Along with this realization, I think I solved a question I’ve been pondering for years now – namely how can one best differentiate between a kid and an adult. The answer is that a kid thinks time does not go fast enough and an adult thinks time goes too fast. I fall into the latter category; I’m appalled that I haven’t posted anything in slightly over 2 months but it certainly doesn’t feel like it’s been 2 months. Where does the time go???

For those that are interested in why it’s been so long since I last wrote something, I’ll get to later down the page. First, let’s do some anime blogging and we might as well start with my thoughts on the new shows that made up the Winter 2010 season.

Sora No Woto

Status – Finished
Final Score –  8/12 B+
In Short – A-1 deserves praise for attempting a show of the caliber but it really needed to be a 24 episode series. It wasn’t, though, and as a result the pacing is too hurky-jerky, the story-telling is too compressed, and the characters are too flat for the viewer to really enjoy Sora no Woto as much as it should have been. Which is a shame because the world that A-1 created was a really interesting one that truly begged to be investigated more.

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Chuu Bra!!

Status – Dropped after 4 episodes
Interim Score –  2/12 F
In Short – I knew I shouldn’t have bothered with this show but there was so few shows this season I figured what was the harm in watching a couple of episodes. Mistake, I could live with a merely poorly constructed fan-service show but I was not ready for this show. It was a poorly constructed fan-service show with a quasi-realistic portrayal of young teenage girls as they grapple with self-image issues. Each episode left me feeling unclean and wondering who exactly thought animating this show was a good idea. Thankfully, I could legitimately drop Chuu Bra after 4 episodes when it became apparent that the show, even without accounting for the creep factor, was a lousy show.

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Katanagatari

Status – Waiting for the next episode
Interim Score –  8/12 B+
In Short – The first 3 episodes of Katanagatari aired this season and while it started off very shaky – each subsequent episode has shown a marked improvement over the previous. I think the key to liking this show is to not create the wrong expectations. This is a NisiOisiN story so even though it’s about sword fighters and medieval Japan – the emphasis is on the characters and their conversations and not on the blood/ gore/ action scenes that one might assume a show like this would focus on.

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Seikon no Qwaser

Status – 12 episodes watched and still reluctantly watching
Interim Score –  3/12 D
In Short – For a show that tries to push the envelope in terms of fan-service, you’d think the animators could come up with something that wasn’t so boring. Scenes that should shock or titillate more-often-then-not leave me yawning, wishing that I could bean some sense into the manga/anime creators that think T&A is all that’s needed to carry a show. Sometimes I think they forget that the internet exists. The sole saving grace to Seikon no Qwaser is that one character is being voiced by Aya Hirano (aka Haruhi) and she’s absolutely awesome – truly one of her best efforts to date. It’s not enough to make this show a worthwhile watch to the vast majority of anime watchers but it is something.

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Omamori Himari

Status – Dropped after 7 episodes
Interim Score –  5/12 C+
In Short – I continue to be weak against anime shows that feature the supernatural/Japanese religious elements so when a show like Omamori Himari comes along with it’s generic blandness and it happens to have a supernatural element to it – I end up watching it longer then it deserves and having a higher opinion of it then it deserves. It wasn’t a horrible show and I’d probably have finished watching it except that I decided one day that I was sick of the all the not-really-horrible but not-really-good shows I was watching and dropped it along with a few others.

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Ladies versus Butlers!

Status – Finished
Final Score –  4/12 C
In Short – And yet somehow I finished this show,  though in my defense this show did have some potential and I found the opening song catchy. If they had skipped the harem of girls with one-dimensional personalities and focused on the triangle of the main guy and the two girls – drill hair and childhood friend it might even had been a good show but this is Xebec were talking about so that was just wishful thinking. This was probably the least painful fan-service show to watch of the season so if you absolutely needed your fix this was your bet.

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Durarara!!

Status – 13 episodes watched and impatient for more
Interim Score –  10.5/12 Strong A
In Short – One of the best new shows of the season. For those that wanted Durarara to be Baccano 2, this first half of the show was probably a big disappointment. The very minimal body count and focus on character/story development was just two ways Durarara felt unBaccano-like. I’ll admit that this desire clouded my feelings for a while but I eventually got over it when I realized that Durarara was going to be 24 episodes long and it had the time to develop it’s characters in ways that Baccano didn’t and because the animators started to reveal parts of the larger plot of Durarara and it became interesting in it’s own way. I totally psyched for the second half.

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Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

Status – Dropped after 7 episodes
Interim Score –  6/12 B-
In Short – Another casualty along with Omamori Himari; I thought it started strong but it began to bog down in the middle and I wasn’t in the mood that day to put up with a show that could obviously being doing much better. Since then I’ve kinda felt bad about dropping it but I’ve yet to feel the urge to pick up where I left off so I guess it’s just best to let sleeping dogs lie.

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Dance In The Vampire Bund

Status – 9 episodes watched and a desire to finish
Interim Score –  6/12 B-
In Short – I really had high hopes for this and I thought the first episode was brilliant but my disappointment grew as I kept waiting for the show to settle down and start telling a story.  since I like the Shaft/Shinbou combo I didn’t want to give up on it so after the sixth episode I decided to put it aside till I had all the episodes and had the ability to watch them together. Some shows, I’ve realized, work better when marathoned and just the other day I watched episodes 7-9 together and I liked it more than I was expecting. I hope this bodes well for the rest of the series.

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Ookami Kakushi

Status – Dropped after 7 episodes
Interim Score –  6/12 B-
In Short – Another not-really-bad but not-really-good show that I decided to drop. In it’s favor was the fact that a competent animation studio was animating this and not Studio Deen who had done the previous Ryuukishi07 shows (Higurashi, Umineko no Naku Koro ni). This positive is negated by the larger problem of the source material recycling so much of the show’s content from those previous Ryuukishi07 shows. Also, I’ve gotten tired of how all these shows are placed 25+ years ago – I’m starting to think Ryuukishi either lacks the will to figure out how to do a mystery/horror series where the characters have access to cell phones, GPS devices, and the internet or lacks the intelligence to write a new story that doesn’t rip off his/her/its one other story idea.

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Hanamaru Youchien

Status – Finished and Wishing for Season 2
Final Score –  12/12 Perfect
In Short – Saved the best for last. I can still remember how utterly stupefied I was when it was announced that Gainax’s next series was going to be Hanamaru Youchien. This series had J.C. Staff written all over it, why was Gainax doing this? I checked the manga out and was decidedly underwhelmed after reading the first 10 chapters. With absolutely no confidence that Hanamaru Youchien was going to be good, imagine my surprise when Gainax cranked this out of the stadium. Who knew the studio known for it’s hot-blooded action series could do such a warm, relaxing, cute, funny series. I think Gainax just became my preferred studio to do the anime for Yotsuba if/when the creator ever allows one to get made. Gainax also deserves tons of praise for having a different ending song/animation for each episode; I loved all the different songs and subjects. (Now if only KyoAni could do the same thing with K-On.)

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I really should add one final show – Hidemari Sketch x ☆☆☆ (aka season 3) – since it aired this season as well but I’ve just seen the first couple of episodes and so I don’t have a firm opinion on it yet. After purging all the bad – mediocre shows of this season, I needed something to fill the space and decided it was time to catch myself up on this series and started with the first series. I plan on making a post about all the series I’ve been watching instead of the current crop of shows so look for my thoughts on this Shaft/Shinbou series soon.

And maybe I’ll even get around to doing my top shows of 2009 already and talking about the new spring 2010 shows as well. Now onto where I was for 2 months.

If it was just up to me, I’d probably just pretend nothing happened and keep blogging but I’m pretty sure there are at least a few people who were wondering what happened to me and so I’ll give a condensed version of the various reasons and we can go from there.

A normal February is a pretty depressing month already but this one was a bit harder to get through than most. The weather was truly atrocious; it wasn’t so much the almost unending amount of snow we got (about 45 inches) but the complete lack of sunlight we had. I checked online and for the entire month of February we had 7 hours of clear skies. It didn’t break down how much of those 7 hours occurred during daylight or at night but even in all 7 hours happened during daylight hours and I happened to be awake – it still essentially meant I went a month without seeing the sun.

Also weighing on my mind was that this February was the one year anniversary of my grandma passing. I’ll get myself wound up in anger if I think about it too much so I’ll just say that I consider my 3 aunts the reason why my grandma isn’t living today. Also, it’s very important for everyone to decide how much or how little medical care they want and get it in writing because you can’t rely on your family to have your best interests at heart – you could get admitted to the hospital for a serious but not life threatening reason and in the course of treatment your family could decide to remove your feeding tube and let you starve to death over the course of 3 weeks.

Factor in a really weak anime season and I just didn’t feel like talking about anime or do much of anything. March rolled around and almost like a switch the weather turned gorgeous. Temperatures shot up into the 60’s and 70’s and it was wall-to-wall sunny. I spent as much time as I could outside and the sight of the first flowers of the season  – crocuses – went a long way to improve my mood. I started to feel the urge to write again but I kept getting blocked.

I volunteered to be the Dungeon Master in a 6 part campaign for my sister, brother-in-law, and friends in Dungeons & Dragons. We were going to use a printed campaign but we were not satisfied with the quality of writing so I further volunteered to write one myself and it takes an amazingly large amount of time to create a halfway decent adventure. I also picked up a temporary job working for the census and it’s been leaving me really tuckered out when I get home at night. And of course to blog about anime I first need to watch anime. And I’ve also been slowly working on my top anime of 2009 posts because I’d like all the parts to be done or almost done when I start posting them. And once it got to be a long time between posts I felt reluctant to explain why it’s been a long time because I started a blog talk about anime and a little SF, not to be a personal blog.

As a result, even though I’ve been meaning to start writing again it’s been almost a month before I had the chance to sit down and write something I could publish. I guess at this point I should just listen to the wise words from Manabi Straight and say, “Forward, Go!!” and get back to blogging.

Filed under: anime, anime rants/views, meta/office keeping, series review

Pixiv Sauce Love her smile~<3 Here is the second and final part of my Supah Review for Winter anime I've watched and tried. And again, these reviews aren't super in anyway whatsoever! SO RA NO WO TO Military K-ON!? I’m there! lol This was nothing like a militarized K-ON!, but because of its similar animation style and character designs, [...]

People who know me know that I have an interest in physics.  A few weeks ago, I saw this post at Mazui fansubs that calculated the size of some fireworks fired in To Aru Kagaku no Railgun.  On a similar note, if you’ve watched Sora no Woto episode 12, you know that Kanata hears a signal from quite a long distance away.  Some people have expressed skepticism that she could have heard it at all.  Inspired by that post from Mazui, I decided to investigate the conditions myself.  I do not claim to be an expert in physics, but I’m going to give this my best shot with the information I have at hand.  I invite all corrections to the following.  Now, let’s get underway.

The first thing we must establish is the sound level of Rio’s trumpet.  Obviously, if she doesn’t play loud enough, the sound will never travel the distance to reach Kanata’s ears.  We need to start with the maximum loudness.  I found this post at Trumpet Master that states the maximum sound level for a trumpet is 140 decibels (dB).  The figure is impressive, but there’s two qualms with using this figure.  First, as the maximum, it’s unlikely that you can get much music out of the instrument.  In my head, I just imagine someone blowing as hard as possible to make the loudest sound.  Second, the pain threshold for the human ear is about 120 dB.  Above this, we might hear sound, but we can’t really interpret it well.  It sounds distorted.  Thus, we can’t directly use the maximum, but it does mean that we can be liberal when selecting a point to experiment.  I think 100 dB is a reasonable value, so that is what I will use.

The second thing to establish is the speed of the tank Rio rides.  The fastest armored vehicle of World War II that I could find is the M18 Hellcat.  The speed tops out at a blistering 60 miles per hour.  The measurement is quite impressive, but there’s a fault with the choice.  This is not a tank in the traditional sense.  They used it to take out tanks, but it lacked much of the armor and protective features we think of in a typical tank.  Therefore, I also selected the Cromwell to use in this experiment.  This British tank had a maximum speed of 40 miles per hour, though they restricted it to 32 in practice to maintain structural integrity.  The difference in speeds makes a difference, but probably not for the reason you think.  A faster tank actually puts Rio’s trumpet playing skills at a disadvantage.  Why?  Because I’m going to assume that Rio moves at top speed all the way to the front.  This means a faster tank must start further away from the battle.

With these parameters established, we also need to think about the conditions.  I’m not going to spend weeks of my life becoming an expert in the physics of sound just to write a post.  Therefore, we’re going to assume ideal conditions for this experiment.  This means that the energy of the sound waves is conserved, it continuously travels, and no amplification or interference occurs.  We know from the episode that once the Colonel escapes, he plans for the battle to commence in 10 minutes.  From the time the troops start moving until the time that Rio arrives, 3 more minutes elapse.  The total time is 13 minutes.  As stated earlier, Rio must move at top speed all the way to the front.  This means at 60 miles per hour, she starts 20900 meters away, and at 40 miles per hour, she starts 13900 meters away.  Her trumpet plays at 100 dB.  You can find the formulas here, or you can just plug it into a prebuilt calculator here.  Let’s get started.

So what does it all mean?  First, the starting distance doesn’t make much of a difference.  However, I think we can agree that even the small change in decibels could potentially make or break something like this.  Second, to interpret this properly, you need some sort of baseline to compare it too.  A lot of sites state that 15 dB is about what you can expect from a whisper.  That gives you an idea of what exactly she hears.  The work means that it is plausible with ideal conditions.  Kanata could indeed hear Rio’s signal.

We do need to note two things.  First, the curve for diminishing intensity remains the same no matter where you start.  What this means is that if Rio plays 10 decibels higher, it stays 10 decibels higher across the board until it reached Kanata.  That difference roughly correlates to doubling the loudness, which greatly increases the chances of this plan working.  Second, decibels are objective.  We got to these formulas by taking the averages of many people.  What an actual person experiences is subjective.  Some are more sensitive to sound, and others less.  This explains why Kanata hears the signal while Kureha has no idea what’s happening.  It also means that Kanata’s genetics can pick up a little slack by making her more sensitive to sound.  With this, I think I have pretty well wrapped up the post.  Again, if you have anything to add or I’ve made mistakes, please comment.  I’m actually really interested in this topic.

Last week on Sora no Woto, we received an introduction to the Roman side through Aisha, a forward scout from the nation.  Hopkins dropped by on his way to war for the day, and Aisha stood in his men’s sights.  This week’s episode determines whether the girls can avert the bad ending.  Do they succeed?  Well, they’re the protagonists, what do you think?

Aisha takes the gunshot, but survives.  In response, Filicia takes the Colonel hostage and orders him to send away his troops.  Hopkins reveals that he wants to provoke the Roman into a fight and Filicia has him thrown in the brig, but he manages to escape.  In the meantime, Kanata hears a signal from Rio and decides to try to stall the war.  Filicia and company agree to the plan, and they quickly power up the tank.  They make a rather grand entrance by destroying the building and escape down the mountain.  Hopkins and his unit pursue the girls, but the tank dispatches them with relative ease.  As they travel, we hear the Roman Fire Maiden myth.  They arrive at the front with just moments to spare.  Kanata attempts to stop the Helvetian charge with the signal to cease-fire, but it doesn’t work.  She then launches into Amazing Grace.  Rio and royal tank division show up with a cease-fire order from the Archduke and Emperor, and there is much rejoicing.  For her role in ending the war, Rio is allowed whatever she wants.  She chooses reassignment to the town she calls home with the people she loves the most.  Exeunt.

Hopkins claims to have a “noble” intention in his pursuit of warfare.  If the nations fight, they will have to develop new technology in quick succession, catapulting humanity back to its former heights.  This idea does have a weird merit to it.  A large amount of the technology we take for granted today has origins in the military.  This includes the Internet that you utilize to read this very post.  It started as Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), developed by the Department of Defense.  They developed it in direct wake of the USSR’s Sputnik program, and we could continue tracing the cause and effect back even further.  Despite the technological boom that warfare can bring, we know that it’s far from the moral choice.  Hopkins really just wants to watch the world burn.  Noël crushes him like a bug, a fitting takedown for such a pest.

Poor Kureha.  You can see that all she really wants to be is a good soldier.  She wants to server her country and act as a good backbone to her comrades.  Unfortunately, she must reconcile her duty with her sense of morality.  It takes a certain kind of person to carry out some duties.  Either you need the capacity for extreme rationalization of your actions, or you need to lack a moral compass.  As a result, some people are not cut out to fight in a war, and if you try to force it on them, they simply break.  In my case, I do want to protect others.  At the same time, I am morally opposed to taking someone’s life, or even participating in warfare.  Kureha is trying to reconcile her morals after the fact.  She doesn’t even want to think about someone torturing Aisha, who is just a young girl like herself.  She doesn’t want to send people down the path of war.  When she realizes that this means she can’t carry out her duty as a soldier, she bursts into tears.  While she might not be the perfect soldier, I think it makes her a better human being, and that counts far more in my book.

I’ve read a lot of complaints about how the ending is entirely unrealistic.  It does push hard against suspension of disbelief.  What you need to keep in mind is that the regular soldiers did not want to fight.  At the start of the series, we had a brief look at the mindset of these soldiers.  They comment that treating the bugler well will ensure you hear the retreat call.  They also point out that few people have volunteered to enlist.  These are not battle-hardened soldiers that live to fight.  They’re normal people who likely found themselves drafted into the military.  They enjoy the truce and are more concerned with the girls at the outpost than their duties.  Even when marching to the lines, they relate that they don’t want to fight.  They probably just want to go back to bed.  Kanata pops out of the tank to play Amazing Grace, and if Aisha is any indication, both sides know the song.  Thus, they take the opportunity to stave off the ensuing fight for just a few fleeting moments.  It’s not this, but rather Rio and her Big Damn Tanks that taxes the scene, but even that lies in the realm of plausibility.

Ultimately, the episode felt rushed, and I think it could have played out far better over the span of two episodes.  Your enjoyment will largely depend on the ending you really wanted to see.  If you wanted to see the girls die in the name of peace, perhaps even trampled upon in the rush, then you probably found it lacking.  On the other hand, if you wanted the peaceful resolution that the series spent so much time building around, you probably found it satisfactory.  From a personal standpoint, I could have gone for either ending.  I wish it could have done more, but I still enjoyed the ride.

Last week on Sora no Woto, we had time to reflect on Rio’s past by looking at it through the lens of an old woman’s story.  As a result, Rio left our merry band of girls to go fulfill her duty for her country.  This week, the rest of the story comes to a head with the discovery of a young Roman scout.  The drums of war continue to march.

The episode starts with Kanata and Kureha on a patrol assignment, where they come across an injured soldier.  There’s just one catch: she’s Roman.  They bring her back to base, and Noël insists on taking care of the girl.  Filicia decides to put off turning her over until they can try to interrogate her.  Both Kanata and Noël try to befriend the soldier, named Aisha, despite the culture and language barriers.  When Kanata gives her Rio’s trumpet, she plays Amazing Grace.  Kanata’s joy abounds because this means they have a cultural connection.  Naomi and Yumina come to the fortress, the latter acting as a translator.  Aisha has come here to see the fallen angel, which contrasts sharply with the belief that the first episode’s corpse is a demon.  Unfortunately, Colonel Hopkins and his troops are approaching the base.  Filicia vows to protect Aisha, sending her to the school with Noël.  Noël’s fears get the best of her, and she flees with Aisha closely following.  Kanata receive a phone call stating that Roman forces are closing in on the garrison, and a shot rings out as Aisha finds herself trapped by two sets of guards.

In this episode, we can clearly see the characters’ differences in personality by the way they react to this new addition.  Kanata’s optimism allows her to see Aisha as just another human being and she reaches out to her in friendship.  Kureha’s past and military training cause her to insist they turn over the soldier. Noël knows the result of her handiwork and seeks atonement and forgiveness for her crimes.  Yumina’s natural curiosity makes her embrace Aisha’s Roman heritage as an opportunity to learn more about the world and its beliefs.  Filicia wants to see peace between the two forces after seeing war firsthand, and offers the soldier sanctuary.  Finally, Colonel Hopkins sees her as nothing more than a disposable tool for intelligence in his battle against the Roman army.  With these clashing and complementary personalities, I wonder what kind of resolution each character will get.  Personally, I want to see Hopkins get a nice punch in the face for the trouble he has caused.

On that note, we finally get a look into Noël’s past and why she acts as she does today.  The military discovered her through her aptitude for lost technology.  Her efforts engineered the Silent Death bioweapon, which the military then used as a countermeasure to the Roman invasion.  After the massacre, she ventured into the battlefield and saw the mass of dead and dying people.  It’s easy to see why she can’t trust people.  Her research and development lead to the deaths of thousands, but it doesn’t stop there.  You might remember that Yumina said the Silent Death killed Mishio’s mother.  A bioweapon cannot readily discriminate between friend and foe.  Anyone caught in the blast zone or standing in the path of the fallout will suffer.  Noël has to live with the knowledge that she killed her own people.  Perhaps here lies another reason for her obsession with the tank.  While a tank is also a weapon of warfare, a person has to control it and that person can discriminate.  A human has to deal with their conscience and have conviction to pull the trigger.  The tank looks complete.  Whoever takes the helm might decide the difference between salvation and damnation.

Helvetian and Roman forces are set to collide and our heroes can do little at to stop it.  I feel confident saying the tank will play the deciding role.  Really, the question now is how the writers will see fit to end the series.  A happy ending where the girls somehow hold off the fighting until Rio saves the day sounds obvious.  On the other hand, the tragic undertones of this series might point to sacrificing one or all of them to forge a new peace.  Either one I would find satisfying, and I look forward to the fast approaching conclusion.

Last week on Sora no Woto, a rainstorm assaulted the town of Seize, and the town mobilized to save the day.  We also learned about Courier Klaus’ backstory, and he finally became a hero.  This week, we meet the old woman Jacquotte, and through her explore Rio’s life.  This wraps up a lot of points rather than providing much fodder for speculation, so let’s get underway.

The episode starts with Rio burning a letter, presumably the one she received from her father.  At the same time, Noël and the girls have almost finished the tank.  Kanata wants to look into Iliya’s past, but Filicia’s records are “missing.”  Kureha fills her in on the details instead.  Yumina shows up and asks for help finding Jacquotte, and Kanata drags Rio off with her.  The two find the woman building a house for her long-lost son, and decide to help her with chores around the house.  While Rio chops firewood, Filicia remarks that the Roman army has redeployed troops.  Kanata and Rio leave to gather supplies, and Rio talks about how she first came to the town.  Then they retire to the old woman’s house, and she relates her past to them.  Afterwards, she goes out to die, quite literally.  Rio plays Amazing Grace again, and then entrusts her trumpet to Kanata.  Under her tutelage, Kanata has become a fine trumpet player, as well as a fine young woman.  Content with her work, Rio has finally decided to leave and carry out her task to protect the family she loves.

This episode finally puts Rio’s whole story into perspective.  She is the illegitimate son of the Archduke.  Her father never came around to see them, and he resents him for that.  However, Iliya did visit, and Rio loved her elder sister.  Iliya allowed herself to become engaged to the emperor of Rome to end the hostilities.  Unfortunately, a tragedy cut the Princess’ life drastically short.  While on a morale building tour, she tried to save a drowning child.  She lost her life instead.  The war dragged on for yet another year until the two armies struck a truce.  Of course, Rio never got over it.  She still hated children because of the one who took her sister away from her.  She fled to the town of Seize, which she symbolically views as a dead-end for her life.  In the process, though, she met Kanata, which allowed her to slowly grow as a person to become more like her sister.  With the help of Jacquotte, she finally finds some means of closure.

Jacquotte fell in love with a wealthy man, and became pregnant with his child.  However, this man had a family and a wife who could not bear children.  He took her son and left for his home, promising to return one day.  The story curiously reflects Rio’s own, so she asks how the woman can deal with her grief.  Rather than allowing the past to drag her down, she always looked forward with hope.  She remembered the good times she had before the man left her, and focused on his promise to return one day.  As a result, she has lived a long and largely satisfying life.  The point of this story boils down to how you should view loss.  You’re always going to suffer loss, whether by your own power or because of unforeseen occurrence.  You can’t undo it, so simply dwelling on it is not going to help anyone.  To get through life, you have to focus on the good in your past, live your life in the present, and always aim for the future.  Life is short, so live the best life you can.  This realization finally snaps Rio out of her depression.

At first glance, this episode wraps everything up into a nice package, and to an extent, you would be correct.  However, a few plotlines still exist for the final episodes.  First, Noël has almost finished rebuilding the tank.  Since they already put it to use to save Klaus and Kureha, I doubt they would spotlight it again unless it will see another use.  I think the second DVD bonus episode will focus on how they got the parts.  Second, they still haven’t resolved the fire maiden plotline that started in the first episode.  The story shunted the legend off to the side for quite a while, but in this episode, they bring it back into focus.  However, this has served its purpose by reflecting Rio’s character, so we can safely live without a blatant resolution.  Finally, we know Roma fought Helvetia and that they’re mobilizing the army again, but that nation remains an enigma.  We don’t know their motivations in all this, mostly because we have never met anyone from there.  The next episode will introduce a wounded soldier from Roma and address that issue.  I’m looking forward to it.

While I could have continued to talk about Klaus and Kureha in my Episode 09 post, I figured I could do better by devoting a post to them alone.  Kureha holds Klaus up as an idol, and very clearly has a crush on him.  On the other hand, Klaus is nowhere near the man she thinks he is.  The episode delivers a contrast of the idealized hero with the realistic hero.

First, we have Kureha’s idol.  Right off the bat, she calls him the Desert Wolf, as well as Miracle Klaus.  This guy is so amazing that he has two nicknames!  He tattooed his platoon insignia on his chest, so you know this person is loyal to his comrades and takes his duties seriously.  We also have Kureha’s testimony from episode 05.  There, she says the Major once crossed a desert in a tank with no supplies.  It took him three days and at the end of the journey, he took down an entire enemy fortress!  Klaus is a man’s man and fits the ideal heroic image almost to a T.  Clearly, he would be right at home in an action flick or an old war movie.

Klaus the Courier does not even come close to this image.  He’s shy and bad with words, so he can never find a way to tell Kureha he’s not the person she really idolizes.  He has more than a problem with speaking.  He also fears dangerous situations.  He’s so scared of sidling back up the rock wall that he sends Kureha ahead of him.  For those of you keeping track, she is not only a girl, she is also one-third his age!  When the rock slide strands the pair during the typhoon, he has no great plan to escape and consigns himself to their fate.  He does a good job of mustering some false bravado to cheer her up, but you can tell he doesn’t truly feel that way.

When the trumpet blares with a message of hope, though, he pulls himself together and vows to protect Kureha.  When the anchor fires he springs into action to secure it, but the unthinkable occurs.  The ledge starts to break apart, with Kureha stuck on the wrong side.  Would he let his fear get the better of him and leave her to die?  No, he puts himself into danger, reaching out to save her.  Yet he still can’t quite reach, and his half of the ledge drops into the torrent as well.  Somehow, he manages to pull her out of the water, and just before she collapses, Kureha tells him that he’s still the man she admires most.  The old wimp of a courier has become a hero.

Why don’t we hear more about this type of hero?  When we watch an anime, read a book, or view any other medium, we look for a specific type of person.  We want to see the man or woman who can give a stirring speech, rallying the forces of good in their darkest hour.  We want to see a person who puts their life on the line and ultimately prevails.  We want Kamina!  We want Saber!  We want this ideal hero, in the process glossing over the details.  In short, reality is unrealistic.  Take some time to notice the details.  Kamina maintains a constant sense of bravado so Simon can believe in him.  In reality, Kamina fears death, and he actually looks up to Simon ever since the kid saved his life.  Saber has her greatness thrust upon her when Britain needs a ruler.  Throughout her reign she dealt with feelings of inferiority, and even while dying reflected only on her failures and wished for a different life.

The idealized hero has no place in reality.  There isn’t a single person out there that wakes up in the morning, decides they’re going to save the world, and then does it.  That person exists in only one realm: fiction.  A true hero is a person just like you and I.  They live.  They fear.  They bleed.  They die.  What perhaps makes them different is that when faced with insurmountable odds they can swallow their fear and ignore the pain to protect those precious to them.  Even if only for a second, one person can make a world of difference.  Klaus closes with these words:

Listen up young lady.  What someone watching sees and what the person front and center feels are completely different things.  The glasses we call admiration are always out of focus.

The experience doesn’t magically transform him.  He’s still a coward.  With those words, though, you have to reflect upon the legendary Desert Klaus.  Was he really this great hero like the history books read?  Alternatively, was he just a normal kid that repeatedly found himself in impossible situations?  Perhaps he crossed that desert without any supplies, not out of a sense of duty, but because he had no other choice.  We probably will never know.  What I do know is that Klaus the Courier is a true hero.

Last week on Sora no Woto, Kanata stared at a telephone for 18 minutes, though the call at the end ended up being somewhat important.  This week kicks the drama back into gear with a life-threatening typhoon, as well as spotlighting themes of both depression and hope.

The episode starts in the garden, and while the girls work, Rio starts playing a jazzy blues piece on her trumpet.  Along with this, Kanata notices that Rio is becoming detached and depressed, though Kureha waves off her concern.  Klaus knocks on the door in the middle of a typhoon, and he bears a high priority message for Rio.  He stays the night, but soon after Yumina comes seeking aid.  Seiya has gone missing.  The troops mobilize, with Klaus and Kureha finding Mishio, and then Seiya.  They successfully get him to safety, but a rock slide destroys their path.  While they await rescue, Kureha notices the Major lacks the tattoo that “Miracle Klaus” should have.  With the townspeople’s aid, Noël mobilizes the tank to fire an anchor.  Klaus protects Kureha and returns her safely.

First, it’s time to focus a little more on Rio.  The blues represent sorrow and sadness, true to their name, and Rio certainly acts the part.  She’s not picky with her food like usual, and Filicia notes that she’s been forgetting things recently.  The two senior officers share some level of confidence since Filicia vows to continue covering her mistakes.  Additionally, we see that Iliya signed the letters Rio has read throughout the series.  She likely continues to read them to keep some link to the dead princess alive, so she probably hasn’t reached closure.  Indeed, when she sees the rapids the typhoon has created, she immediately flashes back to Iliya’s casket.  The phone call from her father and the message she receives only exacerbates the problem.  Right before she opens the message, the emergency calls her away.  All of this stress finally causes her to snap about how she hates children, especially disobedient ones.  Filicia calms her down, but that leaves us with a question.  Did Iliya die trying to save a child?

Despite the depressing mood Rio exerts, we also see the other side of the coin.  Hope still exists, and  nature repairs itself.  Klaus takes a moment to look at the growing wheat fields on his way to the base, and the orphans admire their small garden of eggplants.  We also see Noël’s experience in the garden with a pill bug.  With the level of surprise she displays, you have to wonder if this is first time she’s ever seen a pill bug, and perhaps it represents life returning to the area.  Seiya even wants to risk his life to save the eggplants he planted.  While that’s clearly stupid in the grand scheme of things, on a basic level, these plants represent life that he and his friends have nourished and sustained.  They serve as stark contrast to the barren wastes of No Man’s Land.

Even more significant, though, is the tank itself.  The tank largely represents war, and we saw clearly the devastation they can cause in Filicia’s flashback.  Recall way back in episode 4 that Noël feared the use of her machines to kill people.  Kanata reassures her by saying she’s sure people used the tank to help people.  You can say what you will about her ditziness at times, but Kanata hides a great deal of perception.  That perception pays off when Noël uses the tank to save the two soldiers.  The show’s message between the two episodes is clear: the tool is not the problem, rather, it is the person who wields it.  Even though people generally build tanks for warfare, with a little thought a person can use it for a peaceful purpose.  I imagine the experience put Noel’s mind a little at ease.

I would love to talk for a bit about Klaus and Kureha, but this post is already becoming quite long.  Perhaps I’ll revisit them later.  The next episode’s title is Departure – When the First Snow Falls.  We know the nations have had little luck with the peace talks, so it’s probable that war will break out again, sweeping up our cast.  It also implies that winter is fast approaching.  If history has taught us anything, winter warfare always causes unnecessary expenses in resources, as well as human lives.

Last week on Sora no Woto, we stared down the cold, hard pain of war through Filicia’s eyes.  This week attempts to cure the mood whiplash by going back to a lighthearted, episodic entry.  However, this isn’t to say that nothing happens at all, and there’s a bit of information to gleam from it.

The episode starts with Kanata sitting in a cute dress, in front of the phone, needing to go to the bathroom.  The show then jumps back to show you how this happened.  The military intends to test the phone line, and since Kanata is eager to please, she volunteers to sit with the phone all day.  Noël and Filicia leave to deliver some papers.  Naomi comes bearing cider and to tell Rio that the townspeople wish to see her, so she leaves.  Since Noël can’t be found, this leaves Kanata all alone.  The priest shows up with Mishio and Seiya, and shenanigans ensue, resulting in Yumina coming to punish them all and replacing the soldier’s soiled clothing with a dress.  Finally, we reach the point the episode started at, Rio comes to relieve her quite literally, and she ends up answering the phone.  Oh, and Kanata doesn’t make it.

If this all sounds like filler material to you, you’re right, but you can still gleam a few things from this episode.  First, Naomi mentions that the townspeople worry about the peace talks.  Rio says that they always go far too slowly, and she’s absolutely correct.  For example, take the Korean War, where talks started in July of 1951 and didn’t conclude until two years later in July of ’53, with the war raging throughout.  What perhaps makes Sora no Woto’s talks more striking is that we know the seas are dead, and the world is dying.  Yet, instead of trying to find a solution, the nations squabble over territory and money.  I suppose greed never dies.

The second point pertains to Rio.  Remember last episode that the priest recognized her from somewhere.  This week, Rio gives Kanata a trumpet book, and on the cover it says that it belonged to Iliya Arkadia.  If you recall, Filicia addressed her savior by that name.  The priest sees the signature, and assumes that the book must have belonged to Rio.  Kanata’s answer confirms his suspicions.  There’s been theorizing that Rio and Iliya might be related (see chart), and the priest definitely knows something we don’t, but we need a third bit of information.

At the end of the episode, Rio answers the phone, and recognizes the gruff and aged voice that responds.  The man knew she was stationed here, and used the phone test as excuse to contact her.  Rio doesn’t trust him over some event that happened in the past.  Yet, she humors him, and he asks her to save Helvetia.  Consider that we know Rio has a relationship with Princess Iliya and that of all the people in the world, she apparently has to save the country.  I submit that the theorizing is accurate, that they are sisters, and that this man is Rio’s father.  I suppose we’ll have to wait to see if it holds water.

One more aspect is a possible plot hole.  When Naomi comes, Kanata reveals that she knows they’re producing and selling alcohol.  When questioned how she found out, she simply states that if she has the time, she’ll talk about it.  Part of me wants to say the writers somehow wrote themselves into a corner and just had to plot hole it, because the thought amuses me.  In reality, I have a feeling this has to do with one of the extra insert episodes from the DVD release.

I realize some people might be disappointed with this episode, but I think it’s something we needed.  Last week went down the incredibly dark and depressing path with Filicia’s flashbacks, and this lightens up the mood a little bit.  Fortunately, you can see that the story isn’t completely suspended, and it still manages to dish out some morsels to build up for the next episode.  On that note, the next episode appears to involve typhoons and reflection.  I suggest you bring your thinking caps and an industrial strength umbrella.

Last week on Sora no Woto, we saw how the girls have turned to the black market to survive, due to lack of help from the army.  We also saw how the ties of family aren’t necessarily bound in blood.  This week, the time for another festival has come, but this somber occasion is far from the joyous affair that characterized the series’ first episode.  There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get started.

First, you can see how the cultures have mixed in the aftermath of the war.  The town is celebrating Obon, a Buddhist festival that honors the souls of the deceased.  However, the townsfolk refer to it as Fiesta de Lumieres, a Spanish rendition of a festival from France.  All three cultures have come together to form an entirely new one.  Even the church has accepted the tradition, contrary to what the central diocese would wish.  Sometimes, it’s more important to come together as a people than to preserve your own ideology.

This festival for the dead sets a framework for a flashback episode that focuses on Filicia.  Her cheerful exterior masks a world of tremendous inner pain.  She fought in the last war as part of an armored tank division.  She provided covering fire as their bugler called for help, but an enemy tank blindsided them.  The blast knocked Filicia free, who watched in horror as her comrades crawled out of the tank, on fire, before it exploded and killed them.  The bugler fell a few meters away, crushed by wreckage.  This alone would destroy most people, but Filicia still suffered more.

She fell to the ground within a tank’s sights.  The blast dropped her into an underground passage, where she stumbled upon a long dead soldier.  Whether a trick of Filicia’s damaged mind or a true supernatural occurrence, the soldier talked about the past.  We see a rather large city, perhaps No Man’s Land, devastated by a massive explosion.  They lost the war.  A horn suddenly starts playing the ever-familiar Amazing Grace, and the same woman from Kanata and Rio’s pasts appears.  It can’t be a coincidence that she appeared before all three of them.  You must wonder if and how this woman influenced Kureha and Noël as well, especially since Filicia refers to her as a princess.

This all calls into question why Filicia has stayed in the army.  In fact, her former comrade, the dead soldier, and even Rio all question her.  If the world is going to hell, why fight?  Look at Filicia.  She passes out when she accidentally cuts herself, so it’s likely she developed hemophobia from the experience.  She could have easily buried herself in a mountain of guilt, fear, and despair.  Her answer is eloquent and powerful:

There can’t possibly be any meaning in this world.  But isn’t that wonderful in its own right?  Because if there isn’t any, we can find our own.  And I found mine.  My meaning in being alive.  I don’t want them to suffer the way I did.

Filicia pulled herself out of the darkness and used it to bring light to her little part of the world.  She looks after the girls under her command as if they were her own children, not only guiding them through life but also trying to protect them from the horrors of war.  As they embrace her, you can tell that Filicia has a profound influence on their lives.

Yet, in this episode, we also get a glimpse of the other side of the coin.  In between flashbacks, the girls talk about trying to comfort Filicia.  Noël leaves the room, simply stating that she was there at the battle.  She offers no real explanation here, but it colors her comments in episode 4, where she talked about her fear of humans using machines to hurt others.  It’s clear now that this isn’t just a concept to her.  Noël has first hand experience in the devastation machines can cause.  In the same episode, she also said that she trusts machines because they can’t betray you.  I’m curious not only of her experience in the battle, but also of which side she fought.  I hope that the show will explore that soon.

Last week on Sora no Woto, we had a look into the areas surrounding the town of Seize.  The lush plains made a stark contrast with the destructive landscape of No Man’s Land.  This week pleasantly surprised me in its plot devices and development, and I would say that thus far it is the best episode.

The episode starts with a very sudden payday for Kanata, who ventures to town to buy souvenirs.  The rest of the girls have some breathing room to get to work.  The secret’s out folks, this fort has an alcohol distillery.  This is not standard operating procedure and they would face a court-martial if discovered.  However, the military’s sporadic and late shipments mean that the girls need money for supplies.  The benefits outweigh the threat to their lives.  Klaus, the officer from the previous episode, is probably in on the operation.  Filicia wants to prevent Kanata from becoming involved in their activities.

Of course, the black market attracts unsavory types, and the mafia is trying to get a foothold in the town.  We fast-forward to a liquor deal.  The men don’t appreciate the terms of the deal, and threaten to kill our heroes.  Rio comes in to save the day, and the girls fill them with bullets.  But wait, that isn’t the mafia!  They were putting on a show to scare off the criminals.  A rockslide concludes the spectacle by destroying the mafia’s car.  Naomi takes a box filled with goods from the car.  However, no one there had planned that little addition, which means we have a plot hole to investigate.

After the break, the perspective shifts to the church, where Yumina is dressing the children for the day.  Mishio, the orphan from the first episode, runs off when the church girl attempts to fix her hair.  The show now observes the day’s events from Kanata’s perspective.    She went to the glass shop, and her presence caused Naomi to notice the mafia.  She also inadvertently came up with the plan to run those men out of town.  Kanata stumbles upon Mishio at the flea market.  She causes the orphan to flee, and after talking to Yumina, heads off after her.

Mishio walks along a roof, when suddenly we hear gunshots and she stumbles.  The gutter she grabs breaks, causing a rock slide, but Kanata grabs her at the last-minute.  The two go down to assess the damage, when the orphan notices the box she has searched for among Naomi’s goods.  Mishio returns to have a tearful reunion with Yumina, who she has now accepted as her big sister.  The priest there briefly tells Kanata about the little one’s tragic past.  Her father died in the war and her mother succumbed to a mysterious illness.  We have a short scene where Kanata and Rio discuss fate, and then cut to the credits.

Episode 06 is a master class example of the cause and effect chain, but it doesn’t stop there.  It further illustrates how two independent forces act on each other without ever realizing it.  If the garrison or Kanata didn’t coexist, the chain of events would break.  For example, if Kanata hadn’t appeared at the glass shop, no one may have noticed the mafia members.  Dividing the episode into two sides further drove the point home.  With only Filicia’s side of the story, you end up with plot holes.  Where did they get the idea for the mock fight, and how did those rocks fall?  Adding Kanata’s side allows you to see the entire picture, and you get that “Aha!” moment when all the pieces fall into place.  Beyond all that, we got a further look into the workings of the town and the military’s influence of development.  Additionally, I appreciated how the studio tied the events into revealing a little bit more about Rio and Mishio.  I loved the concepts this episode brought to the table, and at the end of the series, I might even hold this up as my favorite episode.  The next episode involves the river.  Perhaps this will lead to another glimpse of that mysterious carcass from the first episode.

Editor’s note: This episode canonized the spellings Filicia and Noël.  Previous posts will reflect the change.

Last week on Sora no Woto, we got acquainted with Noël a bit better.  In addition, the town and it’s people received a bit of expansion.  We saw that not everyone is happy that the military is in town, and that war has affected the community greatly.  Today our trio of younglings gets sent on a “field trip” to visit the security outposts erected many years ago.

The episode starts with a training exercise in the tank.  Klaus, the man from the first episode, shows up with mail and new orders.  The two senior officers are definitely keeping something from the children.  Kureha seems to really like Klaus, whether it’s a crush on him or simply admiration remains to be seen.  Filicia sets up a field trip for the three girls, which really feels like a training exercise in disguise.

While exploring the area, they need to check up on three surveillance outposts.  They can’t fix them, but it’s still good to know if they’re in working condition.  When Kanata touches the first one, some symbols pop out of it; this really is some advanced technology.  They find a small stream to take a break at and have a little fun, but unfortunately, when they return to their packs they’ve been ravaged and the compass has gone missing.

The girls must rely on their own sense of direction to find the remaining two outposts.  They work well together as a team but their personalities do grate on each other a bit.  In the end, they reach their destination and finally see Nomansland.  It’s as wonderful a place as the name implies.  Every girl stationed at the outpost has made this trip and seen the true outcome of war.  We exit the episode with a short scene as the girls relax from a trying day.

The next episode’s title hints that it will continue to expand the town.  I really wanted to learn more about the town’s legend, however, the keeping the war in mind is equally important.  If you had any doubt this series intended to preach an anti-war message, rid yourself of it now.  Nomansland, even from brief shots, is a terrible place ravaged by war and a stark contrast to the field surrounding it.  The skeletons of buildings and armaments remain, strewn about an artificially created desert plain.  What makes it even more chilling is that we’ve done this ourselves in the real world on countless occasions, most prevalent when unleashing Agent Orange during Vietnam.  I’m glad that this series is real about the cost of war and avoids romanticizing the military.  I have to wonder about when these girls will have to make the choice to fight for themselves.

Last week on Sora no Woto, Kanata fell ill with malaria, resulting in an experience that strengthened the relationship she has with Rio.  We were introduced to the church, which Rio distrusts.  The episode also confirmed that the mentor for the two girls was the same person.  This week, the anime focuses a bit on fleshing out Noël, who has been in desperate need of the treatment since the start.

The episode starts with Noël once again failing to boot up the sniping system on the tank.  Filicia sends her and Kanata into town for supplies and a new lens.  On the way, Noël displays an incredible level of knowledge about the town.  The glass shop is their first stop, and Kanata once again affirms her perfect pitch ability by identifying the tone the glass makes.  This will prove important in a few minutes.

We get a short montage of supply collection around the town, and finally the two girls are loading the last of the crates into their jeep.  Suddenly, a young boy runs into Noël, followed by Yumina.  The boy yells at them before running off, and Yumina explains he lost his parents in the war.  This drives home that the military isn’t all fun and games, and not all the townspeople may appreciate the outpost.

Finally, we get to the glass maker, Carl, who makes the lenses that Noël has tested in the tank.  The lenses use a material combination that he finds difficult to reproduce.  While he works, Noël talks about her misgivings about the military.  After she passes out, Kanata talks to Carl and has an epiphany of how to play the trumpet.  Her playing wakes Noël up, who remembers her perfect pitch ability.  She can use it to compare the new lenses to the original by the sound they make.

I think this episode was exactly what we needed out of the series.  It expanded the town a little more, and gave Noël’s character a good shot in the arm.  It seems she doesn’t like being around people in general, and I’m curious what made her that way.  In addition, I think it’s good that Kanata can move on a bit after learning how to play better.  The next episode title implies an exploration mission, which I think will reveal a little more of the town’s legend.

Ritalin prescribed Ritsu, who dyed her hair and let her bangs down, along with ever curious Yui go into town for a few supplies for some of the equipment from their K-ON club. Along the way they meet a few of the townsfolk, including one small kid who doesn’t like their music, says it killed [...]