Sunday, February 22, 2009

Gundam 00 s2 ep 20

Recap

TBA

Reaction
RAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Anew bites the dust, and man does Lyle take it hard. Beating on Setsuna after and still raging by next ep. Its a little too late, and not like his resolve has really changed so it doesn't look like he'll jump sides, but his relationship will now be strained. Good to see Soma still has some bite, even if Alle doesn't. New unit's beam bending is alright, but nothing epic. ON that note, seems like Ribbons has total control on all the innovators. Lets see how the rest of this season plays out.
Read more!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Clannad 16-17 quick writeup

Two very touching episodes. Spoilers inside.


Episode 16

Tomoya celebrates Christmas and New Years as Nagisa advances in her pregnancy. The gang comes together again to celebrate and talk about life. Kotomi is researching her parents work and starts to discuss other worlds. It is then that Tomoya remembers the play. He wonders how he knew the story, but doesn't dwell on it too long. The rest feel how fast Tomoya and Nagisa's life is moving and Tomoya admits he's not even sure if hes fully aware of him being a father. One day the city is frozen and cars, trains, everything is frozen. As luck would have it, Nagisa starts her contractions. Yagi is able to come, but Nagisa can't get to the hospital. Its painful and she passes out a few times. When Ushio is finally born, Nagisa falls asleep for the last time. Tomoya regrets every meeting Nagisa.

Episode 17

Four years have passed. Tomoya is almost lifeless and tries to avoid having any free time. any days off and free time he has he spends wasting away at a Pincho parlor. One day, Sanae comes to pay a visit. She decides to take Tomoya on a date. At a ice cream parlor, Sanae asks Tomoya to take a vaction with her and Akio. He doesn't really want to, but she presses him hard and he feels he owes this to her. When he get there, Sanae and Akio are gone, and a note tells him they had important buisness and he will need to take care of things. He already knows this means his dauther Ushio who they have been looking over for the past four years. The day is rather uneventful with Ushio playing with a toy that breaks. He fixes it, but Ushio ignores Tomoya's warning to let it dry and the glue sticks the toy's wheel. The next day, Tomoya notes Sanae and Akio aren't back, and decides to go out. Its not until now that he notices this is the first time since she was born that they have spent any time together alone.

Thoughts:

Maybe its because i knew it was comming, but Nagisa's death didn't impact me as much as i thought it would. Its funny how the world seems to be working against them with Nagisa giving birth early on the day the city freezes over. While i can see Tomoya's reasons, i never thought he would come to hate having met Nagisa.

Ushio is really a mini Nagisa. running around and not watching where she goes. Tomoya obviously still doesn't have the mindset to be around his own child, trying to avoid her as much as he can. Tomoya's additude really does urk me and if the preview is any indicator, we havent seen the worst of it.

Read more!

My Totally Random and Untrue Predictions for Gundam 00

The following are my predictions for Gundam 00 end of second season.


- Alleujah realizes it is hopeless to chase Soma. He dumps her and becomes Sumeragi's new drinking buddy. They fall in love. (Halleujah takes over at night)

- Setsuna fights and defeats Bushido for 00-riser's hand in marriage.

- A previously unknown pair of innovators are revealed. They are Lyle and Neil. They were kicked out because their hair color and name weren't stupid enough.

- Soma kills Andrei. Falls in love with Louise and makes her sane again. Saji goes emo.

- Ribbons is overthrown by Regene for his treatment of Wang. He takes over like how Ribbons took over for Alexander in season 1. Sets up Season 3.

- The Arios is damaged beyond repair. Recreated into the Battery Gundam for the ptloemy. (See attached photo at bottom)

- Tieria wanting to keep Neils dreams switches Gundams with Lockon. Eventually marries Veda.

-For the final battle all the Gundams combine to form
Archer 00-CheruSeraBatt Riser .

- Memento Mori 3-10 are destroyed.



Will add to list when i think about more.

(Picture by LightningZERO)

Read more!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Gundam 00 s2 ep 18

Its been 4 months since the "break pillar" incident. CB is commencing a mission to finally destroy the second Memento Mori. The other gundams provide support to the oo-riser while it uses its hyper saber (that's my nick name for it for now). Saji piloted the riser only because the Memento Mori is a destructive machine. With the Memento Mori destroyed, the gundams retreat.

A lot has happened in these 4 months. the break pillar incident was labeled as an attempt to destroy the elevator by the anti-government forces, and the remaining federation forces were absorbed by A-laws. Setsuna's wound is healing, but is being slowed by the fake GN particles. Meanwhile a-laws pressure on Kataron has been increasing. Shirin wonders how long they can keep running.

Marie meanwhile has gone back to using the name Soma and acts coldly to everyone including Alleujah. Alleujah wants to stop Soma from fighting, but Lockon says he should try to learn while Soma is fighting. Saji wonders if the same happened to Louise.

Wang asks ribbions about his plans. Ribbons doesn't fully explain to her, but tells her she will never be an innovator. Regene doesn't like the treatment Wang is getting, but cannot argue back because Ribbons knows they have been close these past 4 months.

Back at A-Laws Andrei has been promoted for killing "the rebel" Sergei. Its the innovators that come and congratulate him which lets Louise find out Sergei was Andrei's father. Andrei says he did what he did for peace. Louise wonders if she should be able to shoot Saji.

CB discusses A-Laws information control and realize that need Veda to do it. They decide to regain control of Veda, and to do it they need an innovator. Lockon is not there however, he is preoccupied with Anew in bed. Lyle admits he never was close with his brother or his family. He left for school so he didn't have to be compared to his brother who he knew was better than him. Lyle asks Anew about her family, but she can't answer him. He decides its alright if she can't say anything. They kiss and in the middle of the kiss, Anew spaces out and has her innovator eyes. She comes to and Lyle calls her a clutz for spacing out during a kiss.

Thanks to Anew, A-Laws now know where CB is and launch an attack. The gundams launch but before Lyle does, he announces he loves her to the shock of the rest of the crew. Wang gets a message with the location of veda to give to CB.

Back with Kataron the A-laws found their hideout. One shoots at a child but Marina goes to block the shot.


Reaction: (may be added on to later)

Well no cooldown episode this time. Lots of action, but even more in terms of relationships. the first obvious one is the speeding of the relationship between Lyle and Anew. They sure have gotten close these past 4 months are are now, assumingly, sleeping together. Lyle knows about Anew being a innovator, and now needs to decide what hes going to do. While their relationship is growing, another is failing. Marie has now gone back to Soma and is ignoring Alleujah. She is still working with CB and presumably still in love with Alleujah, but it seems she felt that her attitude and comfort meant she couldn't protect Sergei. A few speculative relationships. Wang and Regene seems to be growing. There also may be a relationship between Tieria and Melena, but that seems more like a joke. On another issue, seems like Setsuna was hit with a GN gun after all, despite having a physical bullet removed. Seems the 00 is keeping him alive. Saji still unsure about weather to fight or not.

Read more!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Ef a tale of Melodies ep 11 + series review

Special post. Spoilers ahead. I wont be doing a detailed recap but this was a special episode.

Recap:

Kuze starts off asking himself why he wants to be with Mizuki. He eventually breaks all his masks in his mind and goes to the roof to accept her challenge. When he get there, Mizuki kicks him. She claims that she has killed him and he is now reborn as a new person. She wants to answer all of his questions from the last meeting, but they all turn out to be because she loves him. She says happiness, sorrow, loneliness and completeness are all part of love. As they finish making up, she tries to run into his arms, but he moves back and she falls. He claims it was revenge for before. However as everything is going fine, he collapse from his disease. He is admitted to the hospital and Yuu says that the only possible cure would only last 3 years, and comes with a very low success rate. When mizuki talks with Kuze he says he wants to try, even if this is the first time he ever thought he would lose. Near the end the EKG flatlines, but recovers.

Thoughts:

Episode:

A little short with two insert song, which is the opening to the first season and Mizuki singing Yuuko's song. But i felt it was a nice treat. other than that, we got a treat with a alternate OP and ED. Kuze gets off his ass and decides to keep living which is nice. I wish they didn't chicken out and actually killed off Kuze, but i guess with the death of Yuuko, it would be too much heartache for one show. And i guessed since her introduction that Miki is Mizuki, which is confirmed by the ED. The whole big risk/low chance story is very reminiscent of Hantsuki which was an awesome romance anime.

Series:
A great romance anime. Expectations are high for this series coming off the first one, but it didn't disappoint. The tragedy of Yuuko was quite a surprise. Combined with Kuze about to die, keeps you on the edge of your seat. I also don't really see any characters i hated (with the exception of the teacher) so unlike the first we don't feel like we need to emphasize with a character we hate.
Read more!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Gundam 00 s2 ep 17

In a flashback, we see Andrei as a commander in a war that is not going his way. As the orbital elevator is attacked, Sergei orders the retreat to protect the citizens, knowing full well that he is abandoning Holly, his wife. He states Holly is a soldier, and is prepared to die. Holly's body was never found and it was Hank who comforted Andrei.

Back in the present Hank is telling Sergei what a fool he was and how the whole thing will be a failure. Ribbons meanwhile tells Regene that humans fail to learn about history and will be doomed to repeat it. Therefore he believes it will take an innovator to lead the world. Seeing as how he created the other innovators, he believes it will be himself. Back at the elevator, Kataron ground forces are being attacked. This sends Lockon into a fit of rage and he goes in to fight them.

Back on the Ptolemy Setsuna knows that the only hope they have to taking out the second memento mori is to use 00-riser. But to bring out all of its power he will need a second pilot. Ian wants to go ask Lasse, but Setsuna asks Saji. Saji is reluctant, but agrees to save the 60,000 lives. On their way, they get flanked by Devine in a empress. Devine manages to grab onto the 00, but Using the new Riser system the 00 was able to destroy him, however the beam missed memento mori. feeling relieved that it missed, commander fatso orders the continuation of the firing. However this is short lived as the "shot" was not a shot at all, but an incredibly long beam saber. it manages to cut the memento mori before quickly running out of power, but they failed to hit the firing system.

The shot misses the main tower, but the damage is enough to activate the purge system built into the plates and the whole tower begins to disintegrate. the falling pieces hit the trains killing all the captives. Sumeragi makes a wide announcement to all mobile suits in the area to drop the fight and shoot down the pieces, at least the ones going to hit highly populated areas. CB is the first to go and start shooting, but it becomes clear quickly that they cannot do it alone. Luckly Marie appears in the archer to provide support. Kataron is next, followed by the federation. when the A-laws appears, Sumeragi has confidence that "she" will not let people die, referring to Kati.

At sunset the pieces have been destroyed and Hank and Sergei are looking over the damage. Suddenly Hank's suit is destroyed by Andrei. Andrei begins attacking Sergei and upon realizing that it is his father decides to exact his revenge for his mother. He manages to kill Sergei and Sergei regrets not being able to be a real father to Andrei. He pushes away his suit and it explodes with Marie screaming in the background.

Reaction:

Wow, a great episode. A true spectacle to see all the shots and all the forces working together. in terms of suit abilities, we got a few. Starting with the 00, we see it becomes just ridiculous with Saji piloting the riser. This is a great choice IMO because it gives the writers the freedom to have Setsuna lose any battle, and a great reason for him to win the next. Also gives them the freedom of using Saji or not. On the Arios side, we get to see the double wrist guns in action, and the Archer which is technically part of the Arios set. With Cherudim we can confirm it has missiles hiding in its skirt (go ahead, laugh it up). While neither Sergei dying or Andrei being the one to kill him surprises me, to see that Andrei, when the fight was for all intensive reasons over, kill Sergei without pause really makes me hate him. This also brings an interesting point in where the public opinion will be. While the death of the captives means nobody will know the truth, its un-hidable that the memento mori is a a-laws device and the collapse was ultimately brought on by it. It would take a lot of media manipulation to fool the people into believing it was the coup that brought it down, or that that kind of force was necssary. We'll have to see. 4 month time skip comming up, and a very cute looking Anew :)

Plus/Minus ratings:

Plus:
- Sumeragi, for rallying everyone to work together
- "collation of the willing" for being able to put everything aside to save the people.
- 00-riser for its 500m beam saber. Zeta gundam, eat your heart out.

Minus:
- Andrei. Added to list of "people who need a mobile suit dropped on them"
- Commander fatso. Even thought he died, he needed to do that 6 episodes before he debuted.
- Saji. Its more than half a season and he still doesn't want to fight.
- Marina, for thinking her song would have done something.
Read more!