10 years ago today, on October 24, 2000 (correction: actually October 25, 2000), the 4th episode of Gainax’s OVA series FLCL was released to DVD. This is part of a series of posts I’m making on this show. In my first post, I covered how I came upon this series and my reaction to the first 2 episodes. My second post was made a day late and covered episode 3, Marquis de Carabas. This one covers what my initial reaction was to the 4th episode, Full Swing. (note: for the purposes of this post, I did not rewatch the episode. The last time I watched it was some time in the summer of 2009)

What is there to say about Full Swing? Quite a lot, probably. I could talk your ears off about this episode. It is unequivocally my favorite episode of any anime, all time (so far). Others have come close, such as The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, the final episodes of Gunbuster, Diebuster and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and Bakemonogatari episode 12, but Full Swing still holds the number one place in my heart.

The question, of course, is why? As with all of these types of questions, there are many answers. I’m sure part of it is that I was a huge fan of baseball at the time, and the entire episode was about baseball. Or rather, it used baseball as a metaphor for all the events taking place in the plot. In typical FLCL fashion, it was not at all subtle about this, with the ongoing theme of “swinging the bat” which was blindingly obvious and resonated with me. Indeed, I still consider the adoption of Haruko’s attitude regarding “swinging the bat” – that is, trying even if it means showing everyone that you fail – to be a key component for becoming a mature adult. As an episode of a coming of age story, Full Swing hit it out of the park (sorry, this is the one and only baseball related pun in this post).

Then there was the scene in which Naota confronts his father and hits the TV. It was masterfully directed, surreal, hectic, and, yes, haunting. The build up to that was fittingly erotic and inappropriate with Naota watching his father and Haruko at night, the release of destroying his father was fittingly unsatisfying and confusing, and the redemption of finding his real father and bringing him back to life was fittingly wacky and off-the-wall.

This was one of the most hectic and confusing scenes I've seen, thanks in no small part of the events being shown non-chronologically. But somehow it all made sense.

But I think we’ve beat around the bush enough. The real reason I loved this episode so much was the thrilling climax featuring The Pillows’s Crazy Sunshine. That entire sequence may be my favorite in any work of moving picture.

From the very start of that sequence, when Amarao asked Naota to ask Haruko to hit another one out of the park, the scene was just plain cool. The music started off quiet as Haruko quietly contemplated the situation and commented that “doubleheaders are tough,” before taking Naota up to the top of the plant, but it quickly came more into the forefront as the anticipation of the impact kept building.

And during all the intensity, FLCL retained it’s unique sense of humor. There was Mamimi, sitting atop Canti, celebrating the satellite’s fall and wondering whether they’d have school tomorrow. There was Haruko, fitting a shampoo cap on Naota and pulling out his squirming guitar, commenting that “boys feel weird inside.” There were Amarao’s subordinates at his base, inexplicably getting nosebleeds.

Then, as the satellite neared its final approach, it suddenly and seamlessly turned into a gigantic hand throwing a just as gigantic baseball. Amarao called out, “It’s a sinker!” It was hilarious, but I didn’t laugh, lost in the intensity of the moment.

10 years later, I still can't get over just what an amazing scene this was. Kazuya Tsurumaki went on to direct other works with amazing dramatic action scenes (Diebuster and the Evangelion remakes), but I still rank this one at the top.

The intensity just kept building and building, all the way until the release. As the ball became a bigger and bigger object in Naota’s sights and Haruko abandoned him, her comment, “This might as well be goodbye” seemed like it just might come true. Of course, our hero swung the bat, his own bat. But it wasn’t over yet. The music had reached its peak, and there was more work to be done. Amarao watched nervously, knowing that it hadn’t been enough. And just as the ball looked to explode and all had been for naught, Haruko made her triumphant return, giving the ball that extra hit to leave the atmosphere.

It was just… awesome. The visuals were spectacular, true to form for FLCL. The way the sky lit up and shimmered as the ball neared its final approach still sticks with me. So does that scene of the moment of second impact, when we were treated to single-color frames of Haruko, Mamimi, and Naota reacting. The explosion at the end, the air pressure pushing apart the clouds and objects on ground, was just icing. Both the music and the music editing throughout the sequence was masterfully handled. Thanks to this episode, Crazy Sunshine was my favorite for several years afterward. Or maybe it was because of that song that I loved this episode so much. Doesn’t matter.

The episode was nearly over at that point, but the serene denouement made for a fitting finish. Naota lying in Haruko’s Vespa, reveling in the feeling he just had, wondering if Haruko feels like this all the time. Haruko, laughing her ass off for no obvious reason. The soft start up to the now-familiar Little Busters. And the final shot of Amarao’s fake eyebrow falling off. It was bizarre, but just like what Naota was feeling at the moment, it was satisfying.

Maybe it was the fact that this episode followed the 3rd, which had left me a little negative on the series. Maybe it was that I had watched episodes 4, 5, and 6 in quick succession, and I had taken all the positive feelings about the entire last half of the show and transferred it to the 4th. I think it was just that one Crazy Sunshine sequence, one that wasn’t topped even by the numerous other excellent sequences that would come in the last 2 episodes of the show. Regardless of the reason, I still consider Full Swing to be the best directed, most entertaining episode of any anime.

Like Naota, I felt spent, emotionally, but also supremely satisfied. I didn't get to sleep between Haruko's thighs, though.

So now I turn it to you, if you’ve read this far. What do you remember about Full Swing? Did it leave as big an impact on you as it did me? Did you like that song, Crazy Sunshine? Do you still like it? Do you think the show did things better in other episodes, particularly in episode 6, the true climax of the show?

Notes

• This episode featured the entrance of characters Amarao and Kitsurubami. Kitsurubami was played by Chiemi Chiba who, along with Yukari Fukui, was one of the few voice actors in FLCL who remained in the anime voice acting industry. This season, she plays side characters in both Star Driver and More To LOVE-Ru.
• If you watch carefully in this scene, when Mamimi gets up to go to the baseball game with Haruko, you can see her underwear being pulled off by Naota. One of the hints at just how far their relationship went.
• This episode revealed that Haruhara Haruko’s real name was actually Haruha Raharu. Also, it explained the concept of NO, which explained why Naota had been targeted by Haruko and why robots had been coming out of his head.

10 years ago yesterday, on August 23, 2000, the 3rd episode of Gainax’s OVA series FLCL was released to DVD. It probably wasn’t until a year later that I first got to watch it. I wrote a corresponding post on the 10th year anniversary of the 2nd episode, wherein I explained how I came across this series. I downloaded Marquis de Carabas only after having downloaded the first 2 episodes together and having watched them multiple times. Episode 3 was downloaded by itself, and it would be another few days before I got to see the last 3 episodes of this series. In retrospect, after watching the rest of the series, I can appreciate this episode for what it did. It set up Eri Ninamori as a proper foil for Naota, to show us a different way that someone going through the same things could act. Eri was a kid at an adolescent phase, just like Naota. Though her troubles undoubtedly manifest themselves in a much more mundane manner. However, at the first watch, Marquis de Carabas was a huge disappointment to me, especially after the incredible first 2 episodes this series had had. My main source of disappointment was that this episode lacked that moment. You know, that moment. When it feels as if all barriers between the director’s brain and your heart have been broken down, and your emotions are his to play with. When you feel as if you are at the presence of something great, that you’re lucky to be watching what you are watching, even if you don’t quite know why or how. It’s that moment that makes you want to watch it again and again, if only to marvel at the excellence of direction. These moments are usually fleeting and short. But they are also the ones that can define a piece of work. They’re the ones you remember later and turn to when you think of why you liked a piece of work. The first two episodes had several. The One Life and Never Knows Best scenes in Fooly Cooly. The Hybrid Rainbow scene and the Little Busters climax in Firestarter. Marquis de Carabas had… well, it didn’t really have anything, which is my point. When I think back to the episode, no singular scene or sequence of scenes stand out. Even the climax, with the rare non-Pillows soundtrack – it was actually a piece called Galloping Comedians by a Russian composer named Dmitry Kabalevsky – wasn’t that well directed, and its transition to the denouement and credits was jarring. In fact, the entire second half of the episode felt shoddy and thrown together. It lacked the polish and tightness of direction that had made the first two episodes so unforgettable. What did stick with me from this episode was the character of Eri Ninamori.

I gotta admit, even the first time around, I thought her in the glasses and too-short pajamas was fucking hawt.

Eri was a tough nut to crack. She had been given a few lines in the first two episodes, but I hadn’t expected her to play any major role. But here she was, ostensibly the main character of Marquis de Carabas. My first time watching it, I was surprised at what appeared to be the entrance of a third heroine. What about all the stuff with Mamimi and Haruko that had been set up in the first two episodes? Given that this OVA was only 6 episodes, could they really afford to add another protagonist and spend an entire episode on her? As I wrote above, I realized after the fact that Marquis de Carabas was important in placing Eri Ninamori into the role of foil to Naota. Her story was that of the divorce of her parents. Like Naota, Eri struggled with what it meant to grow up. Also like him, she perceived herself to be more grown up than the kids and adults around her. This despite her still childlike tendencies that were featured heavily in this episode. She cheated to get herself and her crush roles in the school play. She went for the mild Little Prince curry at Naota’s house. She wore a shampoo cap. She hid her need for eye glasses due to her vanity. All the while, she considered herself superior to those around her. Like her father’s cheating secretary. Or Naota for skipping the rehearsals.

The perpetually bored/disgusted/superior facial expressions of Eri Ninamori.

She was the very reflection of Naota. She showed us the ugly manifestations of Naota’s way of thinking. I don’t know that this episode showed her develop out of that immature phase. We were told that her parents divorced, but her reaction to it wasn’t revealed (until episode 6, that is) beyond her cool demeanor at the school play. Most damning is, of course, the final shot, showing her declare her glasses as being fake. It was a sudden reversal after the initial surprise that she had shown everyone that she wore glasses. To the end (of the episode), she remained a cynic, wanting to pull one over on everyone else. That’s probably why, even though Eri Ninamori stuck with me after I watched this episode, neither she nor the episode as a whole left me very fulfilled. I sometimes have a hard time choosing which of the episodes was my favorite. But I can say without reservation that Marquis de Carabas was my least favorite. Even though Eri and the episode were redeemed by the events in the final episode (which I should be writing about around March 16 of next year), it didn’t meet the standards set by the previous episodes, nor the ones that would be set in the coming episodes.

As to be expected from GAINAX, the fanservice was pretty good. Alas, 10 years ago, like Naota, I was not at the age to appreciate it for what it was.

Do you remember watching this episode for the first time? Was it during the Adult Swim run in 2003 that had made this show so huge in the US? Was it before, when you had to scour IRC or one of the filesharing clients for low quality fansubs? Was it after, on that high quality, though expensive, DVD release by Synch Point? What was your initial response to it, negative like mine, or positive for reasons not stated in this post?

Notes:

• A couple months ago, there was a nice little post made on Anime Diet about the 10th anniversary of FLCL as a whole. It’s a nice, quick little read. I added a link to it after putting up my first post, but in case you missed it, check it out.
• Funimation is supposed to release a Blu-ray edition of FLCL some time later this year. Reports of the Japanese release – out last week on the 18th – indicate that the HD versions of the episodes are mere upscales, and poor ones at that. Shame on GAINAX for not keeping higher resolution masters!
• This episode also featured the triumphant entrance of Naota’s homeroom teacher, Junko Miyaji, played by none other than the wonderfully lispy voice of Yukari Fukui. She went on to make a name for herself with two more works by GAINAX (Aim for the Top! 2 and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann) and remains one of a handful of FLCL’s cast still in the anime voice acting industry.

I know in my Ookami-san episode 2 post I wrote that I would be posting only every 4 episodes of this series, but I’m sure if you’ve seen episode 3, you can sympathize with me for having some thoughts on it. I just… I’m finding it hard to put into words my reactions to this episode.

Finding it hard to put them into picture, too. So have this one of Haruka holding Junichi's face before crushing his hopes.

Junichi is understandably happy about the kiss he got from Haruka last time. On the eyebrow – he made sure to be that specific, just “on the forehead” wouldn’t do. That’s nice enough.  Then one thing leads to another, and before you know it, they’re alone in a shed, Junichi getting to be the one to give the kiss this time. All well and good, as they say.

Then things took a weird turn. I’m not going to go into the gory details. Plus, pictures do a much better job telling the whole story. So enjoy:

What can’t be properly communicated with pictures is the scene later on in which Junichi and Haruka do some kidnapper/kidnappee role playing… in the school cafeteria. I get that Haruka is supposed to have an impulsive, carefree personality, but come on! And that behind the knee kiss? Again, I understand that it’s an extension of the Junichi as Haruka’s dog metaphor – something which I found problematic to begin with – but what girl wouldn’t be running for the hills if someone tried to pull that kind of shit?

Before, I was worried that Amagami SS was too plain and boring. My concerns were entirely misguided. No, just 3 episodes in, it’s well on its way to being a certified train wreck.

And just like one, everything feels like it’s going in slow motion, there are pieces landing awkwardly at places they shouldn’t, and I can’t look away. I admit that I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. Not as a guilty pleasure, but as a spectacle. To be sure, this episode was a sucker punch after being such a mellow, boring show the 1st two episodes. So kudos for that, I guess.

These students have the right idea.

Whatever hopes I had of this being the telling of 6 different good romance stories have been dashed. Instead, what I’ve ended up with is a neat amalgamation of things that can create a horrible a romance story: start with an uninteresting premise and a protagonist without an ounce of charisma, have him do practically nothing for the first half, then overcompensate by suddenly presenting situations that are so ridiculous that the only proper response is just to shake your head.

If this is what the writers of Amagami SS are capable of, I am very much looking forward to seeing just how low this show can go before all is said and done.

Today is July 7, which means it’s Hitagi Senjougahara’s birthday and also Tanabata in Japan, both of which the Bakemonogatari.com official site is celebrating. Besides offering a happy birthday picture for Hitagi, Shaft offers us what each of the main characters wished for on their tanzakus this Tanabata. I thought it would be neat to share them with you all.

Koyomi Araragi

To be pitied.

To be pitied!? That’s not much of a wish now, is it? Why would you wish for that?

Hitagi Senjougahara

To get a wonderful boyfriend

Oh. Well, Koyomi certainly deserves our pity (as well as jealousy) for having a girlfriend like Hitagi.

Mayoi Hachikuji

To live for a long time

Oh, poor, poor Mayoi. Surely she deserves our pity. ;_;

Suruga Kanbaru

World peace. Also, something lewd

I would expect nothing less from my favorite spats wearing lesbian pervert.

Nadeko Sengoku

Koyomi-onii-ch... No, nothing

I’m sure Koyomi would be more than willing to oblige, especially if Hitagi’s wish comes true.

Tsubasa Hanekawa

To be friends with everyone forever

How sweet. Let’s just hope that she doesn’t kill all of them first.

Karen & Tsukihi Araragi, aka The Fire Sisters

Nisemonogatari* Anime

Girls after my own heart. That’s exactly what I would wish for!

*Nisemonogatari is the 2nd sequel to Bakemonogatari in the original light novel series. It features 2 stories, Karen Bee and Tsukihi Phoenix, presumably starring Koyomi’s younger sisters. Here’s to hoping that Shaft is working on making their wish come true!

All images came from Bakemonogatari.com front page. Credit for original Japanese to Korean translations go to Kyou of Sub by Kyou.

Note

• Here‘s a nice little Tanabata-themed MAD featuring Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari, the Bakemonogatari ending theme by supercell. (via mangajet.com)

Alright, the Summer 2010 anime season has started, and pretty much all the shows I’ve been keeping an eye on have had their 1st episodes air. I’ve already written on Amagami SS, which I found to be rather plain, but there are other shows I’ve been paying attention to that I’ve actually enjoyed a lot more.

I wonder if those pussy gloves will ever be explained or just be one of those in-jokes.

Ookami-san and the Seven Friends

A surprisingly entertaining first episode. I had passed it off as just another high school romantic comedy before this season started, but its amusing take on the Cinderella story both sets it apart from a regular romcom and leaves me wanting to see more of its “adaptations” of children’s stories. The protagonist and main love story is pretty typical, and that fight at the end reminded me too much of Shirou from Fate/stay Night – the obvious parallel with his protecting Saber from Berserker’s attack – but Ookami-san herself was very likable. Not many boxing girls in animu. And Satomi Arai as the narrator is great. Her distinct voice works well for the cynical and sarcastic narration that keeps breaking the 4th wall and is a pleasure to listen to overall (though there are others who don’t like her voice as much as I).

Way to be useless, Rei. Hopefully you'll make up for it in future episodes.

Highschool of the Dead

Zombies and fanservice! That was pretty much what I was expecting, and that was the 1st episode. Darker at some parts than I expected, but also kept a sense of humor. The two bffs who died about halfway into the episode was a great example of the show’s dark comedy.

Rei was very annoying, which is a shame, because her voice actor Marina Inoue is capable of so much more. I’m not expecting big things from the story, but if it can keep up the good action and the fittingly ridiculous comedy, this could be very good. Yukari Fukui is yet to be heard. That I’m very much looking forward to.

I've never seen School Rumble, but Shino reminds me a lot of one of the characters from that. I don't think I've ever seen someone so blatantly and unapologetically raunchy, though.

Seitokai Yakuindomo

Wow, this is dirty! Its style of dry humor isn’t unusual in anime, but I’ve never seen it taken so far. Almost everything out of Shino’s mouth is something related to sex in the raunchiest way possible. Like talking about the tightness of her lips. And it’s all at a breakneck pace, hitting us with jokes continually before we’re given a chance to recover. I like it, though not everyone seems to. I didn’t expect much out of this show, but the level of comedy in this first episode leaves me impressed. I’m definitely going to be watching more.

I do appreciate that Anime no Chikara is using fresh material. I had no idea what to expect from Maya, and I'm glad I didn't.

Occult Academy

It certainly doesn’t hurt that Maya is an Akiha lookalike. She was my favorite Tsukihime heroine, after all. After the disappointment of Sora no Woto and the mixed reactions that Senkou no Night Raid got, I wasn’t expecting much out of this 3rd Anime no Chikara project. Given the topic of the show, I was expecting something a bit dark and moody, but what I got instead was something that was pretty wacky and funny. A lot of physical/visual comedy was used to good effect, and I enjoyed seeing Maya’s various deformed reaction faces. Can’t say much about the story which I found to be a bit confusing, but I think it would be better if the show never got too serious. I’m not alone in being surprised and impressed by the silliness in this 1st episode.

Also, Kana Hanazawa playing the possessed girl was a blast to watch/listen to, especially after hearing her as Tenshi last season in Angel Beats!

Others

So I’ve been more or less impressed with the stuff I’ve seen so far. Perhaps my expectations were just too low going into this season – the only show out of these that I had been remotely looking forward to was Highschool of the Dead, and even then, I wasn’t expecting anything more than some mindless violence. But, 1 episode in, there are a bunch of shows that look promising this season.

• Nameless already made a post on the 1st episode of Mitsudomoe. I couldn’t make it past about 5-8 minutes. The art style just put me off. That first gag with the misinterpretation of “anything goes” was pretty funny, I’ll admit. And it has received some positive reactions from various other blogs. It’s just that I just feel dirty watching it.
• I also could only make it about 1/3 of the way into Shufuku no Campanella. The colors really were nice, but that was about it. Everything else was generic and way too sugary sweet.
• I haven’t gotten a chance to check out The Legend of the Legendary Heroes yet, but it’s on my list.

This is it. It’s finally here. The wait is over. On Friday, 6/25/2010, the final episode of Bakemonogatari was released as a streaming video on Shaft’s website. The 15 episode series took just 1 week shy of a full year to complete. The final episode was released 122 days, or just over 1/3 of a year, after the previous one.

Let us bask in this moment just a little more.

It's finally the last episode!

Okay, that’s enough. Part of the big deal of having a new episode released is that there new content to watch, after all. And as the finale to perhaps the most popular series in the last year, there was plenty to look forward to. The conflict between Tsubasa’s Cat and Koyomi finally came to a head, creating some excellent tension-filled moments that were finally released by Shinobu’s triumphant return. And the denouement following provided a hopeful conclusion to this cynical series, a conclusion that I found to be both touching and enjoyable.

The conversation in the 1st part of the episode between the Cat and Koyomi was the real “meat” of the episode, with it providing us with the climax and conclusion of the Tsubasa Cat story arc. If you’ve watched this far, you know that there’s far more to these character interactions than just the conversation, and this one was no different, filled with the visual treats that have pretty much defined what Bakemonogatari is. I especially loved the shift to the more malicious facial expressions by the Cat, which helped to shift the mood in a much darker and more serious direction. The typical Shinbo/Shaft cinematography was used very well here, with the zoomed out shots and the contrast between light and shadow also adding to the more stark atmosphere.

We get to see a bit deeper into how Tsubasa truly feels.

In terms of the content, the conversation picked up right where it ended the last episode, with the Cat repeating her line that Tsubasa was in love with Koyomi and that if he fell in love with her, she could disappear. It immediately darkened the mood, seeming to send a shock to Koyomi. It came to no surprise to me that he tried so strongly to deny this, first laughing it off as a joke, and then trying to pass it off as a misunderstanding before finally facing the fact. Koyomi’s inability or unwillingness to accept the stark, cynical facts about others had been in full display in the Suruga Monkey arc, after all.

And like in that arc, we got a heroine who felt malice towards Koyomi, actively wanted to hurt him. I loved seeing the Cat play around with Koyomi, trying to manipulate his feelings by putting doubts in his mind about why he was with Hitagi. And the imagery of the real Tsubasa going to gently caress Koyomi during some of it was a nice touch.

I also liked the return of the paper cutout art.

It was satisfying to see Koyomi start to push back against the Cat. That’s the episode became just as much about Hitagi as Tsubasa. One of the oddities about the Tsubasa Cat arc was that Part 2 had felt completely out of place in the sequence, being purely about Hitagi. I had excused it with the reasoning that they wanted to put an ending into the last TV released episode, but this episode brought it back, with the repeat of Koyomi’s line about liking Hitagi (“All of it. There is nothing about [her] that I don’t like.”). It was great that this was one of the 1st things that came to his mind when confronted by the Cat regarding his feelings for her. Tsubasa Cat Part 2 had been an excellent episode and ending to the TV run by itself, but it was made all the better by being put into the proper context by this episode.

And there was something fitting about the intermixing of the cuts of Hitagi back at the school, preparing for the culture festival – in Tsubasa’s place. I guess it was seeing her involved in and taking care of what was ostensibly something that belonged to Tsubasa, a metaphor for Koyomi and the Tsubasa Cat episodes in general.

Remember this? It was in the 1st episode, almost a year ago!

I loved the call back to that scene in the beginning of the 1st episode, in which Tsubasa and Koyomi were working on the culture festival together. Even as the argumentative dialogue continued – syncing up to the characters’ mouths in the flashback – it brought back memories of a seemingly more innocent time, before we knew of this intense conflict brewing within Tsubasa, before even Hitagi had entered the picture. It served as a reminder that the Cat was just one aspect of this kind girl who was very good friends with our hero.

The Cat was that jealous, selfish side of Tsubasa, and she decided that if she couldn’t have Koyomi, no one could; i.e. to kill him. I had pretty much forgotten the violent, problematic part of the Cat when she latched onto Koyomi and sucked his energy in a flash of lightning. In a way, the Cat’s actions felt more cruel than Suruga’s, despite the fight being less violent (though there was plenty of gore this time around as well). In Suruga’s case, at least she wanted to kill Koyomi out of self interest, but in the Cat’s case, it was purely out of spite.

Yes, the Cat was the antagonist from the beginning, after all.

Suruga Monkey had had a pretty clever ending, with Hitagi coming to save Koyomi and to negate Suruga’s incentive for killing Koyomi. I found it interesting that, at the moment of truth, Koyomi once again thought of Hitagi’s promise to kill whomever killed him, and that was what convinced him that he wanted to live. And this time, it was Shinobu who came to save him.

What an entrance! And what a twist; she was there all along, lurking literally in the shadows, just waiting for Koyomi to call out to her for help. Because we didn’t get to see the beginning of this story – i.e. the events of Golden Week that had Koyomi turn into a vampire – we were left in the dark as to why or how Shinobu is in Koyomi’s shadow and why she came out only when he called her. There were more allusions to the Koyomi Vamp story, including showing pieces of the flashback montage that opened the show, but not enough to shed any light on these issues. Still, it was great to see Shinobu come back and to reach some sort of understanding with Koyomi, even if I had no idea what it was.

And she never spoke! I’m not sure if she even had any groans or other such non-verbal noises. It seems like it was just a troll to have Aya Hirano listed as Shinobu’s voice actor from the beginning.

I didn't notice that band aid until I went back to take this screen shot. Fanservice to the very end.

The conclusion of the Tsubasa Cat story did feel a bit incomplete. The Cat was dispatched, but the source of Tsubasa’s stress – her unrequited love for Koyomi – was not taken care of and remains a possible problem. Then again, none of the other stories had neat or tidy little endings. Koyomi’s wondering of how much Tsubasa knows about the incident and acknowledging that she needs time to organize her thoughts was as much as was needed.

How much does she know, really? As long as things are back to normal, she has all the time she needs to answer that.

The Tsubasa Cat ending – with the Fire Sisters morning wake up sequence – flowed right into the series ending. After the beautiful ending to the TV broadcast run provided by Tsubasa Cat Part 2, I wondered what the “true ending” to the series would be like.

Well, it wasn’t quite as beautiful and certainly not as romantic, but it was a proper and satisfying conclusion to the whole series. Perhaps Shinbo went a little overboard with his trademark shots here, but the final montage was just a joy to watch. I don’t know, just seeing the 4 main high schoolers of this show – Koyomi, Hitagi, Tsubasa, and Suruga – exploring Oshino’s empty home together was pretty cool. The music was excellent as well, working with the imagery of that empty school building to give us the feeling of a breath of fresh air, or of the dawn after a dark night. And even though it all felt a bit bittersweet with Oshino’s leaving, the overarching feeling was one of hope for the future, of moving on. When the 4 gathered to talk one last time about Oshino being a good person, they were laughing and smiling, celebrating his memory instead of mourning their loss.

They looked awesome together at the end. This may be the first time the 4 were in the same shot.

That sense of hope was perfectly represented by the final scene, of Koyomi taking Hitagi out on their 2nd date, her riding on the back of his bike. It was the image of 2 young lovers just starting on their journey, much like the TV ending in Tsubasa Cat Part 2. And Koyomi got to give us a final bit of narration:

I’ll probably run into more oddities in the future. But that’s okay. I know the truth. There are dark areas in this world, and there are people living in those places. For example, there’s even someone living inside my shadow. Tomorrow is the culture festival. Our class’s project is… the haunted house.

When you get down to it, the most significant part of Bakemonogatari's story was the budding relationship between these 2. This is just the beginning to their story.

I feel that it summed up the series well. It was about acknowledging the dark, ugly side of everyone that they try to hide from others. As sad or as cynical as these things may be, the person holding these things is still a person. There is still hope in that darkness, like the all-white, pure image of Shinobu living inside the shadow of Koyomi. It was a line that represented the theme that tied together all 5 different stories in this series, and a wonderful way to close it out.

Note Koyomi, Hitagi, and Tsubasa at the right, in their uniforms from the drama CD cover.

Series End

So, after 15 episodes and 358 days, Bakemonogatari is over. So what was Bakemonogatari? Was it worth the time? To be honest, I’m a little sad to see it end, partly because now it means I have no excuse to avoid answering these questions. Due to having such a big gap between watching the last 2 episodes, I feel like I need to watch it again with less time between episodes before I can have anything to say about the series as a whole. I don’t feel like I can add anything right now to what I already wrote in this post. That is, it is a series of 5 fantastical stories that Koyomi Araragi experiences in the span of just a few months, each with its own heroine, tied together by the common theme of the darkness that people hide from others.

But the show was certainly much more than that. There was something about it that resonated with viewers, including me. I’m not sure yet what that is. At the very least, it was a unique ride, filled with stunning visuals and excellent music. It provided a couple of the most touching and heartfelt scenes I’ve seen in anime while still remaining true to its cynical theme. And even if that was all it was, it was enough to make the series my favorite in recent memory.

Notes

• The online stream’s video quality was rather low, which is why the screenshots look so crappy. The Blu-ray release is on July 28.
• As most of you know, Bakemonogatari is based off of a novel by the same name. There are 2 more novels that follow it in the series: Kizumonogatari, which contains the Koyomi Vamp story, the prequel that explains the events of Golden Week; and Nisemonogatari, which contains 2 sequels, Karen Bee and Tsukihi Phoenix, presumably about Koyomi’s little sisters. According to the article on Wikipedia (with no citations), 2 more sequels are in the works.
• The Blu-ray and DVD releases had audio commentary by the voice actors, in character. Each release had 2 of the heroines speaking to each other through the episodes (e.g. Volume 1 featured Hitagi and Tsubasa, Volume 2 featured Mayoi and Tsubasa, Volume 3 featured Suruga and Hitagi). Unfortunately, no one has subbed these in English yet, as far as I know.
• At 15 episodes in 358 days, the series had a mean of about 25.6 days between episodes. I’m guessing that that’s some sort of record.
• With its sudden release on the 25th, Bakemonogatari’s finale joins the finale of 4 other series ending in the 4 day period between 6/24 and 6/27 that have Hideki Hiroshi Kamiya playing starring roles (update 7/1/2010 0843: Thank you Son Gohan for pointing out the mistake – Bayonetta must’ve been on my mind). The others are: Durarara!! (Izaya Orihara), Angel Beats! (Yuzuru Otonashi), Working!! (Hiroomi Souma), and Arakawa Under the Bridge (Kou “Recruit” Ichinomiya). Of those 5, Bakemonogatari, Angel Beats!, and Arakawa Under the Bridge had him playing the main protagonist.

FLCL is a show that really needs no introduction. In the US, it gained a lot of popularity in 2003 thanks to its airing on Cartoon Network with an excellent dub. But of course, this 6 episode OVA existed for quite a while beforehand in Japan.

In fact, it was 10 years ago today, June 21, 2000, that the 2nd episode was released on DVD. While I didn’t watch it until over a year later, I figured that this 10 year anniversary was a good time to write a little something on the 1st 2 episodes of this show. Why didn’t I do this on April 26, the day the 1st DVD came out? Well, to be honest, I didn’t even think about the fact that this year is the 10th since the release of FLCL until a few weeks ago. But it turned out pretty convenient for me, because I had experienced the 1st 2 episodes together as a set.

I first watched it in the fall of 2001. I had heard about this little 6 episode OVA some months before, but it took me a while to get curious enough to actually download it. This was in the days before bittorrent, and downloading shows still took some commitment, both in time and effort. I managed to find someone sharing it on IRC and downloaded the 1st 2 episodes and watched them, one after the next. Then I watched them again. And again. And again.

Okay, I don’t remember how many times I watched those 2 episodes of FLCL before the 3rd episode finished downloading, some days later. Somehow, those 2 episodes grabbed my attention in a way that no other piece of work had before – or since. I don’t know why then, and I’m not sure why even now. I could tell you why I still consider that entire 6 episode OVA to be the best work of motion picture I’ve ever seen, or how masterful the direction, cinematography, and pacing of the show was, especially in the last half of the show.

But just the 1st 2 episodes? It was an incomplete body of work to me at the time. yet I had already fallen in love. In retrospect, I think maybe the mood of the episodes captured me. Yes, the art, the story, and the characters were unique and compelling. But it was the atmosphere that these 2 episodes were absolutely drenched with that made me feel so strongly about the show.

Note: for the purposes of this post, I chose not to rewatch the episodes. Please excuse and point out any errors I might have made.

It started with the very first scene of the show. Mamimi and Naota together under the bridge after school. Just by the way they interacted in those couple of minutes, I could tell what a plain, boring scene this was for them. It was something that happened every day, and the frustration Naota felt at the constant same old became my frustration. The glistening wavelets on the river and Mamimi’s playful bite of the earlobe from the back looked special, but Naota’s words and reaction rendered them meaningless. And as the camera zoomed out from Mamimi and Naota to show an overview of this boring town that trapped these characters, the haunting tune of The Pillows’ One Life began to play and hit a crescendo. As magnificent as everything looked, it all felt too comfortable, as if it was something that I had seen before countless times.

Another scene that took ahold of me was the well known Never Knows Best scene. Again, the music was absolutely integral to the mood of this scene. I remember feeling very emotional the 1st time I saw it, but I had no idea why. It felt like a beautiful climax to some cute love story, just inserted in the wrong place. The darkness of the night, the faint sounds of the cars passing over the bridge, the peculiar tune of Bran-new Love Song, that dead look in Mamimi’s eyes as she stared at the out of breath Naota. They could have run at each other and kissed, and it wouldn’t have felt out of place.

But they didn’t. This was actually a far more depressing scene, as Naota struggled to tell Mamimi the truth about his brother, and Mamimi refused to face the fact that she surely already knew. It was sad to see them like that, especially given the new information that Mamimi was living off scrap bread from Naota’s father’s shop. To feel so strongly about characters about whom I knew so little, it’s no wonder I felt so confused. And it’s a testament to how well the scene and the whole episode leading up to it had been directed.

Mamimi knew how to make smoking look cool.

There were places in episode 2 that hit me hard as well. The standout scene, the one that I think of when I think of Fire Starter, is the Hybrid Rainbow scene that finished the 1st half of the episode. It wasn’t depressing, but it was powerful. Juxtaposing Mamimi’s discovery of Canti with Naota’s trip to the beach, it was filled with a sense of wonderment.

It was a scene filled with hope. The rain had just stopped. Mamimi was discovering a new idol just as the sun was coming out. And the music came to the front at just the right moment, the energetic, Engrish based chorus shouting out while the rays of sunlight hit Canti as if he were the lion king. In the case of Naota, he was earning his reward for saving Haruko. His monologue showed that despite the fear he showed in the ride to the beach, he had enjoyed it. The scene ended with the shot of a rainbow over the sea that was glittering with the sunlight that had just come out. What joy Mamimi and Naota must have felt from these diversions from their otherwise lonely and plain lives?

Perhaps that made the night scene in the 2nd half of the episode that much more impactful. Right after the show revealed the reason behind Mamimi needing a new pair of shoes earlier – being bullied – it hit me with another depressing scene, in which Naota was following the bare footed Mamimi. Like with the Never Knows Best scene, the darkness felt pervasive. The repeating strums of the guitar in the background was haunting. And as Naota went through his memories sand thoughts to discover that Mamimi was actually the arsonist, I was presented with this sad, bullied, abandoned girl whose sole sources of light were the glow from her cigarette, from the screen on her game system, and from the mass fires she set all over town. The feeling of pity and sympathy was something that stayed with me long after the episode was over.

Besides showing off the excellent cinematography, I feel that these shots perfectly convey the pain of the life that Mamimi is leading.

But I don’t want to present FLCL as if it were some depressing, moody show. Because it’s not. It had those aspects, and it used them to powerful effect. They certainly left on effect on me. But if that’s all there was, I doubt I would have watched those 1st 2 episodes obsessively like I had. And the most common word associated with the show wouldn’t be “lolrandom.” Indeed, I haven’t even mentioned yet the most recognizable character from the show, the very face of FLCL, Haruhara Haruko.

Haruko herself was more of a catalyst than anything else in the 1st 2 episodes, as her character remained shrouded in mystery and unexplained fantasy. She was an enigma, but she made possible the some of the iconic scenes that also fascinated me.

I think my favorite scene with her in those 2 episodes was her introduction. Yes, you’ve read countless times already just how lolrandom it was to have a woman come out of nowhere on a yellow Vespa, trying to hit the main character with a guitar while yelling a variation of “itadakimasu!” But, well, there’s a reason that people remember that scene. Thinking back to it now, I can’t help but crack a smile, even though I didn’t find it all THAT funny at the time. I remember noticing that Haruko was swinging the bat left-handed – I was and am a big baseball fan – and wondering if that was something that would remain consistent or was just based on convenience of the animators (turns out, director Kazuya Tsurumaki had made her a lefty on purpose). The opening scene in which Naota criticized the way Mamimi was holding the bat probably primed me for that thought as well.

And that line, “Stop, the native girl!” I found very funny for some reason. Maybe it was the poor Engrish. Or how it reflected Haruko’s view that she was in some foreign land, whose populace could be called “natives” from her perspective. Or just the physical gag of seeing her hand spin around and around in an impossible manner, something Mamimi clearly took note of. In any case, with the sporty high tempo Runners’ High playing in the background, it was an energetic and wacky introduction to a character who also fit that description. The violent high speed sketched scenes, the Matrix rip-off featuring the kiss (ironic because Naota had just purposefully avoided an indirect kiss), the cut to the trailer in which the “actors” discussed filming that scene – they showed that anything could happen in this show.

Like another well known scene from the first episode, the manga-style dinner scene. I learned later from the commentary that Tsurumaki had done this to make an otherwise plain dinner scene interesting and dynamic. And it had worked on me. I wasn’t particularly impressed by the scene, but it somehow captivated me. It was fast, it was different, and, at times, it was funny. The show had grabbed, no, demanded, my full attention. It is an iconic scene from the series, one that people remember, one that got me watching those 1st 2 episodes again and again.

Perfectly framed shots that stick with me as the most memorable action moments of the 2 episodes.

Then there are the action scenes. They were effortlessly beautiful. That is to say, the production quality was very high, but the show didn’t try to flaunt this fact. Rather, it used the music, choreography, and cinematography to create fun and memorable moments, ones that I wanted to watch over again. Even back then, I knew just how corny that moment was when Canti turned red and stopped the oncoming robot, just as Little Busters started playing. But god damn it, it was still fucking awesome. Despite every cell in my brain telling me I was supposed to be bored, it still sent chills down my spine. And when Haruko ended the 1st fight by smashing Canti in the head with her guitar, Naota’s inner monologue said exactly what I was thinking at the time: “Amazing!” I don’t, and I didn’t, consider the action scenes to be highlights of the 1st 2 episodes of FLCL. But they served as fittingly over the top climaxes to the episodes and provided me with incredible moments that I wanted to experience again.

Maybe in all the drilling into the scenes I’ve done, I might have glossed over the main thrust of FLCL. That is, it’s a pretty straightforward coming-of-age story. Being a growing teenager myself, perhaps I latched onto it as something I could sympathize with. The full story wasn’t told in the 1st 2 episodes, but already, there were changes that Naota was going through. It was seeing him take a swig of the canned coffee at the end of the 1st episode. Listening to him commit himself to Mamimi at the end of the 2nd. Those horns, especially the particularly phallic looking 1st horn, that were so clearly metaphors for an adolescent’s uncontrollable erection. No one will accuse FLCL of being subtle. But I found that brashness refreshing. When something changed in Naota, when his character developed just a little bit, it was simple and easy and, probably due to that, satisfying.

Then there was Mamimi, who was a high schooler like myself. I wasn’t bullied, and I didn’t have to go through the kind of shit she had to. But somehow I could connect with her loneliness. It stuck with me as something universal. The desire to be loved and wanted. Her desperation that showed through her latching onto Naota, then the cat, then Canti. I could sympathize with the dead look in her eyes and her almost forced ambivalence to everything around her.

What can I do for Mamimi?

I cared for these characters. I loved them.

Maybe that’s why I had been obsessed with these 2 episodes. With minimal effort, the show had accomplished in 2 episodes what few shows could ever do. It was a pleasure simply to watch Mamimi and Naota in those 2 episodes, see them interact with each other, with Haruko, react to the things happening around them. They didn’t feel real, but they felt lifelike. Unconsciously, I rooted for them. Unconsciously, I shared their pain, their joy, their confusion. I wanted to feel that again, to understand what I was feeling, and why I was feeling it. Maybe it was just a perfect storm of who I was at the time and what the show was about. After writing this post, I’m not sure I’m any closer to understanding why I had felt compelled to watch those 1st 2 episodes of FLCL over and over again. But I kind of feel like I am.

Anyway, that’s my experience with Furi Kuri and FiSta. That’s my attempt at explaining just a little bit of what I got out of them. I guess if you’ve read this far, my question would be, what was your experience with them? Did you get anything out of those episodes, and if so, what?

Note:

• I just noticed that Anime Diet also had a post on the 10 year anniversary of FLCL.

Last week on Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, Classes F and A fought for supremacy.  In the end, Yuuko administered the finishing blow amidst the distracting destruction of the school.  Class F has scraped all the way through the bottom of the barrel, but one character just won’t stand for that ending.  Thus, the 13^th and final episode of BakaTest season one begins.

Go ChibiYuuko! Use Bad End!

Class F gets downgraded from crates to simple art boards for their study materials.  Again, Yoshii hates the state of the classroom and wants Himeji to have better.  Upon returning home, his sister assures him he did the best he could, and now he must set his sights on further goals.  He decides to come to the principal with a rematch proposal, and with Shouko and Yuuko’s consent, she approves.  Yoshii and Shouko face off in a series of sudden death questions, where the first wrong answer loses.  She ends up throwing the competition on question 32, the same question she missed in episode 2.  In return for victory, he asks that Himeji have another chance at the placement exam.  She takes it and gets every question right, but decides to erase her name to fail the exam.  Yoshii storms into the principal’s office and berates her for allowing the exam to fail.  Everyone appears to reinforce that despite everything, he just doesn’t understand things and he’s still an idiot.

Obviously, this is what happens when you scrape straight through the bottom of the barrel.

That's an... interesting problem to have. Or not have, in Minami's case.

Wow Yoshii, even continuity manages to bite you in the rear.

I'm... pretty sure that's not the new goal he had in mind. Creeeeepy.

Oh please, everyone in the cast wants you to get together anyway.

Well, it was nice knowing you Yoshii. I'll say a few nice words about you at the funeral.

BAM! Continuity!

As this episode makes blatant, the overarching premise of this series, and the battle system, is the importance of teamwork.  One person alone might not amount too much, but a group working together can accomplish so much more.  This first becomes evident in episode 7, where everyone works together to push Yuuji and Shouko together.  They then apply it to the school setting with episode 8, and push it into the battle strategies of episodes 11 and 12.  The battle doesn’t rely so much on brute force as it does the overall strategy.  A well-orchestrated team effort can trump a seemingly overwhelming opposition.  Of course, teammates look out for each other, as Yoshii does by constantly pushing for Himeji’s acceptance into class A.  The mark of a genuinely kind person is one who puts others ahead of himself.  On the other hand, success means nothing if you cannot share it with anyone.  When faced with the opportunity to make it into the class where she “belongs”, she decides her friends are more important and that they should succeed together.

For clarity, she forgot to NOT put her name on the exam. Strange girl, that Himeji.

Overall, I thought BakaTest was a decent entry in the winter season.  I’m not a massive fan of it like many viewers are, but enjoyed much of the ride.  I think my biggest problem is the lack of clear direction for about half the series.  It felt like the premise ping-ponged around too much.  It had high and low points in the comedy department, though in many ways this is as much about my personal preference for humor as it is the constant recycling of jokes that chip away at the series.  In the end though, it pulled together, went back to its roots, and delivered a conclusion that makes way for a second season.  I also liked how it pulled the chief aspect of the previous episodes together to form the finale.  I give it a 7/10 and remain cautiously optimistic about season two.

But you're our Baka! Until we meet again, Class F.

Last week on Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu things finally became serious, relatively speaking.  Class F started their campaign with the goal of taking down Class A.  With all the other classes taken down, the latest episode focuses on an all-out war against the elites.  I wonder, who will prevail?

You're not really filling me with confidence, Yoshii.

The episode starts with some training on the roof, which eventually ends with a joke at Yoshii’s expense.  The next morning he wakes up to his sister trying to make advances on him again.  Putting that craziness aside, he goes to school, where Hideyoshi has retrieved his sisters “textbooks.”  Yuuji sends the idiot out in the hall with one to declare war on Class A.  He meets with predictable results, and Yuuko comes to berate the class.  The battle actually begins when Kyouji strikes at the pride of Class A.  The rest of the school follows, wearing down the high-level forces.  Class F uses a variety of misdirection and traps to thin the ranks, with Yoshii playing point in most of the plan.  The main Class F and A forces meet on the roof and begin to fight.  The lower class’s practice has paid off, they’ve developed the ability to dodge in the battle system.  When the enemy cavalry arrives, Yoshii blocks them off with the school’s bell.  Unfortunately, his bracelet dies and the bell almost kills everyone.  Ironman actually saves the day, but Yuuko kills Yuuji’s avatar, winning the battle for Class A.

Are you making an osmosis joke? Wow, that's some pretty high-brow comedy.

I guess even the ladies have their weaknesses...

Is there a doctor in the house? I need a cure for the stupids.

PLEASE tell me this battle is a Persona reference!

Oh it is on now!

How about 1000 lashes with a wet noodle!?

The little being that could...

Pretty impressive. Yoshii is so stupid that he became smart and broke his own bracelet.

I enjoyed this episode all the way up to the end.  I thought Yuuji using the other classes to force Class A into a war of attrition was brilliant, and it had the bonus of exasperating Yuuko.  Yoshii finally got to put his avatar to use as well, and it must be humiliating to get taken down by a wall of desks, and then by a bell.  I also liked the strategy to try to win the fight with scratch damage, considering my propensity to do the same thing in video games.  The relationship level up both the couple’s got added in that D’aww factor that appears in every episode.  The only aspect I really take issue with is the ending.  Maybe it’s because I like to root for the underdog, and this is the same kind of ending that I have seen so many times in the past.  I felt like I had just watched a Trix commercial or an episode of Roadrunner vs. Coyote.  Except in this case, Class F actually had a good, solid plan for victory.  I know seeing the moment stolen from them was a joke, but to me, it just felt like a weak copout to keep them from finally winning.  It does leave me wondering what they have planned for the final episode.  They had just better not use it to tie into a second season of the same thing.

This is what I think of your happy ending!

Last week on Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, Yoshii’s sister showed up and started a wave of shenanigans.  She’s here to stay, but the episode doesn’t focus on her.  Instead, it spotlights the cast as they all come together to advance this thing we call a plot.  After seven episodes of treading water in various pursuits, the series tries to return to its roots.  Let’s get this show on the road.

If you don't get going, Akira will kiss you~

The episode starts with Himeji trying to confess her love to Yoshii one day, and failing.  The next day Yoshii wakes up to his sister trying to kiss him again.  She prepares “food” for him, which is really a bunch of “nutritious” drinks.  Yoshii goes to school and finds Voyeur making a profile of all the girls’ breast sizes.  Typical.  Hideyoshi’s sister comes in and berates the class for acting like idiots and never trying to improve themselves.  Ironman finds Yoshii and makes him carry the next exam papers down to the safe.  Unfortunately, he mixes up everyone’s possessions with the tests as well.  The class joins forces to try to break into the safe.  Hideyoshi’s plan fails miserably, but then Kyouji Nemoto shows up to help them.  Of course, he just wants the papers to cheat.  He berates the class for being too stupid to take advantage of their break-in, but Himeji counters with a passionate speech.  Yoshii and Yuuji talk about the state of their class, and realize that almost 3 months have passed.  They resolve to declare another ESB, but first, they break into the vault again and leak the exam to invalidate Kyouji’s stolen papers.

Himeji's broken confession down to a science.

Look up water poisoning if you're interested.

Yes, Voyeur is doing exactly what you think he's doing.

Much more impressive than Minami's strength is Yoshii's unbreakable bones.

She's got a point. Enough games, it's time we get serious.

Go! Go! Baka Rangers!

I hear a loud sucking noise coming from Hideyoshi's direction.

We got spirit! Yes we do! We got spirit! How 'bout you!?

As I expected, Yoshii’s sister hasn’t added much to the series.  That said, I don’t think any of the characters lacks enough common sense to think drinking a liter of liquid for breakfast is healthy, and I enjoyed that little exchange.  What comes out of left field in this episode is the return of the plot, and I mean all of it.  We’ve got Himeji trying to confess her love, the return of the goon that messed up the computer room in episode 8, and a resolution to declare war on the school.  Also, the series again points out the value of the class working together as a team.  The comedy takes a bit of a backseat in this episode for the sake of plot, but I don’t think that’s a terrible thing.  The jokes have gotten stale.  I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of Minami bashing Yoshii, but you can only watch Voyeur snap so many photos or Shouko tase Yuuji so many times before it’s boring.  They really needed to generate new material.  Do you remember when they had funny battles at the start of the series?  I’m really hoping for those in the final episodes.

The game, as they say, is afoot.

Last week on Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, Yoshii had to save the day by infiltrating the school’s server room amidst a maelström of Evangelion references.  This week, his sister comes home from the States to check up on him and decide if he can still live on his own.  Big Sister is watching you, Yoshii.

And she totally wants you.

Yoshii’s sister, Akira, shows up in a bathrobe, which she says she changed into on the train.  While she appears smarter than her brother does, she lacks even more in the common sense department at times.  She has come home to grade him on his living conditions, which starts a rolling counter that changes throughout the episode.  She forbids him from hanging out with girls, but… guys are okay.  Of course, this gets him in trouble, first at school when everyone thinks he’s hiding a girlfriend.  Then they all follow him home and that doesn’t settle well with big sis.  He devotes himself to his studies so his sister will get off his back and leave him alone.  Yoshii almost pulls it off too, except that he put the answers in the wrong boxes.  Oh well, there’s always the next exam.

Seriously, if Yoshii is questioning your decision, you done screwed up!

Wait, what... HOW can you maintain elegance when you strip on a TRAIN!?

Good job, you just got denied by your own ruleset!

No matter what you do, if Shouko is involved, you're hosed from the start.

Himeji's womanly instincts are kicking in to overdrive.

Geez... talk about mood swings.

I'm not sure whether that comment should flatter or insult Hideyoshi.

And the award for this season's most obvious punchline goes to...

You just cannot catch a break, can you?

Honestly, I found it difficult to write about this episode.  After last week’s excellent showing, I had hopes that this series could get back on track.  Unfortunately, all it does is retread the fanservicegasm of Episode 6, except with yaoi and incest references included.  On that note, I am tired of some character’s sister magically showing up to try to throw a wrench in the workings of a show.  It works well sometimes, but in this case, it feels like some shiny distraction to keep us from noticing the lack of comedic substance.  Maybe if Yoshii had talked about his sister in the past it would be different, but not even the cast knew he had siblings.  On the positive side, it did show that Yoshii’s fits of brilliance aren’t just a coincidence.  He can perform well if he just puts himself to task.  Unfortunately, I have a feeling the writers will immediately shunt that revelation off to the side like so much in this series.  This week wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible; it was just decent.

And while she's creepy, at least your sister cares about you.

Editor’s note: To clarify, I’m not mad because of the lack of plot, I’m mad because they played the “sister card” cop-out completely straight.  I felt the same way about Hanamaru Kindergarten when Tsuchi’s sister showed up, except Hanamaru handled it better.

Last week on Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, Yuuji and Shouko spent a day at the amusement park defining their relationship.  This week, the battle aspect of the series finally returns in force as the ESB system goes haywire.  Hope you still have the NERV to watch this series.

Damnit Yoshii, don't start Instrumentality without permission!

Some delinquent tries to hack into the school’s computer system, and when it catches him, he trips a power line in the server room.  This causes an ESB field across the campus, and makes everyone’s summons go crazy.  First, they show idealized versions of the characters as adults, and much fanservice ensues.  Then they go stark raving mad.  Yoshii is the only one unaffected, since he has direct control over his chibi.  Thus, the school has to depend on him to save the day.  The other Class F students and the principal assist from the sidelines while Yoshii has to overcome everyone else’s avatars and reconnect the power line.  He finally succeeds, but at the expense of everyone having to attend remedial lessons since they all died.

If you know anything about Evangelion, you know this isn't going to end well.

Cosplay fanservice a-fricken-hoy!

Run for your lives! It's the attack of the killer chibis!

This is your team of crack specialists!? Houston, we have a problem.

Shut up Shinji... I mean... Shut up Yoshii!

Brilliance through stupidity. Will wonders never cease?

I HAVE THE POWER... Glove.

And by God you'd best do the worst you've ever done in your life!

Could have shared some of that confidence with the rest of us, Gendo. I mean, Principal.

As you can see from some of the screenshots, and probably every other blog post about this episode, BakaTest gives a massive salute to Evangelion in this episode.  I hope you’ve watched it, or most of these jokes will be lost on you.  You’re also going to get hit with several classic Nintendo references.  BakaTest should have made this kind of episode all season long.  It has a wealth of good parody, the battle system commands the center stage, and the characters are *gasp* useful!  While the students lack the individual brightness of the A class members, they can still achieve greatness when they put their minds together.  Yoshii most embodies this when his quick, off-the-wall thinking manages to save the day.  The principal herself appreciates this quality, and it’s why she depended on them to solve the problem.  While this episode was promising, the series only has four episodes remaining and the next episode will likely focus on the love triangle.  Oh well, the ESB was nice while it lasted.

Last week on Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, we had the obligatory swimsuit and bath episode.  This week we finally put those tickets earned from the school orientation event to good use.  Today’s episode focuses solely on Yuuji and Shouko, their relationship, and the efforts of Class F to ship them as hard as humanly possible.

You know, they make a cute couple.

The episode starts in Yuuji’s bedroom.  It turns out Yoshii gave the tickets they won to Shouko so the two of them could go to the amusement park together.  Yuuji initially protests, but he quickly consigns himself to his fate.  After all, the girl simply won’t take no for an answer.  Class F somehow took over the park for the day, and put them through a photo session, haunted house, and mock wedding to get them together.  Like last week, I’m going to go with images and captions for the episode, so let the cavalcade of pictures commence!

Better yet, how did you get into my house!?

BAM! Continuity!

This is almost as bad as Team Rocket's disguises.

Gee, I wonder who could possibly be in these suits.

This series is either violently adorable, or adorably violent. I'm not sure which.

I hope you've got strong legs or really good insurance, because you're gonna need it!

There are no winners in this quiz show, but there is a definite loser.

Shouko looks really good in a wedding dress, and fulfills the episode's D'aww quotient.

I never thought I'd say this, but go Yoshii!

If you make Shouko angry, she abuses you. If you make Yuuji angry, he'll kill you.

Yuuji can also be incredibly sweet when he feels like it.

Personally, I'm going to go with Shouko on this one.

Bottom line, the mock wedding fell through due to two jerky characters, and Yuuji dished out their punishment shortly afterwards.  He then went to try to console Shouko a bit.  They’ve known each other since grade school, and all of this is the result of a promise he made seven years ago.  He did it because he felt a sense of responsibility to her, but now, he wanted her to go her own way.  It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen anytime soon.  I’m curious about that event from the past, but I have a feeling that it will stay buried there in the anime.  Perhaps there’s some expansion in the manga or light novels.  In any case, the next episode has to do with a rampage and a maze.  I’m not really sure what that means, but this was yet another enjoyable and humorous episode, so I have high hopes.

Last week on Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, the students went through an orientation challenge to retrieve prize tickets from around the school.  In the end, Yuuji claimed some amusement park tickets, while Yoshii found the cell phone charms.  This week the show gives us the obligatory swimsuit episode.  While it’s funny, it also means nothing of note will happen.

Coke or Diet Coke! Duel 1! Let's Rock!

The show’s excuse for the swimsuit episode comes from Yoshii and Yuuji.  The former is so tight on his funds that he had the gas turned off to his house.  The latter takes a terribly cold shower, naturally becoming quite angry.  The two have a food fight to settle their differences, but again, the house doesn’t have any hot water.  They go to the school for a shower.  Mr. Nishimura finds them and sentences them to cleaning the pool that weekend.  They invite the rest of the gang along for the ride, and there you have it, a swimsuit episode.  I’ll just let the images and captions speak for themselves in this episode.

Hideyoshi has an interesting gender issue...

Never look at another girl if Shouko is interested in you.

Lots of focus on breasts.

Drowning Yuuji so you can give him CPR? Ooookay...

If you didn't know better, you'd think Himeji is trying to kill them all.

Nosebleeds all fricken over the place.

Yoshii tries to use his summon to see into the girl's bath. It works about as well as expected.

I enjoyed the comedy much more than episode 5, even if it was all ecchi in nature.  Unfortunately, anime has treaded this ground so heavily in the past that you can see a path worn in the concrete.  You knew a lot of the jokes the episode would make before watching a minute of it.  Maybe anime studios shouldn’t try so hard to fit this type of episode into their series.  Or, perhaps they should try to keep the plot going even in the midst of extreme fanservice.  With that said, I think BakaTest performed far better than most series in this area.  I think that’s thanks to the mix of character personalities.  They do allow for a little bit of originality in the joke department, such as Shouko trying to drown Yuuji, or a competition to avoid death by food.  Next episode, Yuuji will put those tickets he found to use, so prepare for a trip to the amusement park!

Last week on Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, the writers went a little bit deeper into the love triangle between Yoshii, Minami, and Himeji.  Well, I hope you didn’t care about the romance, because this episode suspends that as well.  Let’s try and make this as painless as possible.

Well... that plan failed quickly.

The episode starts out with Yoshii finding a charm on the street.  In true idiot fashion, he puts it back for whoever was looking for it to find.  It actually belongs to Hazuki, but before he can retrieve it, traffic conveniently covers the street.  He asks the narrator-teacher to approve a summon so he can get it… and then gets hit by the principal’s car.  Then, just to drive the failure home, a steamroller destroys the charm.  You can guess how Hazuki feels.

How could you make her cry!

Fortunately, the school is holding a quiz/scavenger hunt that day, and a set of charms is one of the prizes.  Yoshii resolves to win that prize, but Yoshii and Hideyoshi are his partners.  They resort to using the idiot’s multiple-choice pencils to select the answers since none of them can figure out the solutions.  The answers point to a place in the air, Himeji’s death bread, and a toilet.  In the meantime, Himeji, Minami, and Voyeur’s group visits the ladies’ changing room, where the latter passes out from nosebleeds.

You're on a toilet you found with a PENCIL, nimrod.

Finally, Yoshii has one of his rare bright ideas.  They can’t answer the questions, and luck manipulation hasn’t worked, so they should just randomly search for possible locations.  The trio fails to find anything, until Yoshii realizes one spot remains: the roof.  The prize he wanted happens to be there, but the Class A group encounters them.  A battle brews… and then terminates because the school bell rings.  Yoshii gets the charm for Hazuki, as well as a bracelet that has a portable battlefield.  The principal remarks that even an idiot can do well in his own way, and we exit the episode.

Better pray for Deus Ex Machina to save you.

At this point, I’m just utterly at a loss for what to make of this series.  With a 13-episode block, we need some view of where we’re going by now.  I don’t have that feeling.  First, the battle aspect, which initially sold me on this series, has disappeared.  The writers actually revoke the one battle scene because school ends for the day.  The bracelet does give me a little hope, since a portable battlefield has some interesting uses.  Then they stripped out the romance aspects, and while that isn’t a spectacular plot, at least it can drive the series.  What we’re left with is a parody series, which the likes of Pani Poni Dash and Seitokai no Ichizon have already tread and nailed it to the wall.  If the producers would just clamp down and point it in some direction, this series could be so much more.  Unfortunately, next week looks like the obligatory swimsuit episode.

But goshdangit, it was worth it to see Hazuki smile!