world where everything shows on his face, so it's hard to watch, at least until he develops the will to fight back. It's especially hard knowing more about the "Red Man" that attacked the school--and it's more interesting, because I've started wondering about that now, too.
I felt like some things were different from the manga--did Shiro call out, "Ganta!" before he got there in the manga? Was there a scene with "Ganta" being secretly taped during a conversation in Tamaki's office which was later leaked? Was it as obvious that Ganta was being set-up and railroaded by a conspiracy? I'm not sure, but... I'm not really against it, either. It probably would have driven me to distraction if I hadn't known and they hadn't made that clear--how do you assume that a 14 year old boy could do that much damage, when he's clearly pretty scrawny, has no history of violence, etc., just because he survived? But when you see that he's being deliberately set up, it makes a lot more sense.
They also changed the reason for Tokyo being the way it is now--in the manga, it was a huge earthquake that destroyed it, which gave way to Deadman Wonderland, while the anime has it as some weird gravitational anomoly. I think that's a really understanding change there.
I liked seeing Ganta's blood bullet in action here, it looked REALLY AWESOME. I also love Makina a whole lot--I felt like they toned down the T&A with her just a little? But sort of upped it with Shiro, so I'm not sure how I feel about the show overall.
The ending shots with the other prisoners where you couldn't see their faces! Excellent! Then the SOUL-CRUSHING pictures shown during the ending! Which was a bit of an odd choice, since I don't think it'll mean as much to those who don't know what's coming? But, I suppose, you'll be able to go back once the anime is done and realize just how heart-breaking those images are.
Supposedly this series is only getting 12 episodes? I realize the manga isn't that long yet, but... is that enough to tell the story even? Still, it was a good adaptation and I'm looking forward to more!
→ Ao no Exorcist ep01: I don't really have a whole lot of thoughts on this episode, but it was pretty solid? The animation was really pretty! Rin looked as pretty as he needed to be, though, I was disappointed that Yukio wasn't hot as he should be. :( I'm hoping that'll change in the upcoming episodes when he gets a change of clothes.
The episode definitely had a lot of padding in it, but whatever! Rin trying to keep ahold of his job was adorable! The interaction with the little girl! The hilarious animation of the demon running away with her scarf! They were all fun enough and didn't take too long that I was perfectly fine with the extra padding. As long as it's not stupid and it doesn't affect the pacing of an episode, I should be fine with whatever the series adds. (It does make me wonder a little at why they feel it's necessary--it's not like Ao no Exorcist is a long-running title where they're going to need to give the manga time to keep ahead, is it?)
I liked the music, but, man, the ED was boring otherwise. And I liked that they kept in how Rin may be hot-headed, but he's not stupid, either. I'm hopeful that this will be one of the best of the season.
→ Sket Dance ep01: It wasn't until after I watched this one/started writing out this post that I realized episodes 2 and 3 were already out, but, eh. I'll get to them later. So, I've only watched the first episode, but I wound up liking it more than I thought I would! The beginning of it was really slow for me, but the second half went better for me!
I enjoy that the girl of the group, Himeko, is the total brawler, while the two boys tend to stay in the background and do their dumbass fighting poses. And I do love a group of dorks, which this series definitely seems to have. ♥ The credits at the end definitely piqued my curiosity about this group of idiots, so I'll keep watching.
I'm a little on the fence about how I feel like this is basically "Gintama in high school", given that even the animation style seems to be really similar. I'm not sure if it's deliberate or just that it's the same animation studio or what, but I couldn't shake the feeling the whole time. And I'm not sure how well it worked to put the focus on the new kid in the first episode when he's not even a regular character? I'll give it a couple more episodes, but it wasn't one that struck me that hard this season, no.
→ I've had a bit more time to digest the Madoka Magica finale and had some time to go around reading other reactions, so I've had more thoughts. Still SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS for the ending, of course.
The big question still seems to be, why didn't Madoka make a wish that broke the entire system of magical girls, rather than just changing the rules a bit? Why not take out magical girls all together? I asked the same question a lot--but then two comments made me change my mind:
rubyd's comment here: Re: Madoka's wish, I think she didn't wish it all away because Kyubey implied in episode 11 that without the magical girls humans would still be in caves.
Star Crossed Anime Blog's review of ep 11: Just, what was the point of that one monologue of Kyuubei? The one where he started talking about the past of the mahou shoujo, where he started talking how many famous girls in history were actually mahou shoujo who were plunged into despair, and how without them we’d still live in caves? That just makes no sense and is completely out of context here.
If that scene was out of context (which I didn't quite feel it was, but looking back, I can agree with that point of view), there must have been a purpose for putting it in, right? It must have contained something that they wanted to tell us about the magical girl system and be somehow relevant to Madoka's wish. The implication was, without the magical girl system, human beings probably would still be in caves, so it needed to stay. Madoka couldn't wish it away because it would undo all the progress that humanity has made over time. Given that they showed people like Joan of Arc and Cleopatra as magical girls, I think (inside this series) Kyuubei could have been right about them advancing humanity along. (Which is pretty fantastic, the idea that without those magical girls, humans would probably still be living in caves.)
This fits with the feeling of... Madoka was rewriting the laws of an imperfect universe and therefore her wish would have to be imperfect, too. But imperfection is what makes humans evolve, it's what makes them strive for better heights and, looking at the ending through that lens, I think Madoka's wish made a lot more sense.
In some lights, it probably does feel pointless--girls are still dying for their wishes, all those unhappy endings like Sayaka's still happened, there are still demons that they have to fight. But, watching the ending scenes, while it's bittersweet, it's not the soul-crushing horror that it was in the first place.
Triste also has a good post here and I definitely agree with this: and while I can understand the 'well, why didn't anyone else think to just wish witches away?' thing, Madoka really is the only one who had the power and knowledge to do it. Most of the other girls never knew the kind of stuff she did (how the magical girl system works, what happens to them in the end, etc) and, to be fair, Kyubei usually tends to prey upon the most desperate and vulnerable ones who are far more likely to wish things like "I don't want to die" (as Mami did) instead of trying to work out how to beat the game.
Because of the circumstances that Homura wound around Madoka, she wound up being the only one with both the knowledge and the power to be able to create a wish like that. These five girls seemed to be an incredibly unusual circumstance--becoming friends instead of fighting against each other for the grief seeds. And, by the time you're a magical girl, it's already too late, you've already used your wish on whatever Kyuubei cornered you into. Even if you find out the truth about the witches (and, I think, if more than a handful had ever realized it, that kind of thing would have spread like wildfire througout the magical girls--unless Kyuubei tried to keep it quiet?), it's not like you have another wish or even the power to change it. A very specific set of circumstances had to lead up to this kind of wish.
The other big question I had was about Walpurgisnacht and why more on that wasn't explained, because I felt like there should have been more about this, given how she could fight outside a witch's barrier and how she played such an important role in the motivation of everyone. Without Walpurgisnacht looming, Homura would have been able to protect Madoka much more easily and wouldn't have had to keep repeating the time loop. But in that comment from earlier, I wondered well... maybe Walpurgisnacht has something to do with one of the other series in the continuity? I haven't read them yet, so I don't actually know, but if there's a whole other story that explains why that witch was so powerful and where she came from, I can definitely live without it being explained in the anime proper.
→ So, the new Let's Build feature? Where you can just select a building material once and then click click click click everything into any given structure? HOMG ZYNGA YOU ARE THE GREATEST EVER. SO MUCH TIME WILL BE SAVED. I LOVE YOU!! (Now please fix the vehicle parts to be similarly easy.)
→ I finally caved and got a polka dot ram from the market. 30 FV$! Ridiculous! But I couldn't stand it anymore and I bred the fuck out of mine so far. :D :D :D Though, I haven't been able to get anything but purple dots yet, I'm still working on different combinations.
→ I saw someone on my newsfeed with a Crack Willow Tree. INTENSE JEALOUSY.
→ I generally don't like designs (that look like things, rather than just a pretty setup) but this farm of the week looks AMAZING.
→ They redesigned the gift box! At first I wasn't sure I liked the new look, but then I realized you could sell multiple items of something at the same time and I instantly loved it! THAT WAS SO HELPFUL. Seriously, I collect a lot of the ducklings floating around because the brown ones sell for 1,000 coins and it's an easy way to make a little extra money, but trying to find them in a stuffed-full giftbox? Having to page through 11 pages to find wherever they went to? Such a pain! But now I can sell them all at once! And, even better, you can now SEARCH YOUR GIFTBOX, it has saved me so much time to just type "seedling" into the search field instead of trying to find wherever they'd gotten off to.
→ I am sort of super frustrated right now. Apparently, I hit the 100 bred sheep limit and so I was like, okay, I will just sell some and then be able to breed more! I have cute polkadots to breed, dammit! But, even once I'd sold about ten of them, it still tells me I can't have more than 100 bred sheep! THIS IS DEEPLY FRUSTRATING because I have about 80 bottles/potions (combined) and I could really, really use the space in my giftbox right now. I don't want to just get rid of them, it's a lot of work to collect that many, but I'm not sure what else to do. ;__;
→ New spring and england limited edition items are cute but nothing I went super wild over. Except HOLY MOTHER OF GOD I NEED THAT TREE AND I NEED IT NOW!!!!! EASTER EGG TREE!! I WANT IT LIKE BURNING OKAY.
→ So, as soon as I bitch about how I can't breed sheep anymore, no matter how many I sell, Farmville finally starts rolling out their newest updates and I can breed sheep again. Thank fuck, because now I can use all those bottles I had stored up!
→ A new farm of the week and, christ, I still don't like blue hay bales for water, but that looks AMAZING. I WANT AN ISLAND, TOO!!
→ So, we're getting pig breeding now? Really, Zynga? When we're still working on the flower basket stuff and all? Not that I don't appreciate new things to do, honest! Just... I'm kind of hoping for a new expansion soon instead? I'd really like a 30x30 farm, plz. Also, I'm wary of needing love potions for this as well--it's hard to collect enough just for sheep, now I have to spread them out across pigs, too? And I imagine it's going to cost farm cash to get the cute pig designs/patterns, too.
► TELEVISION:
→ Oh, Cougar Town is back and I watched the two episodes back and... okay, not everything about them was perfect, but "GHOST TRUCK!"? Beautiful. I just about shrieked with laughter. Also, the title cards have been excellent, too.
→ I watched the first episode of Body of Proof and I'm on the fence about it. It could be good, but... I'm not sure I'm 100% feeling it yet.
→ So, Supernatural is finally back--which means SPOILERS for 6x17:
This episode was sort of middle of the road for me. For each thing I thought was genuinely funny or neat, there was something that I thought they failed on. For every thing that made me want to drive a truck through their plot holes, there was something I genuinely enjoyed. Yet, overall, it wasn't a whiplash sort of episode (like it usually is when I enjoy some things and dislike others), it was just... there.
The opening was really violent, so I expected something really kind of epic, I suppose. Seeing the garage door come down on that guy's neck? Holy shit, they really didn't hold back there. I figured, with that much directly shown carnage, we were in for something pretty huge, right? Ehhh, not so much.
I did have to laugh at Dean pointing at the bus that had just run over the personal injuries lawyer with his ad on the back of it, because it was just so awful. And then, what? Too soon to make a joke about it, Sam? "Yeah, Dean. I'm pretty sure six seconds is too soon." I laughed again.
And I even laughed at "One Way or Another" when it came up as they were trying to lure the Fate out. And Sam's face at the street performers that they had to walk through!
I even liked that, hey, we got a supernatural creature on the show (a Fate) who was a woman, who held her own, and didn't die! I think that had to be some kind of miracle for Supernatural! At the same time, the reason behind everything that happened? Saving the Titantic so all those new souls would be born? Granted, that would have saved 1,500 people that would have been released into the population, but that resulting in 50,000 new souls? To get anywhere close to that number, those people would have had to have been breeding MACHINES, assuming best case scenarios. It was like they thought, oh, all the people that existed before would still exist, but then we'd have more on top of that! Forgetting that, hey, some people who were originally around would no longer exist because someone from the Titanic interfered with their parents' lives. Nobody mentions their lives being important at all.
It also asks me to believe that, when Castiel and Balthazar set things right, that Atropos will just go off on her way, not really minding that the important part of why she's pissed is that the Winchesters averted the apocalypse, that the Titanic people surviving was just the icing on the cake. (At least that's what her speech seemed to imply to me?)
And it makes you wonder, what is the point of Atropos at all, given that Death already exists in this universe? How does Greek mythology fit together with Christian mythology even? And yet... I don't know. Even though I clearly just wrote about a thousand words about this episode, I find that... I don't care? It used to be that things like this would drive me nuts, but I think I'm learning to let go of this show, because it's just so... bland, now, I guess? Idk.
► ANIME:
→ Link via _leareth: New Rurouni Kenshin anime greenlit, which is kind of awesome, but also kind of, "....what are they even going to animate?"
→ I've been catching up on this season's anime, since Siobhan worked her witchcraft on me and I have momentum with stuff again. It took me awhile to get to some of them, but I'm mostly back on track now! SPOILERS for anything listed, of course.
→ Tiger and Bunny ep03: I realize this is only the third episode of the series, but it sort of hit all the things that are making me frustrated with this show, I think. I'm tired of Kotetsu always being beaten down on for being super unpopular and cringing at scenes where he tries to give away cards of himself, I'm tired of him acting like a five year old when he's a goddamned grown-up. These things in small doses are fine, they're occasionally excellent even, but I feel like there's not a lot to balance them out otherwise. It was nice to see Kotetsu being pretty smart with the bomb placement, but when the rest of the public doesn't get to see it, it does become a little sigh-worthy.
The other thing that frustrates me is that there's not a lot of signs of an overall arc happening, that everything has been really episodic here. If we get 24 or 26 episodes, that's fine, there'll be time to develop everything later. But if we only get 12 or 13 episodes, that means we're a quarter into the series and there's hardly going to be any time for anything epic. If you're going to tackle a premise like this and get that many sponsors and have such detailed art, I expect something more than just episodic bad guys every week. (At least they didn't resolve who the bad guy was this week and seemed to imply that something bigger might be going on?)
But, on the positive side, I am still enjoying the dynamic between Barnaby and Kotetsu. The little moment where Barnaby just knows what Kotetsu meant at the last second before the bomb goes off, both of them using their powers as a real team, even as they're still a bickering duo? That is riiiiiight there on my list of things I want from this show, yes!
Basically: I'm still here, I'll still keep watching, but I'm sort of on the fence about whether or not this series is going to be one of the best of the season after all.
(Though, I do appreciate that mayonaise reference, because AHAHAHA PIXIV HAS BEEN ALL OVER THAT.)
→ Sekaiichi Hatsukoi ep02: One of the first things I noticed (now that I've caught up on the manga more) is that, wow, Yukina/Kisa really looks like ConYuu in the beginning of the anime. I-- I'm kind of anxious for them to show up, even though I want more time devoted to Masamune/Ritsu because I'm dyyyyying to know more about them!
I was less taken with this episode because a) I've already read through this part of the manga and it's so much set-up so not much is happening here and b) this is the point where I like Ritsu the least. When he realizes that Takano Masamune = Saga Masamune, they both confront each other about rejecting the other, both explaining what happened, when Masamune reveals that he wasn't laughing at Ritsu, he was just a stupid teenager, too, so of course he tried to cover his embarrassment! Ritsu refuses to accept that Masamune didn't do anything wrong, not believing him at first, then thinking that he shouldn't have done something that was so ambiguous! Completely ignoring the fact that he was the one who DISAPPEARED THE NEXT DAY AND MOVED AWAY.
It was better than I remember it being in the manga (where I think Ritsu had more of a NO NO NO THAT IS DEFINITELY NOT HOW IT WAS vibe, where he still fully blamed Masamune), but maybe I was just prepared for it? Either way, it's the point where I like Ritsu the least, so it's a little hard to get into. But it's still Sekaiichi Hatsukoi and it's still my new darling baby and I still enjoy every episode that comes along. Even if there's no countdown to when Ritsu falls in love. :(
Also, the voices for the series are pretty excellent! I'm especially in love with Masamune's actor, he's pretty much perfect for the role. The animation is lovely as well, I have missed Studio DEEN's take on Nakamura's characters. ♥
→ Deadman Wonderland ep01: The beginning of this episode was a little difficult to watch again because it was so hard to see Ganta go through that massacre all over again, to see him go through the trial, to see him first thrown into Deadman Wonderland, when he doesn't know what to expect and he hasn't started to adjust to this new life yet. He's one of those characters that's so young and naive, thrown into this world where everything shows on his face, so it's hard to watch, at least until he develops the will to fight back. It's especially hard knowing more about the "Red Man" that attacked the school--and it's more interesting, because I've started wondering about that now, too.
I felt like some things were different from the manga--did Shiro call out, "Ganta!" before he got there in the manga? Was there a scene with "Ganta" being secretly taped during a conversation in Tamaki's office which was later leaked? Was it as obvious that Ganta was being set-up and railroaded by a conspiracy? I'm not sure, but... I'm not really against it, either. It probably would have driven me to distraction if I hadn't known and they hadn't made that clear--how do you assume that a 14 year old boy could do that much damage, when he's clearly pretty scrawny, has no history of violence, etc., just because he survived? But when you see that he's being deliberately set up, it makes a lot more sense.
They also changed the reason for Tokyo being the way it is now--in the manga, it was a huge earthquake that destroyed it, which gave way to Deadman Wonderland, while the anime has it as some weird gravitational anomoly. I think that's a really understanding change there.
I liked seeing Ganta's blood bullet in action here, it looked REALLY AWESOME. I also love Makina a whole lot--I felt like they toned down the T&A with her just a little? But sort of upped it with Shiro, so I'm not sure how I feel about the show overall.
The ending shots with the other prisoners where you couldn't see their faces! Excellent! Then the SOUL-CRUSHING pictures shown during the ending! Which was a bit of an odd choice, since I don't think it'll mean as much to those who don't know what's coming? But, I suppose, you'll be able to go back once the anime is done and realize just how heart-breaking those images are.
Supposedly this series is only getting 12 episodes? I realize the manga isn't that long yet, but... is that enough to tell the story even? Still, it was a good adaptation and I'm looking forward to more!
→ Ao no Exorcist ep01: I don't really have a whole lot of thoughts on this episode, but it was pretty solid? The animation was really pretty! Rin looked as pretty as he needed to be, though, I was disappointed that Yukio wasn't hot as he should be. :( I'm hoping that'll change in the upcoming episodes when he gets a change of clothes.
The episode definitely had a lot of padding in it, but whatever! Rin trying to keep ahold of his job was adorable! The interaction with the little girl! The hilarious animation of the demon running away with her scarf! They were all fun enough and didn't take too long that I was perfectly fine with the extra padding. As long as it's not stupid and it doesn't affect the pacing of an episode, I should be fine with whatever the series adds. (It does make me wonder a little at why they feel it's necessary--it's not like Ao no Exorcist is a long-running title where they're going to need to give the manga time to keep ahead, is it?)
I liked the music, but, man, the ED was boring otherwise. And I liked that they kept in how Rin may be hot-headed, but he's not stupid, either. I'm hopeful that this will be one of the best of the season.
→ Sket Dance ep01: It wasn't until after I watched this one/started writing out this post that I realized episodes 2 and 3 were already out, but, eh. I'll get to them later. So, I've only watched the first episode, but I wound up liking it more than I thought I would! The beginning of it was really slow for me, but the second half went better for me!
I enjoy that the girl of the group, Himeko, is the total brawler, while the two boys tend to stay in the background and do their dumbass fighting poses. And I do love a group of dorks, which this series definitely seems to have. ♥ The credits at the end definitely piqued my curiosity about this group of idiots, so I'll keep watching.
I'm a little on the fence about how I feel like this is basically "Gintama in high school", given that even the animation style seems to be really similar. I'm not sure if it's deliberate or just that it's the same animation studio or what, but I couldn't shake the feeling the whole time. And I'm not sure how well it worked to put the focus on the new kid in the first episode when he's not even a regular character? I'll give it a couple more episodes, but it wasn't one that struck me that hard this season, no.
→ I've had a bit more time to digest the Madoka Magica finale and had some time to go around reading other reactions, so I've had more thoughts. Still SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS for the ending, of course.
The big question still seems to be, why didn't Madoka make a wish that broke the entire system of magical girls, rather than just changing the rules a bit? Why not take out magical girls all together? I asked the same question a lot--but then two comments made me change my mind:
rubyd's comment here: Re: Madoka's wish, I think she didn't wish it all away because Kyubey implied in episode 11 that without the magical girls humans would still be in caves.
Star Crossed Anime Blog's review of ep 11: Just, what was the point of that one monologue of Kyuubei? The one where he started talking about the past of the mahou shoujo, where he started talking how many famous girls in history were actually mahou shoujo who were plunged into despair, and how without them we’d still live in caves? That just makes no sense and is completely out of context here.
If that scene was out of context (which I didn't quite feel it was, but looking back, I can agree with that point of view), there must have been a purpose for putting it in, right? It must have contained something that they wanted to tell us about the magical girl system and be somehow relevant to Madoka's wish. The implication was, without the magical girl system, human beings probably would still be in caves, so it needed to stay. Madoka couldn't wish it away because it would undo all the progress that humanity has made over time. Given that they showed people like Joan of Arc and Cleopatra as magical girls, I think (inside this series) Kyuubei could have been right about them advancing humanity along. (Which is pretty fantastic, the idea that without those magical girls, humans would probably still be living in caves.)
This fits with the feeling of... Madoka was rewriting the laws of an imperfect universe and therefore her wish would have to be imperfect, too. But imperfection is what makes humans evolve, it's what makes them strive for better heights and, looking at the ending through that lens, I think Madoka's wish made a lot more sense.
In some lights, it probably does feel pointless--girls are still dying for their wishes, all those unhappy endings like Sayaka's still happened, there are still demons that they have to fight. But, watching the ending scenes, while it's bittersweet, it's not the soul-crushing horror that it was in the first place.
Triste also has a good post here and I definitely agree with this: and while I can understand the 'well, why didn't anyone else think to just wish witches away?' thing, Madoka really is the only one who had the power and knowledge to do it. Most of the other girls never knew the kind of stuff she did (how the magical girl system works, what happens to them in the end, etc) and, to be fair, Kyubei usually tends to prey upon the most desperate and vulnerable ones who are far more likely to wish things like "I don't want to die" (as Mami did) instead of trying to work out how to beat the game.
Because of the circumstances that Homura wound around Madoka, she wound up being the only one with both the knowledge and the power to be able to create a wish like that. These five girls seemed to be an incredibly unusual circumstance--becoming friends instead of fighting against each other for the grief seeds. And, by the time you're a magical girl, it's already too late, you've already used your wish on whatever Kyuubei cornered you into. Even if you find out the truth about the witches (and, I think, if more than a handful had ever realized it, that kind of thing would have spread like wildfire througout the magical girls--unless Kyuubei tried to keep it quiet?), it's not like you have another wish or even the power to change it. A very specific set of circumstances had to lead up to this kind of wish.
The other big question I had was about Walpurgisnacht and why more on that wasn't explained, because I felt like there should have been more about this, given how she could fight outside a witch's barrier and how she played such an important role in the motivation of everyone. Without Walpurgisnacht looming, Homura would have been able to protect Madoka much more easily and wouldn't have had to keep repeating the time loop. But in that comment from earlier, I wondered well... maybe Walpurgisnacht has something to do with one of the other series in the continuity? I haven't read them yet, so I don't actually know, but if there's a whole other story that explains why that witch was so powerful and where she came from, I can definitely live without it being explained in the anime proper.