The Internet is Vast and Infinite. Also full of streaming idol contests, apparently.

I was pondering whether or not, given some of the charts shown later in the episode, there were any internet hacking shenanigans going on in this episode, but whilst Nico has previously proven herself quite adept around a keyboard (at least whilst trolling idol groups on internet forums), I’m pretty sure that Arisa and Yukiho aren’t exactly the sorts to have a Love Live voting bot-net at their beck-and-call. Infact, given that half of our heroines active fanbase seemed to be at their concert, and didn’t seem to have their ‘phones out, I wonder who was actually voting for them.

But I’m digressing in an attempt to justify the silly post title.
(more…)

Leaping to the top of the queue by virtue of drawing first blood this season, from the first episode of Kanojo ga Flag wo Oraretara – or If Her Flag Breaks if you like English (Or Gaworare if you are worried about letter counts). It’s that thing in the top-right corner, being used as a table in the ramshackle Quest Dorm in which the male protagonist resides.

I have to admit, I’ve been spending an awful lot of time this season staring at the frontpage of Crunchyroll, finding myself not really finding all that much that I particularly feel like watching most nights of the week. I only really stuck this show on as background noise whilst I was fiddling around with something else, but it’s cute enough, I guess. I suppose I should watch No Game No Life by means of comparison, but Gaworare feels very much like a confluence of ongoing trends in the industry – it’s all very light-novel, whilst also continuing that gamification of relationships as portrayed in the likes of The World God Only Knows. Only, you know, being way more literal about this whole flag concept. Maybe I’ll watch more, maybe I won’t.

But, hey, it’s a double Bank Holiday Weekend here in the UK, so I’ve got a nice four-day break during which I can pretend that I’m actually going to catch up on checking out new shows.

Lewder cuts of animation are available, but this is a family blog, you understand, and I therefore have standards to maintain.

(Also, not really much lewder, unless you find Honoka’s bare back particularly lewd. I probably wouldn’t judge you if you did)

Anyway, let’s keep this comparatively short this week, because aside from the fact that I don’t really fancy attempting to proof another four thousand words about a mere twenty minute cartoon, I don’t actually have much to say about this episode.
(more…)

From the second to last episode, hopefully not providing any spoilers.

I had fun with Zvezda, but it’s a bit of a kooky show with an approach that is probably as off putting as it is appealing. Essentially, the show simply doesn’t give a damn about providing the audience with any kind of actual context in regards to the world in which it’s set. It’s a experience not entirely unlike watching a spin-off series without having seen the original work, or perhaps watching a slightly more coherent Tomino production.

This is to say, the show has a certain internal consistency to it, and there’s never really any indication that the characters are ever experiencing anything that doesn’t make sense to them outside of some sporadic bouts of confusion from our protagonist early on. It’s a weirdly naturalistic approach to writing for a show as conceptually out-there are Zvezda, in so much as the characters don’t really feel the need to stand around and explain things that they should already know to each other simply for the benefit of the audience.

The show does, eventually, find itself with the need to throw the viewer a narrative life-ring, lest they drown in the shows closing arc, but it’s little more than is necessary. The show still expects you to make your own assumptions and draw your own connections between things, though – it’s a curiously intelligent for a show is actually kind of dumb, even if it does end up making it easy to reach too far and make conclusions about what the show is actually about that are shortly proven completely wrong.

Also Renge-chan da best.
(more…)

Finally, at long last, Love Live is back, singlehandedly saving the anime season from being naught but three solid months of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure memes. What a terrific first episode it was, too.

It’s kind of funny going back and reading how strangely lukewarm I was on the first series of Love Live back when it first started – certainly, what I was writing doesn’t exactly match up with my memories of back then, and most assuredly don’t with the way I felt once the series concluded. It doesn’t really ring true with my reaction to re-watching the initial episodes either, though my re-watch has only progressed as far as the sixth episode at this point.

Still, I’ve been looking forward to this show, which rather awkwardly does nothing to denote it’s sequel status in it’s moniker, returning to our screens – pretty much increasingly so as the months have gone on. Maybe it’s just all the Love Live music I’ve been listening to in the interim bolstering my excitement (though still only the stuff actually used in the anime, for the most part – I’ve not listened to any of the subgroup or character singles or anything).
(more…)