Month: July 2017

E21 35-36: The Junction Boys

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Eyeshield 21 episodes 35-36 review

E21 36

The training continues… and continues… and continues. Just like the movie The Junction Boys, the Devil Bats are put through a ridiculous training regimen and have to make it to the end no matter what. There really wasn’t much substance in either of these two episodes, just the characters pushing the heavy truck through the desert and out of a pond. This wasn’t very fun to watch, and even less fun to listen to; all you’d hear was grunting by the characters. I wonder how they keep up that grunting even while talking to each other. In any case, a real dud of a week for Eyeshield 21.

But they’re out of the desert now, and the trainer just won a ton of money betting on Red 21 at the Las Vegas casino! So maybe some actual exciting stuff is about to happen.

Episode 35 rating (out of four stars): **

Episode 36 rating: **

HxH 60: Let the games begin

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Hunter x Hunter episode 60 review

HxH 60

It’s Greed Island time! And that means we begin to get situations like this: characters angsting over meaningless things such as when to get in line. It doesn’t matter when you get in line, Killua, it just matters how good your Nen is! If you and Gon had gotten in line, you would have gotten in regardless of the fact that you were in line; your Nen was good enough either way! And to think half the episode was spent on such a frivolous topic!

The other half is spent going over the laborious rules of the game. If you think this is boring, just wait for the rest of the game to be explained. Seriously, I don’t know how this game ever got off the ground or why Ging was considered so great of a game developer.

But what may have been stupidest of all in this episode was how they decided the order of people going in the game. You’ve got a room full of 40 people, how do you decide the order? I know! Rock-paper-scissors. Yeah, that’ll work. Yes, it is technically possible to decide the order that way; you need a very complicated bracket to do so, and it will take at least 80 matches or so to figure it out. No one thought common sense: a simple drawing of names from a hat. No, instead, it’s rock-paper-scissors. Why is this relevant? Because rock-paper-scissors becomes the impetus for so much more in this series. It is a key plot point.

Now, has Hunter x Hunter jumped the shark? Not yet. Not until that one moment that you’ll know when you see it. It’s probably not for a little while yet, but I’ll tell you when it happens (as if you’ll need to be prodded). For now, HxH is wallowing in mediocrity. It isn’t flat-out bad yet.

Character of the episode: Melody

Her touching words to Leorio about him and Kurapika gave this episode something good to hang its hat on.

Episode rating (out of four stars): **

30 Day Anime Challenge: Day 30

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30 Day Anime Challenge

Day 30: Your Favorite Anime

We’re at the finish line. Now just to crawl across. What’s my favorite anime? It’s one of these four: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Kill la Kill, or Shangri-La. Ultimately it’s just a matter of personal preference, rather than some sort of complicated look into the actual content of the shows. So I’m going with Madoka minus Rebellion. I hated Rebellion with a passion, but I loved the original Madoka story. If we could expunge Rebellion from existence, then everything would be perfect with Madoka. But you know how it is, cash cows get milked just a little too much, and then you get utter crap like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Trek: Into Darkness. That’s what happened with Madoka. In any case, Madoka‘s my favorite, it wins the final one of these challenges, and with that, this Survivor Auction is… over!

AD 1-2: Hiccup

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Azumanga Daioh episodes 1-2 review

AD 2

The real star of these first two episodes was not the one I expected. My prediction was that Osaka was going to catch my fancy. If not her, then at least Sakaki for fanservice purposes. But guess who captured my heart?

Tomo.

So it’s Tomo who’s the one I’ve latched onto. Her energetic spirit and means for making any situation funny is exactly what I was hoping for. For some reason, I thought Osaka would be that one. Nope, it’s Tomo. So Tomo it is. The Konata Izumi of this series. The one who makes it tick.

These first two episodes were good, and there was no awkward “let’s talk about food” in the first episode. Osaka separating her two chopsticks was humorous, but sorry Osaka, I’m going with Tomo right now. Even when it was Osaka hiccuping, Tomo won the scene. A great start for this series.

Episode 1 rating (out of four stars): ***

Episode 2 rating: ***1/2