The anti-spirals launch their attack on earth, while Rossiu tries and imprisons Simon.  However, as the situation becomes ever more dire, Rossiu has no choice but to let Simon pilot Gurren Lagann once again in order to defeat the anti-spiral attack and save Earth.

Go Gundam Go! Oh wait...what?

I think the start of this series of episodes was going pretty good – it continued on the arc dealing with the political instability of the human’s new society, and I thought that was going in a good direction.  However, I think it started going a little downhill when Rossiu decided to try and sentence Simon to death.  I could get the arresting him part, but just realistically, I’m not sure how Rossiu would be able to survive by doing such a thing when pretty much literally everyone else in the government disagreed with him. I suppose the temporary calm he brought might have been enough to not go against him, but I just felt that there would be no way Simon’s friends would just stand by at let Rossiu execute him.

After that, it was basically fighting, fighting, and more fighting.  I think Gurren Lagann leveled up twice in one episode, first by joining with the arc, and then joining with the Moon, which naturally was a Gunman itself. And what happened to all the debris that fell off the fake moon when the gunman was activated? I’m sure that did a nice piece on the earth when it crashed into it.

Anyway, after they started fighting again, the series seems to have devolved into people screaming, Gurren Lagann leveling up, people screaming, leveling up, more screaming and so on.  Hopefully now that they’re going after Nia and the anti-spiral homeworld, things will start to improve again on the storytelling front.

Some of the kids at daycare are making fun of Rin because she doesn’t know who her mother is, and she calls her father “grandfather,” when another, kid, Kouki, comes to her rescue. Later, Daikichi find a clue in Rin’s health booklet that ultimate leads him to a paper written by Souichi about Rin’s mother.

Lopsided Ear Bunny

So Rin and Kouki, who are both kind of anti-social, get along pretty well, as seemingly do Daikichi and Kouki’s mother. They seem to hit it off, though one wonders whether that will work out.  It’s kinda interesting anyway.

Most of the rest of this episode was more DAWWWW along with learning a bit more about Masako.  Apparently, she thought herself a failure as a parent, and was perhaps too immature to be a parent.  This has apparently led Daikichi to try to contact her, which he just gets an answer on the phone when this episode ends.  It’ll be interesting to see whether Masako is interested, or still feels in adequate or what.

Also, it’s almost elementary school time, huh? That should open up a new chapter in the life of Rin, and I look forward to it.

The time Daikichi has left before needing to find a permanent day care for Rin is running short, so he decides to ask another worker in his office, Gotou, for her advice about that and other child-rearing things.  Daikichi also goes to Souichi’s house to see if he can find anything out about Rin’s mother.

Dawwwww Overload

So Daikichi finds out from Rin that Souchi had a maid – who just happened to have the same name as Rin’s mother as listed in her health booklet.  But Rin doesn’t like her because “she hated Rin and was always angry.”  He also discovers that Rin is confused about death and is worried about her or Daikichi dying, but he reassures her that everything is OK.  He also asks for a transfer at work so he doesn’t have to work overtime. He also finds a permanent day care for Rin.

The best description for this series so far is still “DAWWWWWW!”  I love it when Rin gives Daikichi the Stare of Doom whenever he does something she doesn’t like. Even though she’s only six, she sure is full of personality, which just makes this series all the better so far.

The bit about Rin’s mother apparently being Souchi’s maid – and the fact that Rin doesn’t like her – adds in a little bit of intrigue into the series.  It probably will make it easier for Daikichi to contact her, but will Masako be interested? Did she really hate Rin and was she always angry? And if so, why? Maybe she was mad because Soichi only ever treated her like a maid, I don’t know. I guess we’ll probably find out eventually.

The firework is finally completed and launched…but Menma is still there.  They try to figure out why, but Yukiatsu thinks he knows: none of them really genuinely wanted Menma to rest in peace for her own sake.  So they decide to apologize to her and say goodbye properly, but can they do so before Menma disappears?

Everyone finally found Menma

I kinda wish that either Menma’s brother or mother had been able to see her go, though I guess it’s just as well the five who knew she was there were the ones to see her. At least Menma’s mother finally seemed to get over her resentment for them.  While I like touching endings, it seemed like they said goodbye one too many times in this one.  I mean, it didn’t make the episode bad really, but I think it was getting to the point of “OK, is she ever going to actually, you know, disappear?” Not that I was cheering for it, but you knew it was going to happen, and the scene seemed to linger for just a bit too long.

Also, while we get a hint of future things, such as Naruko and Jinta getting along, it’d been nice to have it be more definitive.  I know, most series don’t bother to do that, but I always find it nice to be more assured of the happy ending you’re looking for than merely “they seemed to be on good terms” which they already were.

Overall, I’d say this was a pretty good and touching series, though interestingly enough, perhaps the least interesting character of the whole series is the one who is the center of it all: Menma.  Sure, she’s cute, and one really sympathizes with her when she tries to communicate with the others, but can’t, but in a sense, that is almost all she is. We really don’t learn much about her personality except that she’s childish and she likes Jinta, which is presumably why he is the one who can see her.  She does finally get some depth in the final episode, but by that point it’s pretty much too late.

Everyone else’s characters are far more developed.  That doesn’t make it a bad series, but I think it may have been better if we really got to see what about Menma made her the center of the group, besides just being Jinta’s and Yukiatsu’s crush (and by extension, Tsurumi’s and Naruko’s rival).  The reincarnation bit also seemed to be a little out of place.  It gave Menma the motivation to want to go, but seeing no definitive result from it also just kind of made it seem like something thrown in as an afterthought.

I also never really got into Poppo’s character. Again, we never really find out his real motivation until the final episode, and even then it just comes off flatter than everybody else’s.  Naturally, it can’t be easy to be the one to see your friend die, and I’m sure he’s haunted by that image, and in a way, perhaps he is the one who is the worst off because of it.  But his exuberance and his willingness to believe Jinta from day one just doesn’t seem to fit.  The other characters were more believable, either not beleiving Jinta from the start, or playing along until they finally decided he had gone too far, before Menma was actually able to show she was there.

Having said all of this, I think the journey one takes through this series still makes it a good watch, and one still feels for all the characters in the end, despite the flaws in the series.  Many times you can cut the tension between characters with a knife, because of the cloud Menma has left hanging over them, and it’s nice to see all of them finally accept their loss and move on with their lives in the end.

The group remembers that Menma wanted to make a firework to shoot a letter to God for Jinta’s mother, and they wonder if this is the wish she wanted, so they start planning.  However, it hits a hitch when the owner of the fireworks shop they were working with – who happens to be Menma’s father – stops their plan.

Reopening Old Wounds

It only took Menma 8 episodes to finally use her ability to interact with the physical world to prove she existed, though she only did it when pretty much everyone but Poppo was about to rebel on Jinta because they thought he was just pushing his pain of losing Menma onto everyone else.  However, she seems to have some limits in interacting, though, as she appears to only be able to write with the pen that came with her diary.

As I said last time, Jinta and Naruko aren’t going to be able to make any progress while Menma’s spirit is still around, though Naruko is making it even harder by reminding Jinta that if he does indeed grant Menma’s wish, she’ll likely disappear.  We also have a possible future problem between Naruko and Tsurumi as Tsurumi didn’t seem to happy with Naruko and Yukiatsu commiserating together.

At first I thought the fireworks thing might be another false track regarding Menma’s wish, but they’ve spent so long on it I”m wondering if they’re on the right track, especially since Yukiatsu finally convinced Menma’s father to let them building one.

With only two episodes left, we obviously don’t have time left, but we still have several issues to resolve, including those between Jinta and Naruko, the possible friction between Naruko and Tsurumi, the situation between Tsurumi and Yukiatsu, and with Jinta’s increasing fear that Menma will disappear.  I kinda hope that, at the end, Menma is able to show herself to everyone one last time, and that people are able to properly get over her themselves.

So we find out that the “other” Menma was actually Yukiatsu, who appears to have about the deepest issues as anyone regarding Menma. Then we go off onto a non-Menma path as Naruko is lured to a love hotel by a boy she was hanging out with, only to be rescued by Yukiatsu, but not before being seen by a member of the PTA.  This leads to the entire school thinking that she’s been going out hooking up with boys.

Still searching for Menma's wish

So the story moved on several fronts in this trio of episodes.  We get a better idea of exactly how Menma died (seemingly tripping going down a will, falling down the fill, and falling into rocks on the side of a stream).  We find that Yukiatsu is yet another member in the “it’s my fault Menma is dead” club, and one has to start wondering if there is anyone not in that club at this point, though it doesn’t seem like either Poppo or Tsurumi have any  visible regrets like that regarding Menma.

We also get the first real hint of what Menma’s wish was, when Tsurumi and Yukiatsu discuss the fateful day, remembering that Menma was the one who called them all out to their shack to ask for advice on something, though we still don’t know about what.

Meanwhile, the deal with Naruko and Jinta standing up for her begins the what was probably the inevitable arc of those two getting together, though they probably both have to get over Menma for that to really happen.  But it’s obvious Naruko has something for Jinta, and Jinta does at least seem to feel a strong friendship at the very least toward Naruko.

With the diary, Jinta is probably hesitant to read it without getting Menma’s consent, and I wonder if she’ll really want them to read it.  I have a feeling it’s not going to answer the primary question of what her wish was, in any case.  Before I said I was kinda surprised that everyone got together so fast, and I guess my feelings were right as Tsurumi and Yukiatsu still seem to be the only ones who still haven’t bought into what Jinta is saying about Menma yet.

For those of you who don’t follow me on twitter, and that means pretty much everyone, I recently went to Japan. Two of my days were spent in Akihabara. Below are some of my thoughts on what some have referred to as the Anime holy land.

1 – Gamers and Animate are nice stores and they are definitely worth visiting, but unless you can read Japanese there really isn’t all that much for a foreigner to get here. While these stores do have some character goods, there are other places that you can get them for much less. I’d recommend going to places not on Chuo-Dori, even though you will feel drawn to it like a moth to a flame. Stores like Kotobukiya and the Cospa Gee Store have a lot of good character goods for a lot of popular/current anime, including T-shirts, wall scrolls, mugs, CDs, etc.

2 – While it was difficult to not have an otakugasm while walking in the many stores I visited, the most interesting things to me was how all of these stores were able to constantly supply themselves and keep up to date.  Since I went on the weekend I suppose it was likely less of a spectacle than I made it out to be, as I am sure there are less hectic days. Still, it seemed like the workers were constantly restocking shelves of manga, or putting in new merchandise while customers crowded the stores. Even more amazing was the way the arcades operated. Though my next note dives into more detail regarding the arcades, the constant turnover of what prizes offered was fairly amazing. As an example, I went to one arcade late Saturday night and then again Sunday morning, and it seemed like 75 percent of the prizes were different. I suppose this makes sense, given that people likely don’t want to win, or even play for the same prizes on a constant basis, but it was still pretty interesting. You could probably apply some of these concepts to a lot of big cities around the world in some way or another, the rest of Tokyo included, it just wasn’t something I think about on a day to day basis.

3 – If you have ever been to a Casino then you would probably understand what it is like to play in an Akihabara arcade. I spent most of my time trying to win prizes on some of the lower floors of the numerous arcades, as I have nowhere the level of skill to compete with the people playing video games on higher floors. Most of the prize games, if not all of them require the use of the UFO drop, and further require multiple plays to win. After someone does win, an attendant comes by to reset the game by putting the prize in a predetermined spot, which makes it sufficiently difficult but also equally alluring. Iwon’t get into the specifics of all of the separate games, but suffice it to say there are some that you just won’t be able to do. If you ever play in these arcades, i’d focus on the games you know you can win at that have the most personally alluring prizes, rather than basing your game choice on what you want the most. Everything can be bought somewhere else, instead of won, and it will save you some money in the long run. As for myself, after a disastrous first attempt, I readjusted to the above strategy and was able to win 5 pretty cool items, though not the one thing I really wanted.

4 – There is a lot of porn. No one is really that shameless about it, which makes everything somewhat comfortable, but basic man law still applies. Weirdest thing to me was that I saw what looked like a Mom with what was maybe her 15 year old son in the same store, with the son in the doujinshi section, and the Mom elsewhere, until he needed her to foot the bill. Of course, that could also be a description for a different type of arrangement.

5 – Mandoka really says everything I need to say about cosplaying in the Akihabara, but, more generally, there weren’t as many cosplayers as I thought there would be, and I even went on Sunday. That’s not to say there weren’t any, but just not a lot, aside from all the maids. Two things that stood out to me was that it seemed like there was a unexpectedly high level of cross playing going on, but that might just have been due to the smallish sample size. Secondly, those who did cosplay, whatever it was, really seemed to embrace the concept of the Absolute Area, but really, it seems like a large percentage of Japanese women do.

6 – I spent way too much money for my own good. As a side effect of this turn of events, I have realized that my fascination with Tomoe Mami from MSMM has already passed the danger zone. Further, I am glad that I went during the last part of my trip, otherwise I would have spent even more.

7 – Put three English letters together, followed by a 48, and you will probably name a girl group in the area. Obviously, that’s an exaggeration, but there were at least three. Didn’t bother to see AKB48, and I don’t think I missed much either.

8 – While there are a bunch of reasons to call this the Anime holy land, the one thing I found most enjoyable, and was easy to kind of overlook after a while was that there was anime shows and music playing all the time in the stores. To actually go to a place where this isn’t that out of the ordinary is a little weird, but it was alos kind of relaxing in a way. I don’t really know how to describe it, but it was nice. Also, it was kind of weird, but it seemed like every arcade I went to was required by law to play music from Seitokai Yakuindomo. I enjoyed it, but it still seemed kind of random.

9 – Did not have the balls to go into a Maid Cafe, considering that I went by myself. Don’t know if I would have wanted to either, though I suppose I might have under the auspices of being ironic.

10 – If I have one complaint about Akihabara, and all of Japan really, is that it is impossible to find a trash can. I mean, you have all of these vending machines all over the place, but no trash cans. It gets annoying, as I spent a lot of time just looking for a trash can. It’s like all the trash cans are in secret locations that only Japanese could ever possibly know about. I understand that trash cans are a security threat, and considering Akihabara’s past it isn’t that big of a deal. A lot of other countries I have visited have this same “problem”, but what can you do. This is one reason I kind of miss America, the land of the easily found trash can.

11- Even though the new season is only three/four weeks old I found it amazing how much Yuru Yuri was getting plugged. I’ve only seen the first episode so far, as the only thing I’ve watched in Japan was Steins Gate (interesting side note on Steins Gate: I was in a cab in South Japan and there was a radio program talking about Steins Gate. The cabby was getting pretty emotional about what they were saying, to the point he was slamming his fist at one point. The guy looked like he was over 50. No clue what was said on the radio about Steins Gate, as I can’t really understand Japanese people talking when it isn’t programming for someone under 5), but back on point about Yuru Yuri, I thought the one episode I saw was pretty good. Still, it seems like it is all over. It kind of also seems like Idolmaster was the next most popular new series, merchandise wise, but it was hard to tell. Inexplicably, in my opinion, Infinite Stratos is all over the town. Its merchandise is everywhere. Once again, I assume this means it’s popular, but I suppose it could mean that the stores are overstocked with its merchandise. It’s hard to tell. Madoka and K-On are pretty popular as well.

12 – You can spend 9 hours walking around the area, which includes a whole bunch of stairs, and who knows how many miles that equates to, but you won’t feel tired in the least.

13. Homura seems infinitely more popular than Madoka. Example: You put a Madoka shirt in a UFO drop table. No one plays it for a long time. Put a Homura shirt in, its gone in 5 minutes.

14. Didn’t bother going to the Tokyo Anime Center. It looked kind of lame from the outside, and it seemed like a tourist trap, but then again I suppose the same could be said about the arcades.

15. Anaru jokes are universal.

This is my final “catch up” show: Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai (or Ano Hana for short). When I asked for suggestions for shows to watch from the spring, this was one of the ones suggested, plus it looked like about the most promising show when I looked at season previews anyway.  I have some good hopes for this show so I hope it doesn’t disappoint.

Yes! We're all totally not over our friend's accidental death!

So we have Menma, who died somehow accidentally several years previous to the series, who has apparently reappeared to Jintan, who was the person in their friend group closest to her, in order to have a wish of hers granted.  Naturally no one can remember what the wish is, and so starts the search for whatever she wanted.  Of course, Jinta doesn’t believe Menma is even there, but despite that, her memory somehow gets the rest of their group, who had all largely gone their own way over the years, to get back together.

I guess the hardest thing for me to swallow is how readily people seem to accept the Menma thing.  Maybe they don’t really believe she’s there, but find getting together for her sake is a way to commemorate their feelings for her, and for Jinta and Naruko especially, their guilt over feeling responsible for what happened to her.

I wonder if we’ll ever get a fuller idea of what, exactly, happened to Menma. All we know is that she chased after Jinta one day after he ran away after Naruko asked if he loved Menma, and then we saw her shoe in a creek, but that was it, Presumably she fell or drowned or something but we don’t really know.  As for Menma’s wish, all we really know is that she says it requires everyone getting back together, but that’s about it.  I don’t know if it means Jinta having to confess his feelings about her in front of everybody or what will fulfill Menma’s wish.

Also, we also seem to have “Menma’s ghost” going around which both Poppo and Yukiatsu have seen now, though why there is a ghost separate from the Menma Jinta sees, we don’t really know yet. In any case, Jinta’s Menma seems to be able to interact with objects which, you would think, they would have thought of having her do in order to prove to the others that she’s there by now.

This definitely has the potential to be a good series, though I’m not really sure in what direction it will go.  I thought a good portion of the series would be gathering everybody together, but now they’ve done that after just 3 episodes. I’m not really sure what they’ll spend the last 8 episodes on.

So Yuki dies and Minami yells at everyone that nothing matters anymore and that she really hates baseball. However, the team says they already knew because Yuki told them. Confused, Minami runs away, but Ayano chases after her. Meanwhile, the team falls to a 4-0 deficit after 7 innings by the time Ayano brings Manami to the stadium. Her cheering inspires the team and they close it to 4-3 after the 8th inning, and finish off with a 2 run double by Yunosuke in the bottom of the 9th to win 5-4 and advance the nationals.

We're going to nationals! We could have never have done it without the magic book!

So it finally took Yuki dying, Jil slapping her, and Ayano chasing her down and tackling her for Minami to realize that, you know, maybe there is more to baseball than just winning. I have to say that Minami’s character really went downhill for me over the last 4 episodes or so. She was being stupid going on about saying how it only matters if they win, and then she practically breaks apart the team. Yay her? I guess she did come back together at the end, but by then I had lost much of the respect I had for her character.

On the championship game, apparently whoever wrote it didn’t let the actual rules of baseball get in the way of the drama. Yunosuke was the last out in the 8th inning. However, after 2 outs and 2 baserunners – that is to say, after 4 batters – Yunosuke is back up to bat? Last time I checked, there are 9 batters in a baseball game, so if they wanted Yunosuke to win the game, they either needed for them to come back from farther down to go through all 9 batters or push it to extra innings.  Oops.

In the end, I don’t think this was a terrible show.  If you strip out a lot of the management book stuff, it’s actually a pretty good show I think.  But how they worked in the Management stuff just kept making it feel like some sort of infomercial, or like some guy trying to sell his business’ services during a wedding or funeral or some other time when it just didn’t feel appropriate. Such as like when Nikai goes and blathers about principles of management during an interview about their baseball team. I mean, really? And Minami is happy to have known Yuki…and for having read the book! Because they are so on the same level!

This just seemed like a good show that was brought down a considerable amount due to trying to fit in a certain book into the plot whenever they felt they could instead of just trying to make it flow.  I thought they had learned that lesson after it seemed like the book references went down between about episodes 4 and 8, but then it stated getting bad again, especially in the last episode. I kind of put up with it to start with since she was just learning about the book and trying to figure out how to implement it in practice. But I felt like eventually they just needed to put the book down and play baseball and tell a story and they just couldn’t do it, and it just resulted in this weird thing where they’re talking about this management book alongside Yuki dying and going to nationals and it just doesn’t play.

This is just on top of the fact that I find the idea of someone reading a book and then being able to reform a baseball team in one year as a result a rather silly scenario anyway. I realize anime isn’t exactly a medium where reality plays any role at all, but you still need a suspension of disbelief, and despite all the shows I’ve seen that have magical girls and giant robots, and what not, this is actually one where it was difficult for me to hold a suspension of disbelief. I guess part of it is that it was actually trying to be serious when I found the scenario to not really be that realistic. If one is able to see past all of this, then perhaps you’d enjoy the series, and I still did enjoy it myself to an extent. But it could have been better executed.

Hodokubo pulls out the quarterfinal match and go on to play the tournament favorites Shuuhoku in the semifinals. The game is scoreless through 8 when Jun breaks the tie and a no-hitter with a homerun in the top of the ninth.  Yunosuke, however, almost blows it by missing an easy ground ball that would have been the 2nd out and then messing up an easy double play that would have ended the game. He also nearly costs them a game by tripping while trying to catch the game ending pop out, but the middle fielder bailed him out. The coach and managers discuss not playing him in the final, but Manami thinks he should be given the chance. Meanwhile, Manami goes to the hospital to find Yuki’s family solemnly gathered in her room.

I'm gonna hit your balls with my bat

Episode 7 was the first time I really wanted to grab the management book out of Minami’s hands and thwack her across the head with it. Yuki is trying to tell her that no matter what happens, the experience she’s had over the past year will be great, but Minami, now engrossed in management basically has a “winning is the only thing” mentality. I guess that sort of changes by the end, when she suggests they give Yunosuke a chance to play even though taking him out would seem to be the obvious choice from the winning point of view.  However, you could tell Yuki was disappointed that Minami wasn’t appreciating the journey and was only focused on winning.

And I think this is where using business management and applying to sports breaks down.  Yes, you try to win and want to win in sports.  However, part of the point of playing sports is to have fun and enjoy the ride, win or lose. That doesn’t really apply in the business world, so if you apply the no-holds-barred attitude towards sports, I think you take a lot of the fun away.

I kind of had a facepalm moment when Minami started getting people to sing Asano’s favorite pop song when he was having a bad inning. I think that would have embarrassed most people instead of encouraged them, personally. It also seemed to be a pretty cheesy thing to do, especially for a show that has actually tended to stay way from cheese for the most part up until now I think.

As for the end of the episode, maybe Yuki gave up on life now that her best friend is a win-or-else management freak, I don’t know. But seriously, obviously something bad happened with Yuki. She’s a nice character, and I guess one would figure she would either get better or die.

At the end of every anime season, when the new stuff hasn’t started and the old stuff has ended, there’s a short window of time where a person is often willing to try an older, unwatched anime that he/she wouldn’t otherwise try. Maybe it’s boredom or just the relief from the pressure of keeping up with the latest anime that causes this phenomenon.

Whatever the reason, I found myself drawn to finally watching a series that I’ve had in my possession for over three years – all the while gathering dust and broken promises of intended attention – Fantastic Children. The result of this decision was a mixture of elation that I discovered one of the great SF (science fiction) anime series of the last decade, peaceful contentment from watching an excellent series end well, and anger for letting Fantastic Children sit for so long unwatched.

Before I get to why Fantastic Children should be watched, I want to verbally kick myself a bit.

Even though I should have known better, I let the old-time, simplistic animation style convince me that Fantastic Children was ‘obviously’ lacking in the quality department. I’d forgotten that Kaiba, Cross Game, and Kemono no Soja Erin (to name a few) collectively proved that it was impossible to draw conclusions about an anime from it’s animation style.

My other failing was that, in the couple earlier attempts that I made to watch Fantastic Children, I made a snap decision about the show’s plot potential and decided that it didn’t offer a compelling reason to continue watching. This was the wrong decision as I found out this time because the beginning episodes which I thought were boring were, in reality, the building blocks to a compelling, truly epic SF/love story. To compute how far I undershot my guess about the plot/story of Fantastic Children in terms for someone who hasn’t seen Fantastic Children would understand, it would be like dropping Gurren Lagann after a couple of episodes after deciding nothing interesting, thrilling or epic was going to happen.

Okay, that’s enough self-flagellation .

I can just hear dozens of eyes at this point thinking, “I’m interested,  so tell me, what is Fantastic Children about?”

And I’d reply, Fantastic Children is an epic SF/love story set in the year 2012 and follows a group of white-haired, blue-eyed “children” that have appeared at various times for over 500 years in Europe and now in southeast Asia as they search for someone very important to them. They are named “Befort’s Children” after a town in Belgium where they made their first appearance, their otherworldly maturity and odd appearance has led some to call them devils and vampires. Their paths will cross with Thoma, a young man attempting to spirit two escaped orphans away from an abusive orphanage, and with a secret governmental agency (run by Dumas, who also happens to be white-haired and blue-eyed) that seeks to harness a completely new form of energy.

Saying anything more and I’d spoil too much.

I can now hear the eyes now thinking, “Seriously, what is up with the animation style and just how old is this series?”

And I’d chuckle, saying one shouldn’t judge an anime by how it’s styled (hoping these readers will have forgotten what I wrote a couple of paragraphs above) but to answer the question – Fantastic Children came out in the late 2004 which makes it a contemporary of the first Full Metal Alchemist series. It’s an original creation of the director, Takashi Nakamura, and is animated by Nippon Animation, best known for their longtime work animating series under the World Masterpiece Theater banner (Heidi, A Dog of Flanders, Anne of Green Gables,  etc.) and for employing Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata before they founded Studio Ghibli. (Which probably helps explain the animation style.)

The animation quality itself is pretty good with lots of fluid animation from the beginning of the series to the end and, surprisingly, there is the use of CG. (Never been a huge fan of CG myself but it didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the series which says something.) Truthfully, though, once you get sucked into the story of Fantastic Children, you’ll forget any misgivings about the animation style and will probably even like how the animation doesn’t intrude upon the story.

“I’m almost convinced,” says the eyes out there in the ether, “give me a couple more good reasons why I should watch Fantastic Children.”

Gaguri at Ha Neul Seom called it  “a dazzling concoction of adventure, mystery, sci-fi, romance and drama.” The Nihon Review said, “If even one anime per year had a plot as good as this one [Fantastic Children] I would consider myself a blessed individual.” Psgels at Star Crossed Anime Blog says, “Fantastic Children always kept you guessing at what was going to happen next,” while naming it the Best Story of the 2000-2009 decade and ranking it at #13 on his personal top 20. And finally, the hauntingly beautiful ending song to Fantastic Children was sung by Origa, who you might know from her work with Ghost in the Shell: SAC.

In closing, don’t make the same mistake I made in nearly passing over this hidden gem; watch Fantastic Children, you’ll be happy that you did.

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Yet another mystery of the this series, What is the meaning of this painting?

The non-Japan, non-school setting was different and refreshing.

The use of lighting effects helped keep the show from feeling old.

A still shot doesn't really do the animation quality justice .

Nikai goes from a bench warmer to manager, which works out pretty well for everyone. The team also gets help from other teams, such as the track team to learn how to sprint.  The coach also implements a new strategy called no-bunts-no-balls, meaning that the team won’t bunt and they will try to pitch strikes every pitch.  Also, new recruits come in and Minami has to narrow down the list to a dozen players whom she thinks fit best on the team

I'll so totally get you that awesome management book for Christmas!

I think this was a better set of episodes than the first three, since I think the characters were a bit more free thinking, and while they still whipped out the management book, it doesn’t seem like it was quite as pervasive this time. I think the thing about Niaki becoming manager was a good twist, and it seems like he’s really better suited for that position anyway, especially given what he said his ultimate goals in life were earlier in the series.

As for the help from other school clubs. I can definitely see how the track team can help, and I can at least conceive of how the judo team can help the pitchers, but the home ec club? Really? What does filling out evaluations about cupcakes accomplish? I’m still scratching my head over that one, and they never really explained it.

The no-bunts-no-balls strategy is interesting, though I think it’s somewhat flawed. I’m more OK with the “no bunts” strategy. Bunting is pointless with 2 outs, and it has limited overall success even with 1 out, so I’m not sure you’re losing much by just going ahead and batting. They were able to score against the college team because not bunting went against the expected game play. However, that advantage will be lost soon enough as other teams scout them and see that they never bunt. As long as they’re actually able to get hits, they’ll be better off overall, but that’s a big if.

I have a bigger problem with the “no strikes” part.  The coach admits that it means getting a lot more hits. However, throwing balls isn’t always about getting strikeouts, though it somewhat is. It’s also about getting batters to contact balls that are easy to field. Throwing absolutely no balls seems like a strategy that allows the other team to get better contact on the ball needlessly, again, especially after they scout you and see that you never throw balls. Just like any sport, you are aided by unpredictability at times. Always throwing strikes removes a very significant portion of that unpredictability. Learning how to throw breaking balls will help, and I’m sure the anime will portray the strategy as a unmitigated success at the end, but I’d love to see someone try to implement that strategy in real life.

I always liked posting my favorite anime credits, so I’ll post one of my favorites here. I don’t know how much I’ll be able to do this in the future, though, as YouTube seems to be doing a good job scrubbing many of the newer ones.

Subaru is following Kinjiro around to make sure he doesn’t slip her secret, but it starts to become counter productive when rumors start swirling that they’ve become a gay couple. To make matters more interesting, Kanade is using Subaru to help cure Kinjiro’s girl-phobia, but not without interference from Kinjiro’s violent sister. Oh, and it’s also time for physical exams, which could be problematic for Subaru. And for Kinjiro since the nurses are, well, female.

Kanade seems to be nice..but still sadistic

We finally get to see Subaru’s girlish side in this episode, and it is pretty cute, though I think she’s as frustrated over Kanade’s sadistic side as Kinjiro is, though being her butler she doesn’t have much of a choice but to submit.

Meanwhile, Kinjiro’s way of saving Subaru at the physical (and vice versa) just intensified the rumors of them being a gay-item, which has unleashed the minions of the Yuki Fan Club S4, a Subaru fan club.  Though, if Subaru is supposedly shy in groups, why was Kinjiro still measuring “him” in front of people and not behind some sort of curtain or in the bathroom or something?

The thing about Subaru finally being able to find a friend in Kinjiro because he knows her secret is a nice touch to the series, though. And I guess I shouldn’t be shocked that Kinjiro’s sister has fallen for Subaru for being so strong, so now Kinjiro has that to worry about too.  Kanade also seemed to show some regret that her being Subaru’s master has caused a rift to form between them, so I wonder if part of the series will be Kinjiro trying to close that rift as well.

I figure eventually Subaru’s secret will come out and Kinjiro will make an impassioned plea for her to keep her job as a butler despite the revelation, but that’ll probably be at the end of the series.

Four years have passed since the last episode. Due to his aiding Nezumi, he was kicked out of Chronis, the area of No. 6 where the highly qualified individuals live in luxury, and moved to the “Lost Town” part of the city. As a result, he was disqualified from joining the gifted program, lost touch with his friend Safu, and works as a park supervisor.

Give me your sperm, damnit!

So obviously No. 6 isn’t exactly the pleasure city one would like. We got a hint of this in the first episode, but we basically confirmed in this episode that No. 6 is little more than a surveillance state where dissent is treated as a crime (at least for those who work for the city, and perhaps others too).

And obviously this…illness or whatever with the bee is either something that No. 6 is aware of at the very least, if not directing, though it’s hard to guess to what end yet. It’s not clear whether people get infected by chance or whether it is directed.  Shion was arrested for suspicion of murdering his workmate even though the state had to have known otherwise. Is it possible that his workmate’s death and his arrest was essentially a way for the state to get them out of the way after having witnessed something they shouldn’t have when they found the original body in the park?

In any case, I felt that this episode was a lot better put together, both in it’s writing and direction than the first episode and it gave me a lot more optimism for this series overall.  I’m interested to see exactly what Nezumi has been up to these past 4 years.

Also, maybe Shion should have banged Safu when he had the chance, heh.