Indefinite Hiatus

Gintokiro in all his glory

Hey all, due to some recent personal stuff I think I’ll have to put Anicongruence on an indefinite hiatus. Nothing is wrong, I’m just becoming increasingly busy and unable to post and so I thought it best just to put the blog aside for now as to post properly, I do have to put a good amount of time in and other more pressing things (studies to be exact) demand my attention more than the site. The site was actually generating some good traffic and I do not want to loose it, so this may be resurrected some day, who knows. Hopefully it will in the near future. Take care until then. Gintoki out!

Persona 4 – Episode 14

Persona 4 – Because Fishing is serious business

Area no Kishi – Episode 02

This episode was rather different from the first – it dialled down the humour and has a more character focused story. I guess that is to be expected as the first episode needs to introduce everyone however, from watching this episode I think I’m starting to see where Area no Kishi is heading. Kakeru seems to have some good character development going on and perhaps Suguru isn’t as generic as I first thought – though all the fangirls being absent from this episode did help. In any case, Area no Kishi seems to be trying to be a proper shonen show, and I’m not so sure that being so serious over an issue such as football, is going to work. As I said before, I can appreciate the passion and esteem which some people afford football and footballers however, what I don’t understand is dramatisation of said things. Like this:

Killing intent?… You’re just playing football – even if you take it very seriously, I don’t think anyone has a killing intent. Lines like these might work in Naruto or Bleach because they have huge action scenes and a lot of people do actually die however, I do not think playing high school football is really equivalent to fighting tailed demon beasts or fighting with swords. Despite this though, I still find myself getting drawn more and more into Area no Kishi. I quite like the way Nana is getting used more and more as a mediator to reveal what Suguru is really thinking to us viewers, seeing as he is not a central character who does monologues or the chatty type for that matter. Though, I’m still not sure about the possibility of a love triangle, I am more inclined to say that its becoming more and more apparent that Nana likes Kakeru. Whilst the alien part was just cheesy in the first episode, I think it was actually a pretty good idea in this episode Kakeru shares things with us we may not have found out otherwise and we get this whole pathetic fallacy going on resulting in the tension between the brothers. This isn’t gcse english but, that is what it was. So the scripting in this episode was good. Though again, I found that at times, the dialogue didn’t seem to flow for example – If the alien person knows that he has a weak left, then why is he going into a monologue about it?! Surely you don’t tell someone that they know something then repeat it? Whilst it isn’t a huge issue, I just felt the writer was struggling to expose a lot of the back story that is missing and we are wondering about so used plot devices like this.

All that said, I did like the episode. Great character development going on, I’m beginning to connect with the characters and slowly, semblance of a detailed and dramatic plot line is forming. The end was particularly of surprise. I didn’t expect that and I’m quite curious what the outcome is. I think it will become such that Suguru will reveal his dream to Kakeru who will be motivated to become the Area no Kishi that Suguru wanted and he is going to get good as Suguru recovers so they can live out that dream. Cliché and predictable however, I think it will be entertaining nonetheless. So overall, I’m looking forward to the next episode. Kakeru looks set to get serious and the show looks set to pick up in momentum.

The episode made me randomly think of this:

I only usually get this excited when they say the title of the movie, in the movie!

*watches*

I need… A Knight in the Area!

Ah! Ah! He said it, he said it! Did you hear?!

Thermae Romae – Episode 02

My body was not ready!!

Lolololol This show is absolutely ridiculous. I cannot begin to imagine how this show was thought about – though they might love Japan a lot as the central premise of this show is Lucius being amazed at how much better Japanese culture is compared to Roman civilization – which isn’t really a fair comparison as the latter is thousands of years younger than the other. In any case, in this episode, Lucius was invited to a councils house to build him an outside bath but Lucius doesn’t know how to go about it. Upon finding an outside hot spring – yup, he ends up in Japan again, with all those flat faced, highly advanced slaves. One thing I can’t figure out from this show, is why he inadvertently makes Lucius refer to Japanese people as such – I don’t know. In either case its not important, though, it doesn’t help that he draws the Japanese people looking so silly.

The majority of comedy in this show doesn’t come from any kind of jokes or some sort of manzai style like the majority of comedy anime nowadays, rather from a typical routine in the plot which we can all see coming yet every time, still wail in laughter. It follows: Lucius sees the flat-faced slaves, they tell him to settle down, they hand him some traditional japanese cuisine/style of bathing and upon trying it, its the best thing ever. The comedy is made almost entirely from this formula and what makes it funny is Lucius’ seiyuu Ono Ryo and the awesome faces he gives us. We get the typical anime overreaction however, the voicing and just the sheer stupidity of his responses are what trigger off the laughs. I especially loved the style in this episode – being handed a hot spring cooked egg and then having some sort of epiphany as if he learnt a universal truth over it, with the world’s great achievements flashing behind Lucius’ gawking face; is priceless. It really highlights how really simple but actually clever the writing in this show is. Ono Ryo makes Lucius and Lucius makes this show.

Whilst the art is really crude, I am actually finding myself liking it more and more. It just suits lucius and honestly, if it was traditional animation, I don’t think his reactions would work as well. I just love the grand way the character carries himself and how epic they make his reactions. It sounds like the lowest form of comedy but if that’s so, then call me a commoner. I handn’t thought this anime would even be a serious contender as a comedy however, if it continues like this, I may give it honourable mentions for comedy of Winter 2012 season. It isn’t any Danshi Koukousei Nichijou however, it will still give you enough laughs. Here’s to looking forward to the next episode!

So that’s what Japan is like…

Amagami SS+ Plus – Episode 02

Well, it was quite obvious that Tsukasa would see through Noriko’s plot – it was far too obvious, well clearly not that obvious seeing as Junichi completely fails to see it, however, what was not obvious is how exceedingly lucky Junichi would get in this episode. For some reason Amagami seems to have a fascination with this school grounds shed (which, never seems to be in a dimension that occupies the same space as the school however, seems unbeknownst to anyone but Junichi and whichever girl he is with) and all sorts of crazy things happen there. As we all know from the first season, whenever someone enters that shed with Junichi, strange things occur – this time it wasn’t some weird play but we actually got a proper reaction out of Tsukasa. Which by far, is the best part of this new season of Amagami. Seeing all her different faces and personalities has been the highlight of the Tsukasa ark this season – whilst the first concentrated on Junichi penetrating her iron clad facade.

Whilst I often find the generous rewards Junichi gets for his quite feeble attempts to be a bit unrealistic, I also do quite enjoy the dynamic that Junichi and Tsukasa had going on. The different ways he makes Tsukasa gradually lower her guard and break her usual fake mask is always interesting to see and the relationship we see developing from it is anything other than insincere. As I said in my first impressions of Amagami SS+ Plus, I really do not care for all this high school election plot nonsense however, Amagami makes it interesting and really ties the character development into it well. It was nice seeing Sae going strong even though se wasn’t with Junichi and Risa even made a small cameo in the hall. Junichi does actually seem to try to help and we do get the feeling that he does genuinely care for Tsukasa’s efforts and even though his reward for his efforts are pandered beyond reason, I can’t fault Junichi’s character for actually coming across as mature and truly dedicated to the point where he works his butt of to try to get to a good enough university to go with Tsukasa but even acknowledging that he accepts Tsukasa would also go without him. It is nice to see Junichi actually act like a man this season, especially compared to the Haruka arc of the first season – Junichi was practically a pet.

Just a playful dog bro…

Didn’t help with dog. Still get rewarded.

Overall though, I’ve really enjoyed this arc. Not only did we see Tsukasa grow and develop as a character and got to see her many sides, I actually thought Junichi grew quite a lot himself and showed us a few sides we didn’t know he had. They handled this story quite well, there was drama, laughs and the romance wasn’t overdone or just weird kinky stuff. So for me, even though it was only a short lived, 2 episode arc (half the length of the original) I thought they directed it really well.

I now await the next arc, looks like Rihoko is up next and despite her getting friend-zones in the last season (hard) I really hope they give her a proper ending this time.

PS.

Sorry Couldn’t resist.