In all of the shows coming out for this anime season, Citrus is the only one that I have actually seen the original material. The manga was popular for a time in the school where I was studying and people were lending their copies of the manga. Out of curiosity, I followed suit and it was quite an entertaining read. Just like the manga, the anime delivers the same amount of fun.
REACTION – We continue where we left off in the previous episode as the Colossal Titan dives headlong into the pinned down Eren from the tops of the wall. The resulting impact blew and burnt most of the Scouts such as Mikasa and Hanji.
REACTION – In this episode, we continue where we left off after Boruto’s teacher snaps and tries to attack him and his friends. Boruto and the others are under the impression that their teacher is furious of their recent behavior and asks for forgiveness – but that doesn’t really convince their teacher.
REACTION – The episode focuses on three things: Akane’s track meet, Kotaro’s publishing offer, and Chinatsu’s feelings for Kotaro.
For Kotaro’s case, he was contacted by the publishing company who received his novel manuscript. Despite strong objections from her mother in pursuing writing as a career, he goes to meet with the publisher anyways.
However, Kotaro was met with disappointment as the publisher states that he is not fit for serious literature and should try doing light novels instead. For me, it felt kind of an insult for Kotaro since I, as a writer and a person, know the feeling of expecting you are great at what you do but get shut down by other people – telling you that you’re not fit for such career, hobby or job.
As for Akane’s track meet, she lost in the race and had the worst possible time which earned her some disappointed remarks from Takumi, the president of the track and field club. Although it is clearly quite evident that Takumi wants to comfort Akane, but nuh-uh, mate, she taken.
What’s surprising though is Chinatsu’s request to confess to Kotaro after Akane just said that they were in a relationship. I understand that you need some sort of closure but isn’t the fact that your desired person is already taken enough to discourage you from going further?
Quite concerned on Chinatsu’s request since it could affect their friendship a bit if she tries anything fishy and Kotaro gets baited real good. But I’m also complacent that no such thing will happen.
Every time a similar situation happens like this, I always think about the concepts of netorare, cheating – it could be possible.
I’d also like to take note how wonderful it was to incorporate a good song in a montage of Akane’s track race and Kotaro riding a train to the publishing company. It gives off an air of uncertainty and calmness as the two embark on their separate journeys to accomplish their dreams.
Currently what I can say about the Kotaro and Akane pairing is that they are still at the stage where they prioritize their own dreams. However, I am certain that as time goes on in their relationship, it could make them open up more and realize each other’s importance to each other.
The whole relationship, at the moment, can be characterized by awkward stares, conversations which is pretty much expected from characters like Kotaro and Akane.
I hope the anime series continues on this wonderful path where they incorporate realism when writing their characters and the story as a whole.
REACTION – This episode was just an adorable sequence of events – the highlight of the entire episode. Tsuki ga Kirei delivers another great episode with just depicting real life adolescent romance and that is some good writing, right there.
It is the middle of midterm exams. Akane’s track meet a few days afterwards and a school trip a few days after that.
In the first parts of the episode, Akane is pestered by her friends that Hira, a clubmate, is probably going to confess to her any day now. Overheard, Kotarou is a little bit flustered and concern. He goes and chats with Akane on LINE to confirm his suspicions but can’t find a good way to do so. The chat ends up to be a wonderful exchange between two middle school students.
Kotarou seeks solace in Akane after his manuscript doesn’t win a writing contest, then Akane replies “I think you’re fine the way you are,” using the same words Kotarou said to her during the sports festival. It’s a pretty adorable scene and gives away what each side feels about the other.
Track meet comes and Hira attempts to confess his feelings to Akane but failing to do so, much to my relief. Akane beats her personal record and does well in the meet. Kotarou helps out in the local shrine – the reason why he couldn’t go to Akane’s track meet and cheer for her personally.
One of the most adorable things in this episode is how Kotarou is so tense if Akane replies to his messages or not. Slightly glancing at his smartphone, wondering if he should ask how her track meet went and all that good stuff.
Akane ends up meeting Kotarou at the shrine and there’s an awkward yet adorable exchange between the two. Kotarou wondering if he’s rather too forward or too timid with conversing and Akane wondering whether she should make the first step – it’s just too much.
Then, the big event – the usage of the “tsuki ga kirei” phrase which has a double meaning in Japanese, “I love you” has been done. Kotarou, our man, steps in and says “Will you go out with me?” leaving Akane shocked and confused.
The episode ends there. Goddamnit.
Overall, this episode was adorable to watch. I’ve been noticing how the confession scene at the end was so beautifully animated. Despite being a night scene, it was done perfectly – a glowing moon, the calm waters in the pond, a warm soundtrack. All of this contributed to the episode’s success.
I wonder what’ll happen next.
REACTION – The third episode shows Yoshino as she struggles to learn the charms of Manoyama and thinking about its future. She realizes the need for this after not performing as well as she hoped in an interview with the local TV station.
The “Kingdom of Chupakabra” has been invited to a regional mascot exhibit where each of the region’s towns show off their tourism mascots. It all goes into chaos as the mascot head is missing. The solution: either wear the old Tourism board’s mascot “Kabura Kid” costume or wear the head part which was found in a garbage facility.
Yoshino braves in and decides to use Kabura Kid’s head and the Chupakabura’s body – much to the surprise of the audience. She then opens up about the history of Manoyama, how the people are not really intent on changing the town, and her job as Queen.
It showed a little bit of change in Yoshino as she was initially hesitant on the whole “Queen” job. She’s grown affection for the town and is willing to help the Tourism board to make it lively again, along with the help of Ririko, Shiori, Maki, and Sanae.
This episode was more of a peek into Manoyama’s people – how it was before and how it get to where it is now.
I could not stop cringing during the interviews and the regional mascot exhibit scenes. There’s a part of me that doesn’t feel comfortable with characters, or people in real life, being vocal in their feelings and thoughts.
Enjoyable episode and can’t wait for the next one.
REACTION – Nothing particularly big happening in this episode. As the sports festival begins, the school is riled up with all the common sports events being organized.
The episode shows off what this series does best and that is the portrayal of adolescence in middle school. Kotarou somewhat displeased about having to participate in sports event considering his lack of athleticism. He does whatever odd jobs he can to steer clear of any athletic duties – move equipment, clean, and all that.
His lack of athleticism is clearly evident when he was assigned to a relay event and toppled over whilst running.
The scene where he went to the school clinic and got his wounds tended by one of Akane’s friends – being called “Curly-kun” and the sloppy first aid treatment.
Akane, on the other hand, is very athletic as we’ve known from the first episode that she is in the track and field team. She does pretty well in these types of events. The adorable part is that she gets nervous without her plushie – which she ends up losing. Because of that, she lost an event and eventually their whole team finished third place.
The major event in this episode was Kotarou’s effort in the sidelines whilst Akane was occupied with sports events. After noticing that Akane was getting nervous and there was no plushie with her in sight, Kotarou goes around the school to find it. If you look closely at scenes where Kotarou appears in the background, you can see what I mean.
When Kotarou returned Akane’s plushie, it was just the most cutest thing ever to behold this series. As the day ends, Akane and Kotarou converse on the mobile app LINE and I think that just completes the entire adolescent portrayal.
This episode was much more livelier and had more stuff going on compared to the first one. Tsuki ga Kirei is doing a great job in portraying a simple life in middle school – the friendships, the romantic moments, the embarrassment and all that good sauce.
I hope it continues at this pace.
REACTION – For the past two episodes, Attack on Titan’s second season has been giving us some interesting information about the creation of the walls, the Order of the Wall cult, and some of the characters’ backstories – which is something that wasn’t really focused in the first season since it was mostly about Eren, Mikasa and Armin setting their place in the Survey Corps.
At the beginning of the episode, we resume from where we left off when Connie found his family’s house being smashed by a barely living Titan. What caught me off guard was that Titan spoke “Welcome Back” to Connie as he was about to move along with the rest of the group. Did one of his family turn into a titan? If so, then is it possible that Titans we see now were once human?
All of this is pure suspicion and warrants a separate article of its own.
On other parts, Ymir asks her group leader to have her and Christa to leave the group since they are unarmed and would be Titan fodder in the process. Now, the interaction between these two is interesting. Christa was going about “you don’t have to protect me. Are you doing this because of my family?”
Ymir denies this though and says that she joined the corps for personal reasons. What’s up with that? Is there something important about Christa’s family?
Moving on to the remaining groups, they eventually find out that there was no breach in the wall and rest up at a nearby abandoned castle. Only to be attacked by a large group of Titans, much to their surprise since Titans can’t move at night. The Beast Titan, which was shown scaling the wall, could’ve been the cause of this rare event but how it does it is still very confusing.
Another thing to note about this scene is that Ymir is caught in the act of doing something. Is this related to the attack that happened afterwards in the castle?
On Eren and the gang’s group, Armin and Hange come up with the conclusion that the walls may be made of hardened Titan skin – which is pretty much obvious from the build-up of the first two episodes. So their plan is to retake Shiganshina by using Eren to re-build the breach in the wall which was made in the first season.
Also, Pastor Nick got spooked after seeing a huge exodus of refugees from the outer walls after the wall breach. He discloses that Christa is the one that they should be looking for, which is quite alarming since Christa is in the aforementioned castle that is currently being attacked by Titans.
It’s a race against time.
This episode has left me asking so many questions and answered only few to none. I hope Eren’s basement, Christa’s involvement, and Pastor Nick’s words will provide more answers in the next one.
FIRST LOOK – Eromanga-sensei focuses on two step-siblings who are now living by themselves after their parents die in an accident. The older brother, Masamune Izumi, is a light novel author studying in high school while his little sister, Sagiri, is a shut-in who hasn’t left her room due to her mother’s death.
The funniest thing about this is that Izumi realizes that his little sister is, in fact, the anonymous online illustrator “Eromanga” that contributes to his light novel’s art. So yeah, Sagiri opens up to her older brother about the whole “Eromanga” business (although she’s a bit embarrassed about her pen name) to which Izumi accepts the entire thing.
The thing about this series is that it portrays a sibling relationship that is too perfect where both siblings are pretty much one step closer to romance (I’m looking at you, Oreimo). Some argue that a situation where two siblings agree on each other is very rare, and I, personally, agree on that being that I have my own sibling and we get along pretty nicely (seriously).
This series is not at all unique when it comes to its story, its animation but it is definitely entertaining. If I were to bring up a comparison, it would be similar to Oreimo – a series where a brother realizes that her goody two shoes of a sister is actually a hardcore otaku.
With that comparison and the exchanges that Izumi and Sagiri were having in their whole “opening up” scene, I am led to suspect that the little sister has some romantic feelings for her older brother. I won’t even be surprised if it takes that turn because of what we’ve witnessed from Oreimo.
Plus points since the original author of Eromanga-sensei is also the same one who made Oreimo. So, yep, we know where this is going, lads.
Well, at least, the little sister isn’t that much of a brat compared to Kirino. Sagiri is much more reasonable and logical to deal with than “I love my onii-chan and no one will have him.” But that still remains to be seen.
Overall, this first episode was definitely something entertaining to watch. If you ever watched Oreimo’s first episode, you’d probably get the similar vibe. Now, on to the second episode!
REACTION – Alice to Zouroku focuses on an old man named Zouroku and a girl named Sana, who has the ability to create any thing she imagines out of thin air.
The episode starts with Sana’s escape from the research facility she was detained in. An unknown lady, who wields the same power, helps her out by giving protection as she escapes to Shizuoka.
Here, she meets old man Zouroku in a convenience store and decides to acquaint herself with him since, after reading his mind, she has deemed her as a nice person.
After a couple of accidents and encounters with other detainees of the research facility, Zouroku finds himself stuck with Sana, much to his displeasure.
The episode was pretty much confusing to me since it was basically just a fight with some “summoning sh*t from thin air” being used. I couldn’t help but notice J.C. Staff’s usage of CGI when it comes to vehicles – although it’s not the best, it works and that’s pretty much great for any anime series.
Some anime use CGI too much that they don’t really know how to balance the traditional 2D animation with CGI. You mix CGI and 2D too much, it becomes really odd to look at.
Ah, J.C. Staff – you never fail to mix up a magical, fantasy show with some good ol’ moe.
Zouroku, as a character, can be easily described as your doting grandpa. He doesn’t like being bothered by too much disruptions or big problems and just simply wants to lay low. The situation’s pretty much changed after he meets Sana.
Sana is the one brat that will probably annoy you if she was your child or your grandchild, for this matter. You, as a man of old age, don’t want no youngsters disrupting your “old man time” – no f*cking way, sir.
The way the story is being presented, I can’t help but bring up a similarity to the anime series, Brynhildr in the Darkness. Same thing but teenage characters: a group of girls escape a research facility that were conducting tests on them for their special powers and a guy who’s caught up in the whole fiasco since one of the witches resemble closely with his childhood friend who died many years ago.
But the thing that I like about this show is that it’s not much on the magic powers are being focused so far but about the two characters, Sana and Zouroku, who develop some sort of fatherly-daughter bond. At least, that’s how I feel it is going for. Pretty cute, moe stuff going around here.
You can compare it with like the movie, Thor, where the god Thor is banished to Earth and he has to adapt living with humans – something like that. But this time, it’s a girl who’s going to the outside world and an old man is her guide, something like that.
This anime series is not really something I’d urge someone to watch but if you want some good ol’ cute interactions between a doting grandpa and a child he just took in who has special powers, then be my guest.
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