So the bunch of 7 gets broken up into different classes starting the new school year. Maho doesn’t think Anna will like Shuichi dressing like a girl, but she doesn’t care and they actually go out on a date with him dressed as one. Meanwhile, a boy that used to make fun of Shuichi in elementary school, Doi, is in his class. despite warnings from Makoto and Yoshino, Shuichi tries to become friends with him, with Doi asking to see him dressed up as a girl, and eventually convincing him to come to school in a girl’s uniform.

The end of this episode really comes to the head of gender equality, especially when it comes to transsexuals.  Shuichi’s coming to school wearing a girl’s uniform was effectively him coming out that he was trans, since everyone would know about it at that point, and I think he pretty much was aware of it, saying that his parents would be surprised by it.  However, we’ve already seen him being treated differently than either Chizuru or Yoshino was by being taken to the nurses office and being sent home right away, which is where the issue of gender equality comes in.  We’re obviously going to get the full brunt of the reaction of what Shuichi did in the next episode.  While I think most of his friends will be OK with it, what about his school and what about his parents?

Also, there is the question of Doi. Has he really turned a new leaf or was he, as both Yoshino and Makoto warned, just leading him on and trying to embarrass Shuichi in front of everyone? I have a feeling we’ll find out in the next episode as well.

I’m still kind of surprised that the Shuichi/Anna relationship is still going on, though we hardly saw any of it in episode 9.  I suppose this could impact that as well.  Anna may not be bothered with dating someone who dresses up in private or when no one can tell, but may have a problem dating someone known to everyone as a cross-dresser.  But we’ll see  I guess.

So they have the play, which is a blast, and gives Makoto confidence.  Meanwhile, Shuichi is growing through more growing pains as he starts getting pimples, and asks Anna for advice for controlling them (as his sister won’t help him with it).  The pair start hanging out more until eventually Shuichi gets a crush on  Anna and asks her out.  This causes Yoshino to start backing away from Shuichi and causes Saori to withdraw from her friends completely.

It looks like several things may happen due to this thing with Anna.  First, it looks like since the main reason why Saori has been stubbornly hating on Yoshino is no longer valid, the two seem like they may start making up now.  Also, I think Yoshino may be becoming aware herself just what her feelings for Shuichi are. Kind of ironically, I think she could ignore them as long as she was the focus of his attention, but now that he’s dating someone else, her real feelings will start to come out.

As for the relationship with Anna, I have a feeling it’s going to only be temporary.  I kind of feel that Anna’s feeling for Shuichi may extend merely skin deep because he’s cute, and Shuichi may only have a crush on her due to how much time they’ve spent together, but that’s it.  But I guess we’ll find out anyway.  I think she’s seen him crossdress before, so that shouldn’t be a problem I wouldn’t think.  It’s just a matter of how much they actually like each other and how far away Shuichi is willing Yoshino and Saori to get for Anna’s sake.  I”m betting not very far.

Shuichi and Saori are continuing to combine their two scripts together for the class play, but aren’t getting very far, so the teacher asks for volunteers to help them, resulting on the whole group of 7 (Shuichi, Saori, Yoshino, Sasa, Makoto, Chizuru, and Momoko) working on the play. Unfortunately, Saori’s “friend” Ninomiya swings by and ends up spilling the beans on Shuichi to everyone. They finally finish writing it (with it being little more than Romeo and Juliet) and end up drawing for roles, with Romeo going to Saori and Juliet going to…Makoto.

Shuichi and Yoshino have continued anxieties about growing up.  Yoshino is still trying to find away to make herself look flat, and got depressed when Momoko told her she had a womanly figure. Meanwhile, Shuichi is worried about when his voice deepens and he starts growing facial hair.  To pour water on him even more, Saori asks what he plans to do, such as have an operation when he’s old enough, but he just says he hasn’t thought that far ahead.

One kind of has to feel sorry for Saori in a way.  You know she’s going to be the one left out in the love triangle, and I”m pretty sure she knows it too, which is one reason why she is always in such a bad mood, especially when around Shuichi or Yoshino. The scene where Yoshino gets angry so Shuichi doesn’t have to I think just shows that, while even though Yoshino denies it, she and Suhichi will eventually get together. Though she may have another rival soon in Anna, who seems to have a thing for Shuishi.

H0wever, while Shuichi says that Yoshino is the one who knows him best, I think that’s true in some respects, but in others, I think Saori has him nailed down too, such as nailing the fact that Shuichi wants to be loved as a girl by a boy Yoshino.  Saori may very well know him best, but I just don’t think she’s the one for Shuichi.

Now that I’ve fully caught up on the shows I had been watching and blogging when I left off in February (even if they haven’t all been posted, the reviews have all been written and are in the queue), I thought I would go back and hit up some series from the winter and spring that looked interesting that I missed, as well as talk about what shows I was looking forward to in the summer 2011 season.

As far as going back, even though i already had three series from the winter season that I was working through, how can I not go back and give my thoughts on Madoka Magica, given all the hype I’ve seen about it online?  It’s #13 on MAL and all so I think I’ll go back and see what all the hype was about.  I’ve kind of learned from experience that if I put off watching a series people are hyping until later, it may be quite a while until I actually do get around to watching it, so I thought I’d go back and do it while I had the chance.

I wanted at least two shows from the Spring 2011 season as well. I didn’t want something that would spill into the summer season, so I needed something that was 13 episodes or less, as a result, there were a couple 26 episode series that looked interesting that I skipped over.  Instead, I’m going for Moshidora and Ano Hana.  Ano Hana came based on a couple of recommendations, plus it looks like the most interesting  shorter show from the spring anyway. I’m picking Moshidora, partly because there aren’t many other interesting choices, and partly because it seems unusual: a management centric show, applied to baseball, targeted toward a middle aged audience.  It’s something different so I’ll give it a try.  I’ll run through these series in groups of 2 or 3 episodes just because they’ve all already finished airing at this point.

Now, as for the Summer 2011 season, I was debating between doing 2 and 3 shows, but since the two shows at the top of my list looked more serious, or at least not goofy, I decided I wanted to add a third goofy show to the list.  As a result, my list of shows for the summer are: No. 6, Usagi Drop, and Morita-san wa Mukuchi.  Usagi Drop looks, based on previews, to be the class of the summer shows, so I have high expectations for it. No. 6 ventures into a type of show that I typically don’t watch very often, but the premise seemed interesting enough to give it a try.  I’m hesitant about Morita-San, partly because almost everyone working on the show is green, and the trailer was kinda iffy regarding production values.  It’s also a 4-koma, which can make it very hit-or-miss.  However, it seemed like the best choice out of the possibly goofy shows, so I’ll give it a try, and maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Noir, Lag, Conner, and Zazi launch their assault against the Gaichu Cabernet in an attempt to prevent it from reaching Yuusari Central, but find that it has no holes in it’s armor. It assaults the Bee Hive, only to find it empty, with Dr. Thunderland having nursed the sacrifices back to health and evacuating them. Largo and the Maka then arrive and the Maka, Niche, and her sister damage Cabernet enough to allow Noir and Lag to stop it. However, Lawrence sacrifices himself to revive it, and Lag has to use all his heart to shine as bright as the artificial sun to attract the Cabernet’s attention and completely destroy it.

So that ends Letter Bee.  A few things are left unresolved, such as whether the artificial light is bad after all (and if it is, what to do with it), as well as what exactly is Lag.  Niche’s sister said previously, and noted again that Lag merely had a human form, indicating that deep down he isn’t human.  The question, though, is what is he?  Just pure heart, or what?  At least he knows his mother is in the central city, contrary to what Lawrence had told him.  We still don’t really know why she was brought to the central city, though.  I think it’s suggested, though not stated explicitly, that she may actually be the empress (or whoever it is who leads Amberground).

Overall, I think this series was pretty good.  I think it could have had a little bit more direction, but the story was good and it didn’t overdo the action, and the action that it did have was done well.  It perhaps dragged on for longer than it should have at times, but I don’t think it was too bad.  It was fun watching Lag develop, and one kind of gets attached to all the Bees, whether it’s Lag, Zazi, Conner, and yes, even Jiggy Pepper.  It was also good to see Lag turn Noir around from his cold original self into someone more like Gauche. In any case, I seem to have a more positive feeling about Reverse than the first season.  At least there wasn’t as much crying it seemed.

This series had to recover from a mediocre first season and a slow start to the 2nd season, but I think it did so pretty well, especially once we started getting down to it.  The last half of Reverse especially seemed pretty focused and well thought out, giving one enough hints to answer some questions while still leaving others unanswered or even creating new ones.  While the remaining questions do drive me crazy, I guess I can live with them.

So we get down to it. We finally discover what Lawrence’s plan is, and who appears to be behind it.  Lawrence plans to use all of those Unable to Become Spirit to serve as sacrifices for Carbernet so that it may become strong enough to destroy the artificial sun.  Noir is against this, and thus Lawrence tries to kill him.  Meanwhile, Connor, Zazie, and Lag try to intercept Carbernet but are fooled by a decoy Gaichu instead, and are only saved by Noir.  Meanwhile, Aria, who is left in charge after Largo goes off for a trip, discovers the sacrifices hiding in Dr. Thunderland’s lab.

Well I was definitely wrong about the bees seeing how the government was wrong and joining Reverse, not with Lawrence’s plan. In fact, his plan is so sinister that Noir has revolted against it himself, seeing that having more sacrifices is not the way to defeat the government.

Meanwhile, there are two big outstanding questions left: is Largo in on the Reverse plan, since he seems like the logical culprit as the one who stole the Bifrost key, allowing the two twins there to escape, or is he some sort of double-agent who Lawrence thinks is working for Reverse, but actually is working underground to undermine his plan? Meanwhile, did Reverse bring the sacrifices to the bee hive? If so, that would suggest that Dr. Thunderland is involved with Reverse, or were they brought there after either escaping or being rescued?

I tend to believe in the theory that they were rescued and brought to the bee hive, probably by Noir, and that Largo is some sort of double agent whom Lawrence only thinks is working for Reverse but is actually trying to undermine him.  It seems clear that the top priority is going to be stopping the sacrifices, but that doesn’t address the issue of what should happen to the artificial sun.

Oh man, I wonder how many guts I busted from all the laughter after watching ELEVEN consecutive episodes of Jewelpet Sunshine! Never would I thought this type of anime would be this hilariously entertaining. I thought it would be kiddy show about friendship and such, but it turned out being a comedy with slap stick [...]

Gauche’s return appears to have been an act by Noir, and he returns to Reverse after persuading the double-agents Valentine and Garrard that he’s Noir by attacking Lag (whom the agents kidnapped thinking it was Sylvette).  After Noir mistakenly believes Lag is dead, Jiggy Pepper shows up and returns Lag to the Hive.  Meanwhile, Zazie catches up to Cabernet but is stopped by another Maurauder while Noir and the agents head to a an abandoned research facility and find two survivors.

So we learn that the AmberGround artificial sun is allegedly powered by people’s hearts, including Lag’s mother’s and Gauche’s. We still don’t know what caused the Day of Flicker, though it is alleged by Reverse that the government started their experiments trying to create artificial spirit afterward. However, all of their experiments fail, and all the subjects they experimented on – people without a spirit – are disposed of, bar a few who happen to escape, most of whom joined Reverse.

Of course, this brings up the problem that if Bees fight the Gaichu because they eat people’s spirits, how can they stand by and let the government do the same thing to power the artificial sun? Of course, this fact is hidden from them, and I think both Lag and Zazie would doubt the claim that this is the truth, but I have a feeling eventually they’re going to be convinced this is the truth and end up joining Reverse to stop the government’s activities.

So we finally learn the whole truth behind Fractale: the original makers of Fractale split the original Phryne (who was really just an ordinary girl) into a body and spirit, to make a key and keyhole. However, after 700 years when Fractale was supposed to reboot, the attempt failed.  They then tried making bodies of 10 year old girls and trying to put the soul in them, but that failed.  Finally, Barrot discovered that the girl wasn’t 10, she was 16, and the 10 year old’s personality was actually her personality for her stuffed animal – named Nessa.

However, for the process to be complete, the personality of the “Key” – Phryne – had to be compatible as well.  However, this had to be achieved by inflicting the same harm to this Phryne as the original one: being sexually abused by her father which, in this case, was done by Barrot being this Phryne’s adoptive father.  This finally allowed Phryne to be compatible as the key.

Phryne and Nessa decide to join because they were originally one, and it’s really the only way to save Nessa, meaning that the Fractale system will exist for another 1000 years or so, but with the temple destroyed, it can’t be rebooted again, meaning that they’ve defeated Fractale in the long run, even if it still exists for the meantime.  The merger just merges the two’s personality together into the original Phryne’s personality.

In the end, I thought this was a decent to good series. It probably wasn’t as deep as it could have been, and it seemed like there was a lot of time chasing after either Phryne or Nessa that could have been used elsewhere, such as exploring a bit deeper into the Fractale system. We never really did learn why the original Phryne was used and the purpose of the clones were kind of explained, but it was still a bit confusing to me.

I think part of the purpose of all of that was to stress the relationship between Phryne, Nessa, and Clain instead of getting too bogged down in the background and explanation of the Fractale system, which is all well and good, though I think the series could have used a bit more of an explanation.  We get the feeling of what Fractale is and why people like it, but we really only scratch the surface, learning about it’s pros and cons but not really much else.

Despite some other things I’ve read online about this series, I didn’t find a problem with this series holding my interest.  In fact, I think it’s held my interest better than several other recent series I’ve been watching and catching up on.  I just think some things could have been executed better.  But I still don’t think it was a bad show.

So we learn a bit more about Phryne and Nessa’s role in the Fractale system.  Apparently Phryne is just one of many clones (including the priestess we saw in episode 3, as well as possibly the Head Priestess).  Why this Phryne is particularly special, I’m not sure, but it seems they kept creating clones either to keep the Fractale system running or to finally produce one that was suitable to be the “key” that would allow the system to reboot.

Phryne reveals that Nessa is the “soul” and she is the “body” which must merge in order to reboot Fractale, and she believes that they’ll both die – or at least not be the same person – after they merge.  That’s why she ran away with her, and probably why she didn’t like Nessa when she first met her.

Unfortunately, Phryne is still very headstrong, and decides to go back to persuade her “father” and the Head Priestess to, well, I’m not sure what. To end Fractale I guess, though I’m not sure how far she’ll get with that.

Speaking of her “father” (I’m not sure if he’s her biological father, or just called that because he’s in charge of the clone project), he seemed to be pretty creepy about Phryne, going so far as demanding to check that she was still a virgin, since I’m assuming she has to be to be a valid key.  Phryne clearly doesn’t like him in any case.

In any case, two episodes left, with Lost Millennium attacking the main Fractale Temple, though the Fractale forces clearly seem to have superior technology, so I’m sure the fight will be hard.

So far this has been an OK series.  Maybe not as good as I had hoped, but not that bad either. It at least has rewatch value, I think.

I guess we’re getting what’s going on bit by bit.  Clearly Fractale is a system that was put in place at least 400 years before the time of the story (since the first episode said something about it being 22nd century technology and Clain tried to use a 26th century algorithm to fix the ship in episode 5) which is used to keep the citizenry docile, though to what end I’m not sure of yet.

We know that Fractale has certain benefits: it keeps you healthy, gives you a guaranteed income, and gives one mobility, but at the cost of basically being brainwashed and discouraging truly intra-personal relationships (as in person-to-person and not through dopples).  Lost Millennium appears to be a loosely associated set of groups who all share the general goal of ending the Fractale system.  Groups such as Granitz appear to be generally non-hostile, except towards the people who administer the Fractale system, while other groups, such as Alabaster, trick people into disconnecting from Fractale, and then using their helplessness as a means to recruit new members.

Phryne seems to be the real mystery.  She’s run away from the Fractale priestesses, though we don’t know exactly to what end, though it seems that she believes that if she and Nessa ran away, it would somehow bring an end to the Fractale system.  However, she seems to be somewhat opposite of Nessa. While Nessa has said she “loves love,” Phryne said she “hates love,” though I think she’s lying to herself more than anything when she says that, since she doesn’t seem to mind Clain, and later, Nessa’s companionship.

There is still the mystery of why Fractale is failing and what the priestesses plan to do to fix it, and how that involves Phryne.  Also, there is still the question of what Nessa is, exactly, since Sunda seemed surprised that she was still around, even when they were in a zone where Fractale’s signals didn’t reach.

So episode 23 was kind of a “calm before the storm” episode before the final episode.  Going after a group like Skillout seems like a lame way to end the series, so it seemed odd that’s what episode 24 was about, so I figured there was more to it than that, but it looks like it was just a set up for an obvious 3rd season at some point.

I thought only having one episode for some sort of war was a stretch, and it was, as it looks like “the war” will be the next season, whenever it airs.  Accelerator appears to have joined a group called, well, GROUP, along with Tsuchimikado and Awaki to protect Academy City from the inside, though their targets don’t exactly to all be that great (such as wanting to kill Mikoto’s mother for leading a group who wanted to pull their children out of Academy City).  As to why they are against students leaving, perhaps it has something to do with Kazakiri since, I would presume, the fewer espers that are present, the weaker she becomes.

I presume Index will hold a vital role by the end of this franchise, but I’m not sure when I saw a series where the title character was so out of the way.  Sure, she does things now and then, but she isn’t even present half the time, and most of the time when she is, she’s just annoying such as being hungry or being jealous over Touma.  I mean, if you like a lot of action, this series has been OK, but I still can’t get too excited over it.  I may watch the 3rd season whenever it comes out just to see it to the end, but I’m still kind of meh about it.

A lot of things going in these three episodes.  There look to be three different sides trying to do things, and I’m still not entirely clear on what each of their goals are.  First, there is Kihara and Hound Dog who captured Last Order, there is Vento, who is making everyone in the city (and suggestions are around the world) unconscious while another glowing dude is preparing to impale everyone in the city, and then there is Aleister (Mr. Upside Down guy), who is using Last Order to organize the city’s AIM field to force Kazakiri to run a spell called Testament which harms anyone who uses magic within the city.

It seems apparent that Aleister’s goal is to just defend the city, even if he is using Kazakiri to do it.  However, one question I had was whether Hound Dog is working for him, since they were the ones who captured Last Order, and when they did, that’s when Testament started.  That would definitely suggest that the two are working together.  As for what the Church’s goal is, I guess it’s the usual goal of destroying Academy City.  Vento says she was sent to deal with Touma, which definitely means they see him as a threat to their plans (and they have good reason to).  I guess the question is whether there is still more to be revealed as part of the Church’s plan.

Now that Accelerator is connected to the MISAKA network, I guess it’s not surprising that he somehow awoke once Index started to “free” Last Order from whatever was happening to her, though I”m not sure what that exactly entails yet.  Obviously he can operate without his connection now, and it was suggested that he was able to defeat Kihara’s countermeasures against him.

It seemed like the MISAKAs were preparing to do something as well, though I don’t know if they couldn’t because of what was happening to Last Order or if they just haven’t gotten around to it yet.  Mikoto, meanwhile, has been relegated to talking on the phone to Index.  Meanwhile, we still have Tsuchimikado out there fighting the glowy being who is using Ancient Greek magic.

This has been an action packed, if not confusing, trio of episodes.  It looks like Last Order is on the verge of being saved, Accelerator won his battle against Kihara and Vento is defeated, which leaves glowy dude, this new Acqua of the Rear guy who showed up at the very end, and possibly Aleister (and anyone else yet to be revealed) to deal with.

Aww man, I’m completely disappointed in Tiger right now. He was the character I liked the most, yeah he is probably the most useless and joke character in the anime, but he stuck to his ideals of what a hero should be and managed to change the other heroes if only a bit. But this [...]

I thought I might get back to watching some of the series I had abandoned earlier in the year, so I’m starting with A Certain Magical Index II.  We get back to having lots of Mikoto action with her being all nervous around Touma, unfortunately for him, Kuroko is ever on the lookout for rivals. That along with Mikoto’s tsundere-ness results in much trouble for him.

These episodes had a lot of fun interaction between characters, some of which we haven’t really seen before.  We had Last Order and Accelerator go to stay with Aiho, then Last Order ran off and hung out with Touma (after one of the MISAKAs had) and then while Accelerator was out looking for her, he ran into the ever-hungry Index.

We get back to a big arc again in episode 19 as someone who claims to have given Accelerator his power attacks him and is immune to his attacks, while also trying to get Last Order for some reason.  Meanwhile, Mr. Floaty upside down guy wants Last Order too in order to fight someone from the Catholic Church (of course) named Vento of the Front.  I’m guessing this is the next to last arc, or perhaps the final arc lasting a full 6 episodes (which would be rather long, though I guess appropriate for the final one, especially since the guy behind Academy City appears to be finally getting involved).