Misutenaide Daisy

This seems like a rather strange retro title. Misutenaide Daisy has me in stitches as the synopsis tells about the main character obsessed with a girl. That seems pretty fine like in most animes with a deranged fan boy overly obsessed with the girl he likes. Until I read further into the synopsis that in her bid to own her, he tries everything in his power to do so that almost kills her! OMFG!!! WHAT THE HELL???!!! WHAT THE HECK IS THIS???!!! It sent a lot of alarm bells ringing but yeah, that is why I must check it out to see if it is true or not. Wow. Gives a whole new meaning about too much love actually kills you!

Episode 1
When Reijirou Techno finds somebody trespassing on his property, he is about to warn her but then starts to fall in love with Hitomi Matsuzawa whom he nicknames Daisy. When he goes out to meet her, she is gone. As narrated, the world is going to end with all the rising wars and disasters. Even with the cutback of nuclear weapons, the threat is still real. As per grandpa’s advice, he built an underground lab as safety. Techno creates a programme on how to meet Daisy. 3 months later, he decides to go back to school just to meet his loved one. As he spies on her, he thought this delinquent, X Yamakawa (yes, that’s his name) is going to stalk her. Actually he wants to shed his delinquent persona and be friends. However Techno puts an electrocution collar on him and ties another to a cat. If he is out of a certain range, he gets zapped. Good luck chasing that cat. In school, Hitomi and her friends, Sayori and Tami notice that nerd stealing glances at her and believe he has a crush on her. They ignore him and walk away. Noe Anii knows Techno’s crush on Hitomi but warns him she doesn’t belong to him. Now meet our first time ditzy homeroom teacher, Rarako as she comes to class in her bikini?! So summer isn’t over for her?! After taking attendance, she leaves?! During recess as Hitomi plays volleyball with her friends, she goes after the stray ball but it leads her to a strange building. This is where Techno traps her and claims Daisy is his. Writing his name on her shirt and showing document proofs she is his property?! WTF?! He claims like how one owns a pet, that person will name it and thus that is why he names her Daisy. She argues she is not Daisy but soon he claims he will protect her and puts her in a tube and filling it up with water! WTF is he drowning her?! Thanks to Anii smashing through via volleyball, she is saved from certain death. She also reminds him as long as her feelings don’t change, no documents will be proof he owns her. She throws catnip at him. Yeah, here comes the cat and Yamakawa. He clings onto Techno as revenge but Techno is wearing some barrier in anticipation of this. So the zapping goes out of control and destroys the building! Techno is left confused. He thought she wanted his help but why is she so afraid? Next day in class, Techno leaves a notice for all to see that Daisy is his property. Damn, class accept that she is engaged?! Worse, he fastens his seat next to hers. Can’t be away from his property! And everybody just accepts this flirting?!

Episode 2
Techno is happy because today is a school field trip with his beloved Daisy! But’s raining! Don’t worry. He fires a missile into the sky to clear it! OMFG! Today, Rarako dresses like a space girl. Don’t make her mad because she shoots eye beams that can melt metal! During the bus ride, as Rarako takes attendance, looks like she is referring Hitomi as Daisy from now on as per her book. If she doesn’t acknowledge, she’ll get zapped! Somehow she skips Yamakawa’s name and he feels so sad. Yeah, nobody cares about him. Daisy is forced to do things as told by Rarako or else it is zap-zap! Wondering how Anii can cycle up to the bus. But it is to show everyone that Rarako is an imposter! The real one is riding the bicycle with her! So yeah, this Rarako is created by Techno and he self-destructs her?! OMFG! WHAT?! Don’t worry, everybody survives. But is the trip ruined? Techno assures with her destruction, this will automatically send a missile from the military base. SAY WHAT?! Folks, meet the friendly and sentient missile, Mimi. She pulls the bus so everyone can continue their fun. At their destination, everyone is suspicious of Mimi. But Techno claims Mimi is not his pet and narrates how this missile saved him from drowning at the beach. I don’t even… And not to worry, it won’t explode unless he says so! Techno takes Daisy up on a ride on Mimi. Is he picking on her and threatening to drop her down?! So he claims he wants to have lunch with her. Live sheep he is going to slaughter now? Water from Europa, Jupiter? Even a mini black hole?! WTF he doesn’t know what she likes to eat?! She hints she wants to eat normal food like other girls. At first you think he is targeting her friends but his zapper makes their snacks grow to enormous size. However Rarako calls them out because their snacks is over 400 yen?! Techno points out that is not the issue. Is banana a snack or not! Since it is not in the guide… Pass!

Episode 3
During science class, Techno tries to be smart and mixes some chemicals with some unknown bacteria and some giant slug is now going to eat everybody! He manages to reduce it back to its small size by throwing sodium chloride but it slithers away into the sewer. With summer vacation around the corner, WTF Techno thinks Yamakawa will rape Daisy?! Must protect her. Soon, Yamakawa receives a package containing a dinosaur suit. He puts it on and cannot take it off. His mom and military brother, Seitarou think he is bringing shame to the family and try to kill him! Yamakawa runs off as a hologram of Techno explains he was the one who sent this suit to prevent him from getting near his Daisy. Plus, in time his cells will fuse with it! Now he is on the run from the police as the public think he is some ugly monster! That should take care of him… However Yamakawa soon returns when the class is having pool lessons. Since everyone thinks he is a joker, Techno thinks he has miscalculated. The girls including Daisy will like him! So he summons Mimi to get his zapper. He zaps Yamakawa and turns him into a giant. At the same time, it also hits that slug. Now we gonna have some Godzilla battle? Everybody tries to motivate Yamakawa to help save them. Feeling needed, he does so but gets owned. Yeah. Now they’re fused! Seitarou detects the monster and goes to bomb it with his plane. However, this will also kill everything in the 1 km radius! So, Techno has Mimi distract the missile to him and as Techno makes some adjustments, Mimi now has a missile friend?! As he is about to use the zapper, Sayori tells him not to. A struggle ensues and Daisy gets shot. Now she turns giant. But a single push destroys the slug. Because it was made out of water and has been exposed to the sun for long, it has hardened and become brittle. Thankfully, nobody is fused and Yamakawa runs away in embarrassment seeing he is in his undies. Also, Daisy reverts to normal shortly and you bet Techno loves her this size so he could hug her!

Episode 4
Daisy wakes up one morning to find a giant spider outside her window! Well, Techno perfected his zapper and don’t worry, Goro won’t harm anyone. But he kidnaps her back to his place! Be amazed how big his place is! Sorry, it’s not a haunted house! Does it even look like a haunted house?! Techno is surprised grandpa is here instead on a trip. Well, he sent his robot substitute. WTF Techno locks him in a cabinet?! Nobody gonna interrupt his private time with Daisy. Meanwhile Yamakawa is alone at the pool. So sad. He thought this thread is his hope but it is Goro’s web. Now spider kidnaps him. For some reason, Rarako is also here so Techno also locks her up with grandpa. And then Yamakawa and Goro! HOW CAN THIS CABINET FIT SO MANY PEOPLE?! But soon Daisy is shocked when a doppelganger comes to hug Techno. She is G2 and an android he made but shut down for a while. It seems G2 claims Techno is his and Daisy as the imposter. How does it feel like to be treated like that now, Techno? Actually, no different. G2 trying to sound ambiguous as they have done lots of ‘things’ together. Daisy must be shocked to hear it, huh? G2 cannot accept being abandoned by him. She blames Daisy she cannot be with him as long she is around. G2 is further saddened as Techno protects Daisy. What about the world conquest we talked about? WTF Anii is here to tell her how sometimes women must submit? G2 won’t and goes mad. Techno hugs her but she binds him together and is going to self-destruct. Techno tells Daisy to run for safety but she can’t stand him being in harm’s way. After all, he is always the one putting her in danger! So is this sympathy because G2 shuts down herself. But Techno reveals their power just got cut because they haven’t paid the bill for 3 months! WHAT THE?! HOW THE?! Daisy throws a tantrum about being in danger and all but she is glad he is safe. Others happily watching. And yeah, Yamakawa now good friends with Goro.

Episode 5
Rarako stumbles into Anii creating an android, R-1. It seems she created it to kill Techno! Previously, Techno’s grandpa met up with her to tell her how his grandson brings trouble wherever he goes and commissioned her to stop him at all costs. Thus she snuck into his school and observed everything. That was how she concluded he is too dangerous to be kept alive and must be killed. So why is she telling all this to Rarako? Dumb teacher claims she can’t remember anything! Yeah, when she can’t even remember her own students! Of course dumb Rarako messes with R-1 and interrupted some data downloading. This means R-1 goes berserk. Yeah, he is picking on people and bullying them. Meanwhile Daisy is starting to feel pity for Techno. Speaking of which, he calls her out to meet. But then it is to test some teleport trap and damn, he kidnaps her to go on a date?! He even fitted some devices on her limbs so he can control her movements! WTF?! Elsewhere, Yamakawa buys a guitar. However his family thinks he has gone delinquent and tries to kill him! WTF???!!! RUN!!! As Techno tries to force Daisy to drink together, R-1 busts in. At first you think he saved her from harm’s way. But he just wants to hug her! Yamakawa comes into the picture. He sees R-1. He thinks they can be friends. Only, R-1 beats his ass up! After that, R-1 goes dead. Out of batteries. This thing runs on batteries?! With no choice, Anii strips to her android outfit to throw Techno away from Daisy. She reveals she is an android named Annie. As one who is programmed to judge who is fit to return to society, she has judged Techno unfit and thus will be eliminated. As they fight, looks like grandpa is here. Guess what? He forgot all about it! Because of the device, Daisy starts hitting Annie. Grandpa thinks she is defending Techno and that there is still hope. Her love for him is strong! Now that Annie is no longer needed, she will self-destruct. SAY WHAT?! I don’t know, will running away change anything? When Daisy is finally freed as the device runs out of batteries (yeah, that power problem again), she slaps him for being mean. And stay away from me! Oh. That one actually hurts him a lot. Not the slap on his face, if you know what I mean. Oh Techno, you don’t mean to look this shocked?

Episode 6
What’s this? Techno having this dream he can’t be with Daisy? Well, it seems Techno has not seen Daisy in school or anywhere else for 3 days. Her friends are worried about her boyfriend but she brushes it off. But oh look, Techno is here! She tries to ignore him but what’s this? Techno is a gentleman?! Has he changed?! As he carries her bag, a group of punks try to hit on Daisy. Apparently this is all part of Annie’s plan to kill him. However Techno punches the ground and creates a crater! You bet those cowards run! Next, Annie drops steel beams at the construction site on him but he seems to be able to lift them all. Even using a giant dung beetle to roll over him! At first Techno looks like he is losing but with Daisy cheering for him, he gets that strength to roll it back. WTF Annie standing behind it?! Of course got flattened! Soon, Daisy knows something is wrong. Why is he treating her so nicely? He would’ve taken her by force already. He reveals today is the last day he can be with her. He won’t say much but it seems he is trying to tolerate some pain. Daisy thinks he is pulling a fast one. Don’t fall for it. Shockingly, he returns her bag and runs away. Instead, she grabs his hand but he escapes. She wonders if he is sick since his hand was cold. Back home, Daisy gets worried and tries to call Techno. No answer. She goes out to find him sitting at the park. Uhm, can’t move his body? And here comes Annie with her final assassination plan to kill him with her mecha? Oh sh*t, she gonna kill Daisy along too?! Although he protects her, the missiles blow him apart. Daisy sees his mechanical parts and realizes this is a robot. So he pays Techno a real visit as grandpa reveals he was out from food poisoning. She touches his warm hand and it all makes sense now. Techno happy Daisy is by his side. Not a dream. Yeah, Daisy crying but being a tsundere and scolding him to think about others. Annie is not done with her assassination…

Episode 7
Techno sees a manga of a group date and thinks this is the perfect plan to have Daisy. First, he kidnaps Yamakawa at the baseball game! Daisy thought she would have a quiet day without Techno but here he comes. So with Yamakawa, this is the group date? Technically. As they blast off on the missiles, Rarako drops in to tell Techno he is doing it wrong. A group date must have equal number of boys and girls! Yeah, she’s saying this from experience… And just like that, Techno invites her to join in. And now he brings them to Siberia. Because group dates must have skiing? Hope you bring your passports. With skiing too tough, they decide to go back but the missiles ran out of fuel. They walk about until they find a giant facility. Mad scientist Ivan thinks they are spies trying to get his work so he fires several beams to chase them away. Poor Yamakawa being used as a human shield. Rarako has this idea to dress up as an apple pedlar to sneak in. It works! Because Ivan thinks she is his mom! As they try to tell him the truth, Ivan is hell bent Rarako is his mom. Here is picture proof. OMG, Rarako thinks her genes were used to create children behind her back! However Ivan has no idea of his age or how long this photo was taken. When given a mirror, he is confused at himself. Is this grandpa?! Short flashback shows he was taken away and locked away here at the age of 5. He has never been out and continued his experiments. He thinks mom has finally visited him. When Techno further presses to tell him the truth, Daisy stops him. Leave him be, they came here for fuel. As they leave, Daisy wonders if Techno would turn out the same person had he stayed indoors like Ivan. So, she’s saying she saved him? Is she also saying she cares for him? Not like she would admit it. But looks like her friends wonder where Yamakawa is! Yup, still at Siberia. This time Ivan thinks he is his daddy! OMFG, I don’t even!!!

Episode 8
Thanks to that Siberian trip, Daisy has a cold. Her friends pay a visit just to kill time and tease her about her boyfriend. Despite her denial, they continue to theorize that Techno is weird because of his surroundings. If he grew up normally… WTF Daisy starting to imagine the married life with Techno?! They think she is lucky for Techno to choose her because she has no good traits! Hell, even if he dumps her, they won’t! Gee, thanks? Speaking of Techno, he is here! He knows she is sick and to send photos of the trip to her. Then he leaves. Her friends think he didn’t stay long because he has got another girl in mind! Worried? Well, since she continues to deny, they claim they can take Techno as theirs. Just kidding. Friends don’t that. Right? Will they? After they leave, Daisy notices medicine left by Techno. Not going to take any weird sh*t from him but eventually she does. Next day, she is all better and thinks she’ll be safe with him. WTF another married life delusion?! Surprisingly or not, Techno is here to visit her. Knowing she is better, this is also to celebrate linking their rooms to each other. Uhm, some 4th dimension thingy whatever. Why this? After holding hands and all, it is only natural this would be the next step. She tries to push furniture over her door but due to the 4th dimension thingy, no 3D objects can stop him. When mom is about to enter, Daisy fears mom will get the wrong idea and runs into Techno’s room. Yeah, look at all the monitors observing her. He adds he has been thinking a lot about her as he explains the first time he saw her, his heart was pounding. Just when you think this romantic talk would seal Daisy’s heart, he proclaims she is an alien! She is here to invade Earth and thus came to him for aid. That’s why he felt this way towards her! Thanks for choosing me so let’s conquer the world! WTF Daisy has delusions of her wrecked married life. Techno leaving her because she is not an alien and giving birth to a human child! WTF???!!! But it hurts the most as when Techno confirms he thinks her not as a human. Poor heartbroken Daisy runs back to her room and cries. Techno, this is definitely the worst move you’ve made!

Episode 9
WTF Daisy dreams of being married to Techno and then they conquer the world?! Meanwhile Yamakawa is having his peaceful life in Russia but Mimi comes by to take him back to Japan. Daisy’s pals are definitely back to mock her. Guess what? It’s her birthday today so they give her wedding pamphlets! In addition, a plushie of Techno that has an embedded calculator! Daisy then tells them what Techno thinks of her. Speaking of him, here he comes to give Daisy a necklace. He puts it on and now it cannot come off. With Mimi sending Yamakawa crashing by, this guy starts to blame Techno for his miseries. But Techno mentions the buzzword of wanting to be his friend. Yeah, gullible guy falls for it and shakes his hands. Then as he shakes Daisy’s hands, he gets repelled. Apparently the necklace is an anti-human barrier that pushes everyone except Techno away! Back home, Daisy is so sad about this. Just when she was looking forward to the fireworks festival in this yukata. F*cking Techno thinks she is longing for her alien home planet. WTF he even decorated her room with space themes?! She starts crying that she can’t go anywhere. More WTF as Techno lectures her about not being an insightful alien because there are dangerous humans all around?! He threatens not to bring her anywhere?! WHO THE F*CK IS HE?! Two can play that game because Daisy now sobs and threatens she will go back to space! That sure made Techno panic as he allows her go to the festival.

So we see him like a country bumpkin experiencing his first festival. Daisy thinks if he is able to experience it, will he return to normal? I think I know the answer… Meanwhile Yamakawa is trying to make friends with a goldfish but is interrupted by Techno. He won’t fall for that friendship ruse again since Techno wants him to shake hands with Daisy. Poor guy runs away as Techno laughs since the anti-barrier is off. This makes Daisy mad as she runs away. Her mind ponders deeply about Techno that she wanders far enough to fall into a pit and her ankle sprained. Oh dear. Will anybody help her? Techno is frantically looking for her. But the thought that she may be kidnapped and experimented on, he turns on the anti-barrier to 120%. This causes Daisy to be launched into the air. Hey, I thought it only repels humans? There were no humans so how the f*ck does it repel herself???!!! Anyway, Techno rides Mimi to catch her. F*cker still wants to blame her as Daisy in tears asserts she is not an alien and hates him. Techno claims while earthlings are strange from an alien perspective, there is nothing strange about Daisy for him. So that’s it? That’s all it takes to calm her down? The necklace breaks. But he has another one! She throws a tantrum so he throws it away. In exchange, she must promise no matter how violent humans are, she won’t return to space. Can she? Don’t go back home until Earth is conquered. Let’s always stay together. I guess Daisy is so tired of opposing she just wishes she wants to be an alien.

Episode 10
Well, well. Techno is here to pick up Daisy on his bicycle. Yeah, just when she and her friends are on their way to the pool. So the date takes precedence, right? And here they go. Literally a bicycle built for 2. Geddit? Anyway, when Techno is seemingly going to crash into the river, they disappear! OMFG, did they just pull a Back To The Future reference?! And now they’re riding through some 4th dimension. Daisy isn’t impressed so she struggles and they both fall off. They find themselves in a lab and this young kid views Daisy as his mom! Because Techno recognizes this lab as his, he thinks this is the future whereby he and Daisy got married and this is their son! However sonny (temporary name for differentiation purposes) doesn’t know who he is. He is not his father! F*cking Techno blaming Daisy for using somebody’s genes to create him?! Sonny zaps Techno and teleports him outside. Sonny returns playing with mom. WTF Daisy actually dreams about the proper married life with Techno. Such happiness. Techno is in the streets and he sees the newspaper. He realizes he has gone back in time. As Daisy happily plays mommy with him, sonny shows him some alien specimens. Daisy believes all this is because of his bad bringing up environment. So WTF he listens to mommy and releases them in town?! At this point, grandpa checks on sonny and sees an unknown woman whom he believes sonny has dragged in. Of course sonny remains steadfast Daisy is his mom when grandpa tells him mom is already dead. Shock. Sonny sets traps if grandpa dares to get Daisy. Well, grandpa will bury him alive! He laments locking him up because he is causing trouble for others. Luckily Techno returns so he uses grandpa’s zapper to teleport himself back inside. Sonny knocks out Daisy to claim hers as his. Then it’s the battle of the gizmos and obviously Techno wins. When Techno mentions if he even know how mom looks like, sonny claims she is the only person who held him because others ran away. Not sure if this is true because Techno says sonny is a stray brought home by grandpa and a clone made from his own hair. Confusing. Techno takes Daisy as they return back in time. Grandpa laments he has to keep him here for a few more years since he isn’t normal. Meanwhile monsters ravage the city… Well, will there be a future?! Looks like Techno and Daisy return to normal time. She claims she is better living in that past and believes she will live longer as long as she doesn’t marry him. She tries to walk off but he got her tied to his bicycle.

Episode 11
Uhm, Annie making a living singing songs to old folks until she gets her revenge? When an old guy requests a military song since he used to serve in it, this brings back horrifying raid memories. Then she starts to remember she was recreated as a cyborg by grandpa and this means she was once human before. Meanwhile Techno is bugging Daisy that his birthday is tomorrow because he’ll gladly receive whatever alien presents from her! Her friends tease her to give one or he’ll destroy the world! Daisy’s father returns home after a long working spell in Malaysia. But he relays the good news he no longer will be along because his family can come with him. He leaves Daisy to stay or come since she is an adult and can decide. What a dilemma. Next day at school, looks like everyone including Techno is expecting Daisy to give him a present. However it is put off because dumb Rarako interrupts because reasons. This allows Annie to put a present which is actually a bomb in his desk. Then as she hides in the closet when the students return, Techno is happy Daisy left a present. However this shocks Daisy. This is not hers and who besides her would give him a present?! Is this jealousy? Since she denies it is hers and doesn’t look happy, Techno gets rid of it by throwing it in the closet! Don’t worry, the mini explosion only affected Annie. More delusions from Daisy since she is dreaming if she gives him the present and tells him the truth that she isn’t an alien, a lovely happy ending! Annie goes to kill Techno directly in his lab. Grandpa sees what the commotion is about and is surprised Annie hasn’t self-destruct yet! Sad Annie. If that is what he wants, she’ll do it but will take his grandson with her! Grandpa activates the barrier on himself! OMFG! When she self-destructs, everything is still in place. In fact, what got destroyed is Annie’s programme. Because now she returns to herself before she turned into a cyborg. You see, Annie is grandpa’s wife and Techno’s grandma! They were escaping a bombing raid but she failed. Grandpa collected her parts and remade her into a cyborg. As the ages go by and people don’t change that easily, worried he would leave Techno alone behind, that’s why he programmed her with such a role. Annie is happy to see her grandson and hugs him. At the same point, Daisy is over to give him the present and misinterprets this scene. What not to be surprised? Weirdo kid and cyborg lady should go hand in hand together. She throws away the present and has decided. Next day, Daisy makes the shocking news to her class and announces she will be transferring to another school.

Episode 12
Techno’s concern is Daisy is going back to her alien home world?! It’s no joke! Daisy is tired of it all so she plays along. Yes, she is an alien. She is going home. Techno can stay here and do whatever he wants. But why is she crying? Techno won’t have her give up yet as he kidnaps her on Mimi back to his lab. He is going to give her the Earth! He hooks himself to the world computer whatever and then hijacks all the world’s missiles! OMFG!!! Then he demonstrates by controlling a laser beam to zap Yamakawa naked. This means his family wants to kill him for disgracing their name! Again. Run! Again. Yeah, Techno can easily do all that. Daisy wonders such absurd thin would enable him to return to society but Techno believes there is no reason for that. He is always alone but as long as she is with him, he doesn’t mind. He sets off all the missiles to several landmarks all over the world. Don’t worry, he has reprogrammed them into Mimi’s version so they’re all friendly. For now. Because now he wants Daisy to give orders to the world. Yes, the world is waiting in baited breath for it. Daisy will not do it and tries to run away but Techno captures her. At this point he has no choice but to reconstruct her so that she won’t be able to leave Earth again. Uhm, so just put her in a sexier outfit that is fitting to take over the world? Why does she look like some race queen? The grandparents try to warn Techno that he has gone overboard with what he is doing but he won’t listen. At this point, Daisy learns Annie is Techno’s grandma. Techno claims the operation has turned her into completely human so she cannot leave Earth. Uhm, what kind of operation was done to her?! We all know she was completely human to begin with, right???!!! At the same time, Techno’s consciousness start to overwhelm so he passes out. Daisy becomes worried. This isn’t what she want. She wants him to come back. Please don’t leave me alone. Apparently that is also the order given to the entire world. At first the world is confused about not being left alone but soon their twisted thinking has everyone belief they are saved from aliens! What the heck! Whatever! Daisy kisses Techno and a miracle springs because he wakes back up. All the missiles now follow Mimi as they head up into space and beyond. Yeah, true world peace because the whole damn world has not a shred of missiles! Now that Daisy and Techno are officially dating each other, they see off Daisy’s parents at the airport. They continue to date as Techno vows to turn this planet into the most beautiful thing before he gives it to her as his present.

Oopsy Daisy! Forever Be Mine: Stalk, Harass & Own…
Uhm… Erm… Ah… What… What the heck just happened?! Oh right. I know. A happy ending because both our tortured main characters ended up together and we should celebrate that. I don’t know if this would end Daisy’s torment but they seem so happy together so I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt that all of Techno’s madness has stopped. Yeah. What right do I have to go against their love for each other? After being put through a dozen strange torture-like episodes, I certain think this is the best outcome because otherwise I don’t know if I could stomach more of such cringe. So cringe and twisted the world would be put in danger once more! Yikes. Thank goodness it is all over.

Alright, the first thing that will bug everyone to hell about this series is how Techno has been a creepy stalker and constant harasser of Daisy FKA Hitomi. Yes, this has got to be the most unsettling thing ever in this anime which is unfortunately the theme and setting of the entire series. Strange is one thing but this is downright unsettling to say the least. That’s right. If you are not prepared to see how poor and dumb Daisy gets stalked and harassed by our equally dumb and persistent Techno, you better look elsewhere. Making my watching experience even more wincing is the fact Techno is a boy who is harassing a poor girl. Yes people. If this was ever aired in today’s politically correct climate, imagine all the outrage and brickbats it would get. Thank goodness this is so obscure that I bet most of you anime people out there don’t even know this existed unless you stumble upon it by accident. Like reading this blog.

I know, I know. It was all done in the name of comedy but I can’t help sometimes feel that there are shades of that Looney Tunes’ character here. You do remember Pepe Le Pew and Penelope the cat, right? How the skunk always mistakes the unfortunate cat to be his fellow lover. Flee as she might be she’ll always find herself back in his aggressive arms. Yes, this is how Techno and Daisy’s relationship look to me for the most part. If the genders were reversed, I’m sure we will give it a free pass because you know, girls always make it look cute. And then b*tch about gender reversal of the same thing. Yeah. Now that we have a boy harassing girl setting here, I can see why such a theme is not blatantly made in today’s time.

Strangely, although this series was animated way back in 1997, it was adapted from its source manga that ended its run in 1989! Wow. That is almost a decade there! I have a hunch why nobody wanted to adapt it into a TV series then and perhaps some weirdo producer thought at that time it would be a good idea to give this series a try. Even more so, the manga was a short one and only had 3 volumes. Don’t try, don’t know. And now that it has been given the anime treatment almost a decade later, we can see why it should’ve been left in obscurity that no one should know about. Unfortunately we have this now and it makes me wonder if such a disturbing story existed way back then, how much more sick and twisted dark stories there were out there and became lost in the times of history (because no internet then).

As you can see, the whole dumb plot is kept recycling by the fact that both Techno and Daisy are dumb-cum-irritating characters. Because they fall for the same trick all the time and hence, rinse and repeat the same (unsettling) jokes. Long story short, both actually like each other but their awkward actions and circumstances just complicated everything. Like Daisy, she always bluffs herself that she doesn’t like Techno. Not sure if she wants to be a tsundere but yeah, she keeps telling herself and her friends he isn’t the guy she likes but after that, you see her thinking twice about it and having her own happy marriage delusions. Yeah, that says a lot. That is why she always keeps falling into his trap and while I want to blame Techno’s inventions that almost killed her, it is that same stupidity and hesitant that got herself into such life and death predicaments. You think this is it that she has had it for him like when she cries or slaps him. Looks like she’s through. But all that is forgotten in the next episode. Yes Daisy, you are also partially to blame for almost getting yourself killed. One moment she hates him but he says or does something sweet, she changes her mind. Vice versa. Such fickleness. Oh well, when you’re in Daisy’s shoes and you’ve got a stalker like Techno, you’d be confused as hell! I wonder if Daisy has got a version of Stockholm Syndrome all the while…

Although Techno has been given his circumstances, I still find it all just dumb so as to see through this dumb stalking and harassment plot-cum-joke. I don’t know, at this point should I find it funny? Oh heck, I’m a simpleton so I’m just going to laugh it all off as one stupid joke. HAHAHAHA! There. I’m so sporting. Anyway, the way Techno acts should already be sending alarm bells to everyone. Yes, he acts so strangely that the welfare department should be knocking on grandpa’s doors! But I believe such a department doesn’t exist in this world and that is why Techno grew up to be a kooky person, believing Daisy is some alien. I mean, he created the most advanced and bizarre gadgets in his lab that might put Dexter’s Laboratory to shame. And yet he is so naïve about the outside world? Doesn’t the internet exist?! Oh right. Not in this world. Look how outdated such technology is in this anime. Imagine, CRT TVs!

Anyway… Wow. Holing up in his lab must have turned him socially stupid. The way he harasses Daisy is no joke. Sometimes I pity her but like I said previously, her own dumbness puts her at fault too. The way Techno stalks Daisy like as though he owns her, he acts a lot like an alien. Or a robot. Wow. Who gives him the right to act like she is his property! Privacy obviously doesn’t exist in his vocabulary as he does what he wants with her, almost killing her in the process in his bid to own her. Isn’t that just annoying? She keeps saying no but he presses on. Like he doesn’t give a sh*t about her feelings! Yeah, sounds like he just does all this for her attention because if he tries the usual boring way, there is no way she would even give him a second of her time and she’ll be the one dominating him. So now it is him who is dominating her. It’s amazing Daisy hasn’t turned psycho or yandere at this point! Wow. Daisy such a strong woman. Dumb woman I still stand by that! And everybody else doesn’t care because it’s just high school kids in love, right? Yeah. Everybody here is just as dumb! And the dumbest plot of all, turning Daisy into an Earthling and we all don’t even know how! Is this a roundabout way of making her stay by his side forever?! It’s like turning a foreigner into a Japanese so they can’t leave Japan ever again. Geez! Everything is so dumb!

This includes the other characters who are just as dumb as they are. Yeah. I bet they are written that way for the comedy factor because otherwise this whole setting won’t work. Anyway, first up is this Yamakawa dude who is obviously the series’ punching bag. Even written more a loser than Daisy. This guy’s perpetual running joke is to want to have friends but he always ends up alone and then breaks the fourth wall to tell us viewers of the things he is currently doing doesn’t mean he is a loner-cum-loser. Well, each time this guy comes into the picture, it means a cue for Techno to do his heartless pranks on him. Worse, his family hates him and wants to kill him for the slightest and dumbest reasons that bring shame to their honour. I think the whole family should just kill themselves. In the end, nobody cares about Yamakawa and poor guy is left to a fate worse than Daisy. I mean, even Daisy gets the guy in the end, RIGHT???!!!

Then there is Rarako who enforces our stereotype of what a dumb blonde is. Because she is a rookie teacher, she is always worried about the things she does for the first time. Well, well. So many things she has done for the first time ever since becoming a school teacher? We don’t have to worry about her because she is forgetful. Can’t even remember many of her students’ own name. Especially Yamakawa. Yeah, yet another painful point for him. This sucks. When you have a teacher like that, it doesn’t take a genius to see how the class will turn out. Speaking of which, Daisy’s pals are really true friends. Please note the sarcasm in that. They obviously have nothing better to do than to play match make with Daisy and Techno, tease her a little bit and then enjoy watching Techno does his weird stuffs on her. Yeah, some best friends I should say. Hey b*tches, at least Daisy has got a boyfriend in the end. What about you girls? Still alone? Oh well, they look fine with each other’s company.

Next on the list is Annie and I thought this would at least be some sort of respectable character. At least in the beginning when she made some sort of enigmatic appearances. No doubt some of her actions were dumb, but I thought this was the only person who could counter Techno and save Daisy. How wrong I was. After her true intention was revealed, she became as dumb as the rest. Trying to assassinate Techno because reasons. And she can’t even do a proper job! And then more plot twist! Turns out to be Techno’s grandma instead! Who would’ve known!

Speaking of grandpa, I think this is one senile dude. Perhaps the most dangerous guy who started it all. Yeah, locking a child away from the public is an unlawful imprisonment crime! But oh well, since everybody is so dumb here… He thinks he is doing Techno a big favour of sheltering him from wars and preventing him from harming others but look how he turned out? Even more so, grandpa is senile especially when it comes to Annie’s case. Uhm, if he knew she was his wife, why didn’t he just disabled the programme unless it can only be disabled via self-destruct. WHO THE F*CK WOULD CREATE SUCH A COMPLICATED TRIGGER???!!! Oh yeah. I forgot he might have dementia since I noticed there were many times he had forgotten something he started. With grandpa this quirky, it isn’t a surprise to see where he passed down those genes. And I bet Techno’s real mom and dad died because of Techno-related accident! No, not that 4th dimension time paradox thingy that Daisy is Techno’s mom! Please don’t confuse me further!

Art and animation are pretty dated. It reeks typical 90’s style animation. However I will have to point out that even so, the quality is just average. Oh heck, actually for the most part it is below average. I want to blame technological advances of that era but in that same year we had Slayers Try, Berserk, Kindaichi Shounen No Jikenbo, CLAMP Campus Detectives and Chuuka Ichiban. Sure, the characters look comical especially when you look at Techno, he looks more like a robot than human! True! Even Sayori and Tami are just well, comical. Sure, Daisy is your typical anime cutie because she is the main character but if you look closely, she too looks a bit cartoonish. Obviously the animation style is to compliment the dumb, oops I mean the comical genre this anime is supposed to be but even so, some animation scenes felt sloppy.

I wonder if Yamakawa was designed after Pokemon’s Brock. Yeah, an even more loser than that flirtatious Pokemon trainer. Do you know who Ivan looks like? I thought this was what Colonel Sanders would be doing if he didn’t started KFC! And of course Rarako is obviously for fanservice since she is so dumb, she wears her pink bikini everywhere she goes. This anime was done by Studio Deen who had better titles under their belt like the KonoSuba series, Ranma 1/2 and the original works of Fruits Basket, Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni and Rurouni Kenshin. Heck, even the first Fate/Stay Night TV series which was panned by many with having bad animation, still looks better than this one. No wonder this series is so obscure like as though they were hiding this under a ton of their other anime works and you’d be lucky or unlucky if you spotted this title amidst their many titles. Oh heck, who am I kidding, Studio Deen always had this reputation of being criticized for bad animation by fans but that didn’t stop them from continuing to animate shows until today.

I have mixed feelings for the opening theme, Girlfriend: Boku No Kyouhansha by Side One. It’s a hard rock song that feels wasted on this series. This song isn’t that bad if you want some rock music. Nice and cool shrieking electric guitar playing and some lines sound like they’re from a spy movie. But associating it with this show suddenly makes it feel all strange. It just feels so mismatched. As for the ending theme, One More Chance by Yukie Nakama sounds like your typical lively anime pop of that era. I believe if you hear a few songs like from Megumi Hayashibara, you can get an idea of how such songs would sound like. And I think I can get used to listening to this one.

Overall, this is indeed an unsettling and disturbing retro anime only because a boy is doing it to a girl. This series is definitely not for everyone and for those who can see beyond this, that is those who are looking for something purely to laugh at in the name of comedy, only then one can enjoy it. Theoretically. Otherwise for even the most casual of viewers like yours truly, even though there were some funny moments (because it was dumb as hell), it was very hard not to associate this series to stalking and harassment. It’s like the core of the series. Unless you are as awkward as Techno and find it all just purely funny and nothing more than that. So be warned. Have an open mind and heart or leave them at the doorstep if you want to attempt to tackle this series. I know there are worst titles out there like hentai but this one aired over your normal airwaves and looked considerably harmless and typical. You know what they say about still waters running deep. It’s a good thing this series remains relatively unknown because like I’ve said, the controversies it would cause today. That’s right Techno. The world has not become any more beautiful but even much more dumber. And who knows? Daisy might give the orders to leave this damn planet!

Hoshi No Umi No Amuri

There was a reason why I never wanted to watch Hoshi No Umi No Amuri. So long ago that I forgot about the reason and even the anime itself. Until of course I recently found out that Mamiko Noto had a role in here. How?! HOW?! HOOOOWWW???!!! And just like that, suddenly it doesn’t matter what the reason was, I just need to watch it!!! Whatever this space sci-fi crap this is, hit me with all you’ve got because it’s only 3 episodes long, right? How bad could it be? Looks like I never changed. And yeah, Mamiko Noto better not have just 1 or 2 freaking short lines in it!!!

Episode 1
As narrated, when the sun gave out lots of radiation, children born after that have strong bodies. They are called Adapters. However Amuri Kakyoin seems to be a strange one. Well, looks like her space colony has been destroyed and she’s floating around in space. In fact, bouncing around the space debris like a pinball?! Can you do that in space?! As she bounces around in space, somehow this bubble she didn’t bounce off but she passes through it. Inside is Perrier La Mer and her talking bunny robot, Ukatan. As we learn, Amuri has this strange ability in which her body repels everything. Therefore she cannot touch anything and this became the torment of her life as everyone else bullied her. Not sure what this Ukatan trying to recommend some breathing apparatus but looks like they’re being attacked by some giant robot. As detected by Pulmo Allen and Maria Sklodowska both of the Adapter Support Organization, this robot is bringing them to Galapagos, a giant planet made out of trash. Hence they sent their special team of colour coded mecha riding warriors known as Region Free save them. Don’t know what’s going on with all the chaos as they too get owned by the robots at Galapagos. The soldiers gets blown away like Team Rocket but a girl in a floating capsule, Lin Yunque AKA Suzu tries to save them. She gets blown into Perrier’s bubble and in that instant, Amuri and her kiss. More chaos. What’s going on? Yeah, to borrow from Ukatan’s words, “Unknown! Unknown! UNKNOWN!”!!! All I see are loads of missiles being fired at them to destroy them. Why? Are they treated like trash or something? Oh right. Futuristic AI robots see humans as trash. Heh. Anyway, during all that, Amuri starts to transform. Weird outfit she got there. If you wonder why she doesn’t repel these clothes (and those on her back), it’s because it is made from her own cell. Brilliant loophole. She repels all the missiles the robots shoot at her. If that’s not enough, the big mother robot sending more robots to fire more missiles! Amuri has a flashback of her sad and lonely life. She accepts her repelling ability and deflects all the missiles. She also hums a song that the other girls find familiar. With the huge flashy explosion, luckily our Adapter girls survive the ordeal. However the next emergency as Ukatan reports, the have 0% oxygen left in their life support.

Episode 2
Flashback shows Suzu talking to General Panda about handing some item to some soldier and this destroyed the space pirates completely. Uhm, so those robots are pirates?! She is told to continue her mission. With 1 air candy left each, the girls swallow them and head into Galapagos to find more. Pulmo and Maria are trying to find the survivors and are glad that thanks to Ukatan remitting data back, they are relieved the Adapters are alive. Then Perrier has some horrifying flashback of some horrifying torture. Yeah, it’s unsettling. No wonder she freaks out and panics. It couldn’t come at a worse time as more space pirates appear. Amuri transforms and these are a piece of cake. Until a certain mecha soldier pops up and, uhm, kisses her?! Yeah, the second time Amuri kisses in as much episodes. The soldier now has some of her cells and replicates as her double. This is bad since the double is much better than her as Amuri takes lots of bloody damage. As Perrier watch in horror, her dark side reminds the weakling she is. Flashback shows that all the characters here were on board a space shuttle. Perrier’s power went berserk, causing the disaster. Pulmo tried to help her (since it was also her idea to bring her to space to help cure her) but she failed. Suzu is also frightened by everything and escapes to her imaginary world where she converses with Panda. As Amuri takes more beating and starts singing that song, Panda tells Suzu to sing it. She does as Panda guides her to some item. Upon touching it, Suzu now transforms to some kickass loli. When Deus who is Pulmo’s father enter the scene, Pulmo knows daddy has been hiding something from her. Indeed. It seems he caused this disaster! Why?! He claims it is more than an experiment. In fact, Ukatan is working for him and Deus is pleased with its recordings and orders it to continue recording. Not sure what allergic reactions but Amuri and Suzu are now stuck to each other like a magnet. Then some super blast through Galapagos. Suzu admits she loves Amuri since it was her first kiss. This powers up Amuri somehow as she defeats her clone. You think it is over but before Pulmo can do what she needs to, Maria holds her back. Yes, she is in cohorts with Deus to crash Galapagos into Earth and wipe out humanity except Adapters! Because the trash planet will destroy the ozone, killing all the weak vulnerable humans unlike Adapters whose bodies are naturally immune and strong. OMFG, WHAAAAAT???!!!

Episode 3
So, Deus logic is to eliminate the old world that has all the weaknesses and let the new world have only Adapters. Uhm, why not just let them die out naturally?! Deus forces Pulmo to do certain programmes that includes turning the space station into some mean cannon and the likes, blasting through Earth’s defences. Though, Earth won’t sit back as the nations join forces to protect their planet. But oh well, what can the UN do against such might? With Perrier cowering in fear, her dark side takes over this coward. Folks, meet Vernier. She fights against Amuri and Suzu and the latter duo are no match for her. Suzu tries to kiss her but she just went through. Both then get trapped and fused into some huge missile thingy and realized they have been used for this plot. Yes, there are other unconscious humans inside the capsules that will aid this nefarious plan. It seems they will launch Galapagos and ram into Earth! As this process causes all the girls pain, Vernier thinks all humans should die for humiliating her. Flashback shows her tortures were all part of the spectacle for the entertainment of others. She blames Perrier because ever since her real sister, Vernier died, she created this alter ego and forced all that humiliation on her. When Amuri is about to give up, a voice telling her to do what she needs to do. Right. Remember grandma and sing! Suzu soon joins her and then that voice tells Perrier to do the same because she knows she wants to be accepted too. With that, Perrier re-emerges and transforms. She puts the bad bunny Ukatan to sleep and then reboots it back to her side. Uhm, what the heck did she stick in its butt?! The trio then realize the voice belongs to Femina Novum and being the first Adapter (who also created that song), she has been encased in this capsule ever since. WTF her allergy is harmony?! If she comes out now, she will die. But don’t worry, if they use this well, they can save everything. Now the Earth opens up to reveal its core. WTF, Miracle Burger they call it???!!! Because our Adapters are fighting back as they relaunch Galapagos back into space. Not sure what Femina tells about each of their allergies but everyone accepts it and powers up. This freaks out Deus since his plans are collapsing. No cannon can destroy this shiny pure white Galapagos as it absorbs all projectiles! Maria betrays Deus and rescues Pulmo. She will not help him in his murder scheme anymore. Our Adapters break through the space station and teach all the baddies a lesson. Yeah, the pinball ricochet beat down did the trick! Pulmo welcomes back her angels to a world full of love! Sure, world still has lots of hardships but as long as you don’t give up, everything will be okay!

In Space, Nobody Can Hear You Cringe
Well… That was really crappy and messy! All I can say is that I am not impressed with it. Not sure if I read the reviews and comments long ago as many didn’t really have favourable things to say about it. But now that I have watched it myself, I can definitely say that it wasn’t anywhere near good or even passable. Thank goodness it was only 3 episodes. Had it had more, I don’t know if I can stand all the messy and bombastic cringe that I have seen. Yes, only 3 episodes and I am already feeling overwhelmed by all the exaggeration this series offered. Time to go unwind all that and watch even crappier animes?! Haha! I’m so predictable… Which is so sad…

Anyway, the first thing many would notice is that this series is entirely made out of CGI. Ah yes, that dreaded method of animation that would send many veterans in today’s world squirming. To be fair, the animation is not all that bad. Although it is not entirely good either. I am not sure whether to go easy on the CGI department since this anime was made in 2008. Yes, people. 15 years or so is a long time in anime standards! But I can assure you that the CGI quality here still beats those of today and recent ones! Looking at you, KamiErabi God.app! So while the visuals might come off as looking stunning at that time, watching this at this point in time, it just doesn’t cut it. It all feels pretty average to me but like I’ve pointed out, it isn’t all that bad. Of course it is not 100% CGI but a small portion especially Suzu’s imaginary world, the whole visual looked like some kiddie crayon sketches. Maybe that is CGI animated too but I wouldn’t know.

Because of the CGI visuals, many of the characters come out as looking a bit weird. Obviously the animation makes the movements weird but what I’m saying is our main Adapter heroines, they all look like they come from the Ichigo Mashimaro series. Yeah, a famous lolicon series in the past. Note, I’m not a lolicon! Not sure if this series is catering to lolicon fans because definitely you see how young the girls are. Even when you have Pulmo who is a 3 year old genius. A FREAKING 3 YEARS OLD AND ALREADY HANDLING ALL THE COMPLICATED SPACE MANAGEMENT STUFFS! Damn, I think I was still wetting the bed at that age! Oops! Oh right. She’s an Adapter. Oddly, the series which is based on the manga of the same name that lasted for only a single volume. The character designs look much better in their 2D form! They don’t look so much like lolis and definitely they don’t look as derpy as their 3D counterpart. Yes, Amuri looking more respectable in 2D form than this 3D garbage.

Then there is the other ‘draw’ of the series. I think. Noticed in every episode there is this bombastic explosive action? Yup. I think half of the episode is about that. Don’t care what the f*ck is going on. As long as there are lots of grandiose explosions, there you have it, be amazed at what the great CGI effects could do! HAHAHA!!! Oh yeah. It’s all so crazy that I don’t even know what the f*ck is going on. Have explosions, just be entertained! That is all. After all, when you think deep about the logic, space has no air and how the f*ck can they have so much colourful explosions in the midst of nothing? And explosive sounds. How the f*ck can everything go boom in space! How can sound travel in the vacuum of space?! Yeah. Beats me. Don’t ask me. I didn’t went into science stream so I’m not really sure. But sometimes I wonder if the violence is a bit graphic because well, our lolis getting hurt and they’re coughing out blood that looks like they came from Microsoft Paint’s tools. Yeah. Weird.

I don’t even know what the story is about. Save for the plot twist to destroy the Earth and the puny humans. I think they want to tell us some sort of message but I guess I am so numb at this point, I don’t even know what it is. I mean, when you have characters of various nationalities working together, I believe they’re trying to tell us viewers something. SOMETHING! I just can’t quite put my finger on it. The characters themselves are a bore. Our main Adapter heroines have their own issues but with only 3 episodes, how much can they be fleshed out? Sure, they have their own weaknesses and inner demons to deal with (I’m still trying to wrap my head around this allergy term thingy. Ah, never mind. Show’s over, forget about it). So, it’s like trying to say don’t look on the negative side of it. Accept it and use it in a way that is more positive. Yeah well, if the rest of the entire world wasn’t being a dick! I can understand why Deus wants to destroy the old humanity despite this dude is being casted as a one-dimensional villain of the series. I want to laugh at him but considering what I have seen that the girls have been through, curses, they should’ve just destroyed Earth! Had not that new character in final episode AKA Femina AKA plot convenience got in the way! Oh, she’s supposed to be British?! Sorry, her name should’ve been Mary Smith or something! Amuri keeps making weird noises when she panics (“Hau, hau, hau!!!”), Suzu keeps flapping her arms like as though she is flying although she’s in space… SPACE!!! Perrier keeps playing the traumatized girl for the most part, Pulmo being the genius she is because no adults seem to do the job and Maria taking on a motherly role. Yeah, nobody’s perfect. Embrace our imperfectness! Or is the right term allergy?!

In a way, it feels the characters are wasted because in the mid-intermission, we are shown their vital statistics and other details. Wow. It’s like they’re so real. Not sure if they’re trying to sell them as figurines too but whatever. But the most amusing part of the mid-intermission is the in-anime ad of the Adapter Support Organization. It’s like they’re advertising how great their brand name is. It feels like they’re recruiting like a military but yeah, like it’s as though they’re the only way to live forward for Adapters. Funny. Weird. Cringe?

And ah yes, the only salvation of this series is my favourite Mamiko Noto whom I can’t stress enough that she is still my favourite and definitely the best VA in the world and history whether you like it or not!!! DAMN RIGHT I AM!!! Anyway… She voices Maria and that’s that. Lovely. I am surprised to hear Aya Hirano as Femina. Yes, it was surprised I recognized her voice seeing I should have ‘forgotten’ about her but seeing she sounded a lot like Lucy from Fairy Tail, maybe that’s why I picked her out. For the rest of the cast, they are Yui Makino as Amuri, Michiru Aizawa as Suzu, Momoko Saito as Perrier, Marika Matsumoto as Pulmo, Kiyoshi Kobayashi as Deus and Kiyoshi Kobayashi and Tomoko Kaneda both as Ukatan. Yeah, I guess they needed a crazy robo puppet pet mascot.

The first opening theme, Umi Tori Ka by Yui Makino, I believe this is the theme of the series because it is that magical song that you will hear often. Sounds like a (sad) children song for the most part and to me it’s just passable. Because the more amusing one is the second opener (and also the first ending theme), Yacchaou Yo by Yui Makino, Michiru Aizawa and Momoko Saito. OMFG, this is YMCA loli version! Oh my God!!! YES IT SOUNDS SO CLOSE! And everyone doing some weird dance in the animation. I don’t know if this would make my day or further cringe it. Hau! Hau! HAU!!! If you love the cuteness of Suzu, Suzume No Heitai-san as the second ending theme should satiate that as the song is filled with cute special effects and squeaky Suzu singing in a super cute way. The final ending theme, Keruto No Umi De Kuyurarula is a slow ballad for a somewhat fitting ending.

Overall, this series has been one helluva confusing and crazy. In other words, just average. Lolis with special abilities fighting in space with lots of explosions is perhaps the best way to describe this series in a single line. Yeah. I don’t even know why the series is called so especially the Star Ocean part. Was it to bait fans of the Star Ocean JRPG game? I can see why humans will never evolve to become better species as long as they continue to produce crappy series like this. Yeah, look how much garbage animes I have watched over the years! Such a damning testament. So can I say watching crappy and sh*tty animes is my allergy? Hell, no. Looks like I am actually attracted to watching rather than repelling them! How? How! HOW?! :’(…

Alice In Cyberland

What the hell is this? Imagine taking Lewis Carroll’s most famous works and giving it the cyber twist. That’s right. That’s how you get Alice In Cyberland! Well, actually it isn’t Alice In Wonderland in the virtual world, this 1996 retro OVA series used a few references from that beloved classic and give it a few cyber terms. So what happens when cyber criminals wreak havoc over the internet? If the police can’t help who else can save the day? Oh yeah. A bunch of hacking master girls who can dive in and kick some cyber criminals’ ass. Oh boy. I can see how this is going to turn out…

Episode 1
You think the world is in chaos but it’s just our girls, Alice Minazuki, Rena Otori and Juri Yagami playing a game. Later we see Alice has lots of fond memories of her late dad. Aww… However this world chaos thing may be real because as some military dude is concerned that those darn cyber anarchists may be on the move. He fears what they do will isolate Japan from the rest of the world! Don’t worry. Those guys at some info bureau will prevent that from happening. I don’t know how, but they will. Alice receives a strange message from Lucia claiming she is not alone. Who the f*ck is Lucia? Now we see our girls take swimming lessons at school. However the pool soon starts to get filthy and all. Emergency. Class is cancelled. Not only that. Japan is experiencing some sort of electronic meltdown as all devices malfunction or stop functioning altogether. Worse, some people start to lose their memories! With this spreading all over the news, Alice can tell somebody is spreading some virus to erase memories. So as she tries to save her treasured data folder containing memories of her dad, later it seems she cannot override whatever programme because it is going to delete all those data! Too late to unplug the power?! That is when some ugly tentacle monster busts out of her monitor and tries to teach her a lesson for some hacking. I don’t know what happened but cyber anarchist panics when he notes she is trying to force a shutdown when he is still logged in. Uhm… WHAT?! So that’s his weakness or something?!

The blast forces Alice into another dimension in which she meets this cyber goddess or something. Yes, she is Lucia and she assures all her data is safe. She also tells her Cyberland is her world and has the power to save it. Alice does a few research and just like that she knows how to transfer one’s consciousness into the virtual body in the cyber world! OMFG!!! How convenient!!! So with her friends, they suit up and enter the chamber tank in Alice’s basement as they enter Cyberland. Hell, if this is how the virtual world looks like, it sure looks f*cking crappy! So as they go around looking for the virus culprit, they stumble into that ugly mofo cyber anarchist. They fight and this battle is being picked up by those info bureau guys. Alice uses some power to free them from ugly mofo’s grasps. Uhm, is he melting?! Oh wait. He just turned into an even more grotesque form. They warn him to log out now or he’ll forever be trapped. As usual, idiots like him don’t listen and so he is defeated. He leaves behind chips and motherboards?! I don’t know. Can’t make them out. In the aftermath, order is restored and all erased data have been recovered thanks to an anonymous helper. Guess who. And so our guy at the info bureau has to scratch his head who the heck saved Cyberland. The answer is closer than you think… Yeah, those guys did no sh*t either to stopped the attack.

Episode 2
Wow. We are told Cyberland divided into 8 levels based of importance? Who the f*ck cares?! Anyway at some children’s park, this discount Cell (of Dragonball fame) starts attacking! OMFG! Somebody think of the children! Luckily Alice and co arrive to save the day and as Juri evacuates the kids, he noticed this blonde child, Charlie. Uhm, starting to fall for him. ARE YOU A SHOTACON, JURI?! Bad guy disappears before Alice could land the finishing blow and Charlie also mysteriously disappears. Back home, Alice tries to analyse the sword weapon the baddie dropped. There’s this password code created by programmer Bill Atkin (who?!) and so she takes on the challenge to crack the code. Yeah, they could put in any equation and we still don’t know what the heck it is! And as you’ve guessed it, Alice cracks it. In school, Charlie pops up before Juri’s monitor and just like that she plays truant to go have fun with him in Cyberland! F*cking shotacon! Of course the teacher finds out and drags her back to reality. Later Juri really wants to see Charlie again so she sneaks off into the chamber to dive into Cyberland. She notes Charlie is now a little grownup but there is this Cell dude attacking them. Juri tries to protect him but Charlie saves her by booting her back to reality.

Meanwhile Alice finds herself in a strange place. There’s this big turtle there. He doesn’t care about her because he created this place for himself to laze around. So this guy is Bill and looks like he got played out by the company he is working for. Feeling betrayed, I guess he released this programme into Cyberland. He won’t say more so Alice threatens to delete this world. OMFG, Alice you’re acting like a thug! Bill then discloses Henri Hellgate, the boss of the company he works for and he has created virus to hunt down some self-replicating programme and leaves no traces of it behind. Efficient. Alice gets a distress call from Rena about Juri and before she leaves, Bill gives her some secret weapon. This maid outfit? Huh? Juri is back and promises not to do such unauthorized stuffs again. Noting about Charlie, they visit Henri’s company to talk to the boss himself. OMFG, they can just walk in and talk to him?! This guy so kind to tell them Charlie is not human but AI. He is the father and technically his mom is a chip! You see, Charlie is programmed to replicate himself countless times. Too bad if he does so in Cyberland, it will cause problems for everyone. That is why he sent someone to erase him before damages could be done. And so the girls rush back to Cyberland to protect Charlie. He is now an adult and there Cell is. Alice uses Bill’s secret weapon (a sword) to slash Cell. Now he is deleted! Juri and Charlie have their last moments. It seems Charlie knows his procreation will cause problems and that is why he is going to stop it. He is happy to have met Juri. Thanks for the memories. Charlie uses a self-destruct programme. Goodbye, Charlie. In the aftermath, Juri returns to normal and hangs out with her friends. I guess she got over Charlie pretty quick.

Down The (Cyber) Rabbit Hole…
What the heck did I just watch? Well, obviously not a great show and even though the whole thing sucks and feels disappointed, I am generous enough not to call it one of the worst animes of the year. Still bad, though. Just not as bad as I thought it would. But yes, still bad. With only a couple of episodes, you wonder what the heck it could tell. Considering both episodes are standalone and do not even relate to each other at least in the story and plot. My guess is that this was to promote the game of the same name which came out earlier in that year. Uh huh. So if you are curious to find out more about the series and these cyber ass kicking babes, go play the game. They will definitely have more content. That is, if you can find the game that is already out of production. And since this game was made for PS1, good luck finding that first generation PlayStation console too!

Now, one of the problems that I faced while watching this series is that the cyber technology that they portrayed here. Oh yeah. In short, IT JUST FEELS FREAKING ANCIENT! Heck, this shows the people’s mentality and vision of what they perceive of the future of the cyber world back in those days! Uh huh. 1996 was like almost 30 years ago and look how freaking far we have come in terms of advancement of the internet! NOTHING AS SEEN HERE! Oh yeah. Don’t I feel old! Even more so when I spotted the use of a floppy disk. A FREAKING FLOPPY DISK! Of the 5.25 inch kind! DO YOU YOUNG ONES EVEN KNOW WHAT A FLOPPY DISK IS ASIDE BEING THE SAVE ICON!!! Oh man. I really do feel old. But yeah, diving into the virtual world and fighting bad guys like as though they’re fighting in the real world, everything really feels so outdated. I guess animes of that time really love this kind of virtual concept, huh? I mean, look at the previous few retro OVAs I watched like Boku No Marie and I Dream Of Mimi. Don’t they have the same kind of vibes of diving into the virtual world? It’s so fantasy and sci-fi-like! Especially watching at this point in time when everything just feels so laughable. I’m not saying that I am super proficient with the internet or electronic terms but watching all this, it sure brings in a lot of lame laughter as well as the nostalgia of how freaking old I am now. Sighs. Yeah. We’ve come a long way. I’ve come a long way!

Everything else feels like a disappointment and of course I’m going to blame that with only 2 episodes to boot, nothing gets fleshed out properly. Before you can warm up to the characters, it is already over and I don’t even know anything about them. Not that I care at this point. So what about Alice, Rena and Juri leading double lives? High school girls at day but crime fighters in Cyberland at night. Wow. So awesome. Alice such a great hacker, misses her dad dearly (trying to play tough to claim she has no dad, huh?) and you can guess she is the main character. Rena and Juri aren’t so prominent even during battles. Juri at least a bit has some lime light with that Charlie love thingy but it didn’t amount to anything much.

Heck, even the cyber battles just feel one kind. Strange should I word it? After all, in a time when internet was still at its infancy, perhaps the people’s mentality of a virus then was really some ugly looking monster. Yeah. Hey, at least their bark is worse than their bite compared to today’s more destructive virus programmes! Like I said, this series was perhaps to promote the game so whatever story you are hoping for, is non-existent. Those cyber anarchists? Like as though they have been forgotten and never existed in the second episode! If this series was in today’s era, I feel all the characters here will be scared in their pants and auto delete themselves! Oh yeah. What a terrifying internet we have today. On a trivial note, I wonder if they were poking fun at Bill Gates because they split him into 2 characters here (at least by name, Bill and Hell-GATE) and if Hellgate sounds like a better name for a rock band than a technology corporation, do note how sh*tty Windows are today with their unscrupulous methods! And we still use them! Like yours truly! :’(.

Art and animation feel like subpar. Sure, they reek of retro 90’s style animation but at times I noticed the quality is not there and you can tell when they animate the fireworks. Yup, that’s your tell-tale sign that the quality will not be up to mark. When you have fireworks that just looks like some pea shooter dots, it says a lot for the rest. Obviously our main heroines, they look 90’s style bishoujo because we’re going to need those male audience to buy the games, right? Yeah. Voice acting is pretty normal and I wouldn’t bother noting it accept that I noticed Kikuko Inoue as Lucia. Oh yeah. Once again, it is this legendary seiyuu that I find in some obscure anime. Yeah, she really is forever 17, no?! And the other one I noticed is Megumi Ogata as Charlie. Yeah, hate to admit it but she is actually older than I think she is. OOPS!

Overall, this anime is sure disappointing and perhaps it could’ve been better had it had more episodes to flesh out the characters as well as the story. But then again, maybe I should wish for a remake or old obscure series to get such treatment because high chances I wouldn’t like it. Yeah, let old retro and obscure shows stay dead. Even if they are sh*tty and crappy. This is the legend they have made so let it stay that way! Thanks to the connectivity of today’s internet, we are being occupied with even sh*ttier stuffs. Normal people, hackers and cyber criminals have evolved a lot more so if Alice and co are going to tackle today’s problems, they’ll need more than just a 5.25 inch floppy disk to crack the code! Yeah… Sighs… We’ve definitely come a long way. I have definitely come a long way!

16bit Sensation: Another Layer

Oh wow. That 2D bishoujo art and drawing sure does make your heart squeal, eh? Oh yeah! 2D lovers are going to love the tons and endless forms of bishoujo art floating all over the internet. Yeah, 1TB of 2D maid porn pictures on my hard drive is not enough for my endlessly growing obsession collection! Oops!!! Revealed too much there… But yeah, those stunning 2D and 3D graphics weren’t the way it always used to be. They came from a long way back in the 80’s and 90’s where many of you young pups were still not even born. Yup, it is time for a bit of nostalgia as 16bit Sensation: Another Layer is going to have our main character getting the blast to the past treatment and learn the awesome and humble beginnings of the bishoujo world since her current graphic designing job sucks. But hey, at least it is not isekai! Heh. Alright folks, let’s make bishoujo great again! Or rather, make bishoujo even greater!

Episode 1
Understandably, Konoha Akisato is panicking. Because she finds herself back in time. More precisely, December of 1992! She’s trying to leave some desperate message in her phone but it ran out of battery. As always. Flashback to see how she got into this predicament. You see, Konoha loves bishoujo games and designing such characters. Her dream is to be a great illustrator. However she is stuck in some illustrating assistant job. So much about her big dreams. Even when she goes home, she continues to have this spark of hope that her designed character will one day see its day as she works hard on her designing. Next day when her boss asks for game opinions, Konoha starts ranting about the most epic and ideal opening ever. Yeah, all that and just the opening! No wonder the boss chews her out because nobody today is into such monumental games. Yeah, this MILF hypnosis game is all they can manage now. Bummer. During lunch, Konoha stumbles upon a game shop that sells retro bishoujo game titles. Was there such a store. She is even shocked to see legendary titles selling at dirt cheap price. She asks granny all about it but obviously she knows nothing. Granny is willing to listen to Konoha’s explanation and oh boy, did she start ranting away all those games! She also talks about her dreams and how designing bishoujo characters cheers her up. Granny is sure that any games she makes will be good. This makes Konoha feel sad as she laments about the culture at her workplace. Basically nobody dares to dream and such games cannot be called games at all. Due to circumstances, she can’t quit the company. But all that blurting made her feel good so she hopes to come back here soon. Next day as she returns, the whole shop is empty and is for lease. However granny left a bag of games for her. A shocked Konoha takes and opens one of them. A bright light flashes and before she knows it, she has gone back in time. Meiko Uehara and Kaori Shimoda seek Mamoru Rokuta’s help to debug some programming line. He doesn’t look too happy to clean up after their mess. As he takes a break outside, he vows to quit this once the game is completed. After all, he doesn’t see any potential in bishoujo games. Shortly, a panicky Konoha crashes into Mamoru. She is now truly in shock that she has gone back in time. This is supposed to be where her workplace is but it’s not.

Episode 2
Konoha still can’t believe she travelled back in time and must have took a wrong turn. See? This workplace is a different company. So bye. But seeing she has no place to go and a stranger in such times, she returns and wants to seek help. Mamoru isn’t impressed but Meiko and Kaori are happy to help her. So Konoha explains about this time travelling thingy to them. The other staffs include Kiyoshi “Kyonshi” Gomikawa the scenario writer and Masaru Rokuta the manager. The find it hard to believe her words. Yeah, don’t understand what she’s saying. Too futuristic her words! Fearing she will be kicked out, she claims she is a bishoujo game illustrator and can help them. She tries to show some of her works but remember, PDA dead battery! Masaru isn’t hiring but the girls could use extra help. For now, Konoha is hired but unpaid. Uhm, so, volunteer work? Happy Konoha thinks she can get by. Especially using her knowledge from the future to make bishoujo games invincible. Well, only one small problem: Ancient technology! Oh man, you’re not expecting to use the mouse to paint your image?! How barbaric is that?! Photoshop? Tablet? SSD? Alien words! Your knowledge is useless here!!! Mamoru teaches her some of the basics as Konoha gets used in learning the ancient technology. She finally gets the hang of it and completes her first task. Such an achievement. Later she asks Mamoru why he is working here. Apparently he claims his programming is perfect and has no bugs so he does debugging for fun. To her shock, he claims he wants to leave this company once it is over as he sees no future in the bishoujo games market. Those aren’t real games made by people who can’t make regular games. Konoha would sure love to disagree with that as she rants in the future bishoujo has become so popular and everywhere. You think all her innocent passion that she wants to make such games would make Mamoru change his mind. Too bad he still thinks she is nuts! He still dismisses her as having such experience in the industry although he finds her passion for this genre rare and genuine. Then as everyone celebrates the completion of their game, Konoha fools around with Mamoru. She accidentally slips. When she wakes up, she finds herself back in her own time. Back to the future?

Episode 3
Well, Konoha might be back in her rightful timeline but she’s doing the job she hates. She checks online for that company, Alcohol Soft. Yes, the game she made is up there but it is out of print and when she tried to call that company, no such number. Worse, this new generation of gamers don’t know who that company is. None of the shop owners know them either. Yeah, it’s been quite a while they’ve stopped stocking on DOS games. Konoha then returns to the vacant lot where granny once lived. She takes out one of her games only for a naughty doggy to steal it. When she gets it back, magic happens. Oh, another time slip back. This time to 1996! Damn, those guys at the pool didn’t find something strange a girl just popped up in the swimming pool?! Happy Konoha rushes back. Yes, Alcohol Soft is still around! Yahoo! Even more so to see Mamoru. However he is not pleased and leaves. Oh. Some argument? The other girls recognize her. I suppose they don’t understand her time travelling story and think she lost her direction for 4 years! Anyway, the thing is, Windows is now all the rage and they are going to make games based on that. However Mamoru as their only programmer refuses to do it since he wants to work on only his PC-98. Well, Konoha thinks she now has what it takes to work here. It’s Windows, baby! Win10! Yeah, WHAT’S THAT?! When she tries to show her app, now it doesn’t turn on. That water must have shorted its circuit. Dang.

So if Konoha wants to work here, she must first bring Mamoru back. Troublesome task but oh well, gotta do what she gotta do. Along the way, she bumps into shy girl, Touya Yamada who has trouble entering a game store herself to buy a bishoujo game. It’s a very discriminated time, if you know what I mean. So Konoha has that looks she is a veteran? She sees no issue to accompany Touya in to buy a game. Touya is grateful but Konoha needs to return to her main mission. She finally finds Touya and it seems he is not too fond she disappeared on him like that after that passionate vow. He remains adamant he will only make games on PC-98. Nothing else. Since Konoha says it doesn’t matter if it’s Windows or PC-98, this makes him mad. So he shows him the PC and if she can name every port and cable, he’ll return. F*ck yeah, know any cables other than that power one?! This makes Mamoru mad and sad. The irony that those passionate about making games don’t know the basics of PC. You must talk to them! F*cking hell, see how Mamoru talks to his PC! CREEPY! However Konoha is impressed. None of her colleagues have this sort of passion and that is why she is adamant she wants to work here. As usual, he maintains his stand, PC-98 only. He also warns her, seeing she is a time traveller, don’t do anything to change history. Hence don’t interfere with what he does.

Episode 4
Well, Konoha turning into a stalker outside Mamoru’s place! Since he remains stubborn of not budging, vows to be back. And about that not changing history thingy? Nobody listens to her so she’s not worried! So I guess this means Mamoru won’t be listening to her too, huh? Meanwhile Meiko and Kaori has seen other reputable game companies using the latest software and tools. So much easier to use and the results are fantastic. They definitely want to invest their new games in these. Konoha returns. But it is to bring her camping gear as she is going to sleep outside Mamoru’s place until he gives in! Okay. Ganbatte. Along the way, she bumps into Touya. She has more confidence now visiting such stores. They have lunch together and Konoha almost gives away the future by telling the mainstream things that will become big. Oops. Uhm, she feels this is how the future will be. Konoha camps outside Mamoru’s place but falls asleep like a baby. So it’s no surprise the next morning, she makes a panic call to Alcohol Soft that Mamoru has gone missing. No time for that as they have to prepare for Comiket. During that, they have to discuss whether or not to replace Mamoru. If he doesn’t return, that is their only solution. But be surprised, her shows up in a PC-98 cosplay?! He’s back! Later he talks to Konoha and claims this cosplay is his goodbye to PC-98. When she was asleep, he saw his tablet. He realized nothing in this age has such device. This means it is true in the future PC-98 will die out. Actually he knows it is on a path of decline but refuses to face reality (since he has grown up with it). However Konoha tells him to work his ass hard off so that PC-98 will continue to exist in the future. It always happens in the movies, right? Screw changing the future. Is this how deep your love for PC-98 is?! Mamoru is happy but also feels weird since nobody is this passionate about eroge. They return to their booth and it’s a sell-out. Even Touya pays Konoha a visit. With Mamoru back at Alcohol Soft, he programmes their next game and they eventually finish it. As they celebrate their completion, Mamoru has taken the initiative to fix her broken tablet. At least, connect it to some power source. She shows him her art and he is stunned with the visual quality. OMG. This is how bishoujo looks like in the future?! For some reason he doesn’t want her to show the rest this so a little struggle ensues and she falls on him. Then she disappears. Now you believe! Hope this doesn’t mean she is a ghost!

Episode 5
Konoha could be one of those characters who hates returning to her timeline. But she isn’t giving up. She thinks she knows the trick to time travelling. She realizes the date she returns to depends on the game box she opens. It is the release date of that game. However it seems only games from granny will work and not hers. This is when she realizes something terrifying. There are a few empty spaces on her shelves. Those were filled with games. Uhm, so did she change history? Oh my, she’s getting scared now. She returns to the job she hates until she gets her courage back once more to try. Opening another box, now she is back in 1999. Yahoo! However to her shock, the building Alcohol Soft once stands is no more. It is now a huge corporate building. But to her relief, there is Meiko and Kaori. Yeah, Alcohol Soft has a huge upgrade in terms of building. Everyone is older and it’s like time stood still for Konoha. So she went to change clothes and took 3 years?! More believable than time travelling! They have a lot more staffs too and yeah, Konoha has got a reputation for being that legendary part time staff that disappears and pops up again in a few years! Obviously Mamoru is not happy she disappeared. But as she is about to tell him the trick of time travelling, Masaru comes in with great news: They are going to have a game on console and the one who is backing them is a famous producer named Ichigaya. He has a vision that bishoujo games will be the future, something the current people in the industry will not accept. Thus he is going to hit while the iron is hot and rake in the cash. So as everyone gets hyped up for this, Konoha further talks to Mamoru about the time travelling and this time her fears of changing it. He finds it strange. Wasn’t it her who told him to change history? And what’s her reason of coming back in time? Sure, it is to make games and meet the nice people of Alcohol Soft again. However she is really worried so she is fine not wanting to be directly involved. Hence she is going to be a cleaner? Going to make as little influence as she can. Later another talk, Mamoru is worried about Masaru because he can tell he cannot keep up with all the changes this industry is going through. He is putting up a tough act just to show he is still useful. Then some card slipped out from Konoha’s garbage bag. Mamoru notices this is a cosplay club Ichigaya runs. Time to investigate this shady mother.

Episode 6
Well, Konoha doesn’t want to interfere with this timeline so she’s not doing anything game related, right? So what better way than to make her stake out at the club! Wished you did something game related now? Must be bored staying there to whole day. She sees a boy trying to get his dropped coin under the vending machine. After she helps him, she bumps into Touya who is now looking different. She thanks Konoha for that talk since she has found great success in this line of business. She is working with a studio that makes great games. With Masaru showing up, Konoha cuts short the conversation to inform Mamoru. Yes, please tail him into the club too! So she eavesdrop him badmouthing about the staffs and that he should be taking the credit for all the business deals. But the straw that broke the camel’s back is the amount of money he ‘invested’ to get Ichigaya to land this deal. This conversation is recorded as Kaori and others confront him about this. Especially about using the company’s money for such shady deals. When the staffs do not buy his denial, he lashes them about working his ass off in making such deals and does not even take any credit for it. Things are about to get worse because right now on the news, Ichigaya has been arrested by the police for fraud. Masaru goes into shock because he trusted that guy. Give back my 1 billion yen! ONE BILLION!!! With Alcohol Soft in massive debt, looks like the only way is to close down the company. For our original Alcohol Soft staffs, oh they’ll still make games. Just not for this company. As Konoha talks to Mamoru, he blames himself for letting this happen. His dad had never played games before and went into this business with no knowledge (he is in hospital now recovering from the shock!). Mamoru let him do what he wished he had done something. He could’ve prevented all this by paying attention to what dad does (he felt suspicious when Konoha doesn’t know who Ichigaya was) and at least could have in some ways kept everyone’s dreams alive. That is when Konoha claims they will make a game to save Alcohol Soft. Mamoru doesn’t sound enthusiastic about it but Konoha is done not changing history. She has always wanted to make a game with them but her fear of changing the past stopped her. If she doesn’t use her powers now, then when? But can her drawings rake in a billion yen? Don’t underestimate the power of bishoujo! As someone from the future, she can guarantee it. Mamoru gives her the green light. Make the game she wants and he’ll bring it to life.

Episode 7
Mamoru has a plan for what’s going to happen next. As Alcohol Soft now with Kaori as the de facto leader trying to chart their next path, Mamoru has Konoha spill the beans. Actually, the story of her being from USA so she has the experience in this industry. As proof, she shows her artwork on the tablet. Amazing! However, even if it is so, they don’t have the technology to do it. Don’t worry. This is where Mamoru comes in. He has improvised his PC-98 and stacked them up into some super multi-core processor! It can handle the pressure and demand of such art! One more thing that worries Kaori: Will Konoha not disappear this time? She promises she won’t and hence will take responsibility in seeing this through. Time to go get that billion back. And Konoha has come from across time the sea to help them! She guides them on how to draw this awesome and everyone does what they can to help out. Konoha also suggests adding lots of merchandise to their game like dakimakura. Hashimoto wonders if they can sell as they are so pricey. Konoha guarantees fan will splash the cash especially on their favourite characters. Soon, Masaru escapes from hospital and barges back here. Why? Ichigaya sent him a key to some locker. Inside is a bag. Masaru thinks it is money but it turns out to be visual concepts of the console game. In a way, it proves that he was serious in trying to port the game on console so he is not totally a scumbag although generally he still is. Masaru gets his motivation back. He pleads to become manager again and will raise any amount they want for the budget. Welcome back, boss. With lots of ups and downs, Alcohol Soft progresses well in making the game. One night as Mamoru works late, he suddenly notices Konoha’s bag on fire. Well, the bag is okay but her game content is all burnt except for 1. When he opens this really old retro game, he vanishes!

Episode 8
Mamoru finds himself back in 1985! In this spot before Alcohol Soft’s building, it is a game company called Echosoft run by a pair of strange people. Both are named Echo! Even their dog too! So for identification, we’ll call the guy as Echo 1 and his cute little assistant Echo 2. Doggie is 3. As Mamoru has no way of returning back, he agrees to stay and do chores. He also helps them with their programming (as long as it is PC-98!). Take out your pen and paper if you’re interested to know some of the back water programming techniques of yesteryears! Too ancient for you to even know it exists, eh?! As Echo 1 could make games in record time all by himself, Echo 2 dresses up in strange cute outfits for Mamoru to give points. But there’s something strange and I believe it is not from 1985! Because Echo 1 drops his finished game into some liquid to see if it is fun! If it doesn’t light up with energy, it means it is not. I don’t think that is how it works in 1985! It seems Echo 1 claims he is from a place with no imagination and thus has none. Each time he calculates in making a game, but the results turn out otherwise. As Mamoru tries to explain imagination but he (and me!) getting even more confused by it! So experience in others is just some sort of analysis? WTF I’M CONFUSED! One day, Echo 2 goes missing and since Echo 1 couldn’t be bothered since he believes she will not be in danger, Mamoru goes to look for her anyway. He finds her wandering in the streets walking Echo 3. Then it’s like she felt compelled to return with him. Then after another round of judging in which he gives zero points, suddenly she understands what imagination is. Echo 1 too. They decide to merge. Mamoru is told to meet them at the rooftop. Echo 1 says he feels this place will have a future and brimming with energy. A place where anything is possible. Not analysis or observation. Just his imagination. He further talks about the power of human imagination. They hint about creating everything from the past and future. You’re not imagining things now, are you? So are they aliens? Are they gods? Uhm, through imaginations, humans become multi-dimensional beings to access the past, present and future. Imagination alters time and space. Imagination defines reality. Holy f*ck, I think I’m pretty confused with this sci-fi trip now!!! They believe they will meet again in the future and vanish. Mamoru wakes up back in 1999. All a weird dream? Or just his imagination?

Episode 9
We are given a few brief details about this game they’re making, The Last Waltz. How many endings and CGs, etc. Even how much curry they ate and baths they took?! How relevant are those?! Oh well, all towards the completion of the game. Everyone is so happy and starts celebrating. They even talk a walk downtown to see their promotional poster on the stores. Meiko talks to Konoha that she was initially sceptical about girls making hentai games but now it doesn’t matter. She wants people to play their games. Konoha soon realizes she is going to disappear. Looks like time is kind enough to give her some time to talk to Touya who once again is impressed with Konoha’s vision. Yes, the bishoujo theme is taking over and blooming. So spot on like as though she predicted the future, eh? Touya intends to create her own game company and hopes Konoha can join her to make games. However Konoha says she can’t stay for long this time. But the next time, she hopes to and they’ll talk a lot about games. Meanwhile Mamoru is at a store and sees an old game by Echosoft. The storekeeper mentions about some rumour he heard the company went into some shady dealings and caught the eye of the police. Though, nothing much conclusive. Mamoru realizes he really went back in time and it was not all his imagination. He also remembers telling Konoha about her games burnt up since she only has 1 copy left. He wonders if it was right for him to use those games to time travel since it was Konoha’s privilege to begin with. Now Konoha talks to Mamoru and wants to thank him for everything. He believes their game will sell because he could feel the energy brimming from it. Imagination? Although he thanks her because it was mainly because of her that Alcohol Soft got through and is where it is today, Mamoru also feels he doesn’t want this town to change. He would want things to stay the same but obviously change is rapidly coming at a lightning pace. When Mamoru realizes Konoha being quiet, looks like she has disappeared again. He expected it and feels sad. Konoha returns to her own time. She is done going back to the past and has learnt a lot from it. Time to make do with all that in the present. But as she exits the building, she realizes many of the buildings are different. Eh? Where is she? Is this Akiba? She runs around panicking, looking for any trademark she recognizes. When she does, it is being demolished. The workers try to remove her from the site but their boss will handle this. Guess what? It’s Mamoru! Oh man, he is older!

Episode 10
Sorry Konoha, all is not a dream! She explains that this year 2023 is where she originally came from but all the usual otaku buildings at Akiba are gone. Actually, Akiba has turned into a residential place and if you want some otaku stuffs, you have to go to the outskirts like Ikebukuro. Technically games still exist and currently the one being released is the hit from America: Fate Gears Of Order! WTF?! Saber looks like an ugly mother!!! Yes Konoha, now know the true meaning of fear! Mamoru further explains after The Last Waltz was released, it became a hit worldwide. It got ported to consoles and adapted into a TV anime and drama. Yeah, Americans loved it. Long story short, Alcohol Soft is now based overseas in USA just as many other big game companies because it is easier to raise capital and make your games there. Alicesoft is the only big name in Japan. Mamoru remained here to supervise things in Japan. Obviously Konoha cannot accept this. Even more so bishoujo is so f*cking ugly! In short, bishoujo is dead! Then she goes downtown to check if any games she recognizes are still available. Well, there store has a special section that encases The Last Waltz and it is the last original box. Everybody staring and worshipping it like God! More horror for Konoha as all the games that came out, she recognizes not a single one of them. She starts to blame herself the success of The Last Waltz for the change in history. And what’s this? The new cool slang for moe now is cuu? Coined by Americans as it is short for cute! Meanwhile Mamoru does some sci-fi thinking about parallel worlds. In short, she did not return to the 2023 she wanted and has nowhere to go. Konoha leaves heartbroken and sees on the news that Touya as a game CEO, trying to merge with another game company. Her tears start to flow as she sees Alcohol Soft’s original building is slated for demolition.

Once again Mamoru has to tell her about reality and remind her that wasn’t she the one who said it was okay to change history and go for it? Yeah. But she didn’t expect to turn out this way? Shifting the goalpost? Still blaming herself that because of The Last Waltz, all other amazing games thereafter ceased to exist, Mamoru takes her to his special warehouse. Why, it houses tons of PC-98 machines! Guess what? In this timeline no matter how hard he tried, PC-98 never became popular! So he blames her for it! She murdered PC-98! However he is quick to say that he wouldn’t know it would turn out this way. Thus it is the same for her as she cherry picked the info to blame herself. Everyone through the era made their decisions so this is where they are today and it’s not because of solely her doing. He asks if she would like to go back to her original timeline that sucks. Because thanks to The Last Waltz, Meiko is now a legendary artist. Is Konoha sure she wants to undo all that? Konoha still hates her own world but doesn’t want this to go away. Oh my, how to have best of both worlds? Mamoru has an idea. Konoha is now in possession of 1 last game box that is released in 1999. In summary, after The Last Waltz is released, Konoha must release this game from another company. Doing so will maintain Alcohol Soft’s success while preserving the games at Akiba. This will create course of events that will lead to the 2023 she knows. Bring both histories into simultaneous existence! Is it even sci-fi possible?! Only 1 way to find out! Of course she won’t have to make the game alone as Mamoru promises he and his PC-98 will help. She is glad he has never changed so one last advice that the world has only changed on the surface and it’s her job to change it. Konoha gets ready to go back in time and face herself to make an even greater game.

Episode 11
Get ready to put in all the work, Konoha. Even though Mamoru has created some AI programme to help with the design (wow, in this timeline, AI has helped created many games?! Where have I heard it before in reality?!), you still have to draw thousands more illustrations for your game. Your future and history depends on it! Don’t complain! Just start working! Besides, isn’t this supposed to be your dream? If she needs some help in working overtime for the crunch time, there’s the energy drinks and other shady stuffs that only exist in sci-fi to help you stay awake! Konoha continues to work hard and also complain a lot. Mamoru notes how she is talking more like an adult but this baffles her. Hasn’t she talked like this all the while? Mamoru is worried that Konoha may be changing to blend in to today’s era. She might even forget her original memories. Better make that game fast. Suddenly she gets a call from Touya and she wants to meet. Hmm… After years of being unable to contact her and now the call goes through? So as Konoha waits at the designated place, suddenly shady MIBs kidnap and usher her into their car! At the same time, Mamoru thinks about the herculean task Konoha needs to copy and distribute the games when she returns to her original time. He notes Konoha standing across the street but as he turns away and then looks back, she’s gone. Wow. Magic? OMG, Touya’s office looks and feels like some evil villain’s HQ?! Anyway, she contacts her American counterpart, Glenn Faulkner about the merger deal they’re about to make. Glenn receives the good news that they have Konoha with them. This shocks Touya. You see, Glenn uses AI to fake Touya’s voice to contact Konoha. They believe Konoha was the genius behind the release of The Last Waltz and need her creative juice. Although she was a legend, nobody knew her whereabouts or have spoken to her save for a select few like Touya. Konoha’s talents will help them become global entertainment masters. Touya threatens to call the police but Glenn believes she will not. Promise to go along with this and he promises to make it worth her time. Meanwhile Konoha wakes up in a room. Futuristic looking room and in a futuristic looking suit. As she walks out, she is shocked to see humans lined up in incubation chambers?! WTF?! Did she time slip into the wrong anime???!!! Meanwhile sharp Mamoru realizes Konoha can’t just disappear like that. He remembers a vehicle passing by before she was gone. Now he enlists the help of all his PC-98 to search for her whereabouts! Oh my, does it have enough processing power? You bet it does!

Episode 12
OMFG. The power of PC-98 allows them to track Konoha’s whereabouts to the unfinished Akiba stadium! As Mamoru makes his way there, he knows something is shady. Lots of MIBs. Definitely not the right construction worker uniform, no? Needing to get in, he remembers there was an old abandoned underground railway project connected to it. That’s right, hacker expert can hack his way through the authorized-only doors as he makes his way there. Meanwhile Konoha is further spooked when robots surround her. To her relief, Touya pops up. However Touya is not amused. Konoha looks the same when she first met so who is she exactly. A video of Glenn pops up as he talks to Konoha. He tells her the truth that this place is where they develop games. Huh? What is CI? Cybernetic Intelligence?! You see, when AI started creating games, it was a game changer because what humans took to make in years, AI can do in a day. However it hit its limit. An AI’s creativity is only so much as all the games start to become the same. Then they realize an idea. Why not put humans back to work? Hence all the humans in these pods are actually hooked up to CI and their creativity is what helps AI to create better games. Thus it is now humans assisting AI! Now, Glenn wants Konoha to become part of CI because as the original genius creator of The Last Waltz, she can utilize this 100%. Meanwhile Mamoru stumbles into a room with humans wearing VR equipment. They’re like zombies. He realizes this is hell. Touya now tries to convince Konoha to get into CI. In tears, she explains how her company almost closed down and seeing she had staffs and fans expectations, she couldn’t betray them. Thus this cooperation with Glenn who is the CEO of Planet Games of Japan. She regrets getting Konoha involved. Oh dear, Konoha now crying too?! She apologizes about not being the genius Touya thought she was. But she vows to make a game to overwrite this world and make everyone happy. Too bad that is not what Glenn wants to hear and seeing Touya is uncooperative, he’ll take matters into his own hands. During this distraction, Mamoru comes in to take Konoha and run. Also with the amazing power of PC-98, Mamoru has managed to hack the robots here to become his underlings and zap those hapless MIBs! OMFG! Touya tries to convince Glenn that she will take Konoha’s place in CI. However he tells her to GTFO because she is not even qualified. The gig is up as Glenn and his MIBs surround Mamoru and Konoha. Oh, now what? A giant UFO over the stadium?! Am I watching the right anime?!

Episode 13
Coming down from the UFO is Echo 2! Using her finger gun, she turns Glenn and his goons unconscious before zipping away Konoha and Mamoru. Inside the UFO, Echo 1 pops up to meet them and wonders if they have tried playing the game he made. It seems Echo 1 has been making some very long trip to come to just see Konoha. He is her biggest fan and wants her autograph! If something had happened to her back then, he needed to make another long trip and who knows when they’ll meet again! He claims Konoha as a genius and has made a masterpiece game. He shows samples of the game she makes. Uhm, colourful light balls? He claims these are all human creativity and each human possesses them. These balls then float down and get absorbed by the humans below. Echo 1 didn’t understand the game when he first played it. But after a long journey, he now does and is glad to have met her. Out aliens leave with a smile as the duo are thrust back down to the stadium. They are fine when a helicopter hovers over them. It is the Alcohol Soft colleagues as Mamoru has called them back here to help Konoha. Must be a long trip back from USA. After all the help Konoha has given them, it is now their turn to help her back. Konoha wants Touya to come with them as she still remembers their promise to make a game together. However she needs to do some cleaning up first and only then she’ll join her. Once the gang leaves, Touya calls the police to take Glenn into custody. As the gang sets up the PCs, Konoha notes there are extras. Yes, other Alcohol Soft employees like Hashimoto are back to help! They work hard on the game as Konoha makes what she wants to make. All that is left is to release it.

Konoha’s final request is for Mamoru to walk with her through Akiba. As they talk, Mamoru hands her a letter to be given to himself in 1999. He hopes his past self will figure the rest. Konoha is sad upon learning Mamoru wants to keep watch over history for the next 20 years. She also wonders if by changing history, all these memories will be forgotten. Yes, this is also making her sad as she doesn’t want to forget all these. Mamoru tells her his experience with Echo 1 so he is confident he will remember. He challenges her to remember everything. They part ways as Konoha uses the last box to return to 1999 before coming back to present time. She is glad Akiba is bustling with otaku stuffs but crazier. She goes to look for Alcohol Soft place and bumps into her current boss. As she vows to make a good game, her boss is unsure of what she is talking. Because his company doesn’t make games and is doing a MILF café???!! If she is talking about a video game company, that would be Alcohol Soft. However they become so successful and shifted their base to America. He laments he should’ve gone into the video game business where the money is. As Konoha gives her thanks to Mamoru, she also makes her way to Alcohol Soft’s old place. And what do you know? Mamoru is waiting for her! Immediately she hugs him as he welcomes her back. It wasn’t easy trying to keep a small company alive without making games. So what are they going to do now? Let’s make games!

Error 404: Bishoujo Not Found!
Well, uhm, this is how it ends? I can’t say that I am impressed but at the same time I won’t go so far as to say it is a disappointment. It’s like Konoha finally gets the kind of ending she really wants so I suppose that is good for her. She can now live her dream job and future of creating all her cute and favourite game bishoujos. Whatever the future holds for her and the rest, I am sure it will be a great one. She better make it great and successful because she no longer has those ‘cheat boxes’ to go back in time to change history!

I wasn’t sure where the story was heading because I thought this was going to be another blast to the past and change the future kind of story. I didn’t expect Konoha to be travelling back and forth in between the years as I thought this would be some sort of big nostalgia trip to the 90’s and that Konoha would stay there until the rest of the season. Yeah, here I was going to think up some time paradox parody but I scraped that seeing they decided to make her jump between the years. I believe this is to stem the boredom and avoid people like yours truly to make predictable predictions about what was going to happen. Imagine Konoha being trapped in the past and had no other alternatives to return to her own timeline, it would be just one huge boring nostalgia trip back to the past because the only thing to ‘interest’ viewers would be the nostalgia of PC gaming in the 90’s. Unfortunately only old people and those from that time may understand the lexicons and the stuffs that happened in that era. For the many younger anime viewers (many who aren’t even born yet!), they will be definitely lost! Yeah, WTF this outdated technology that they don’t even understand! Even an old fart like myself who is not into this line, I found it confusing too despite they just touch the surface and did not go anywhere deep. So yeah, had they stayed on this route, most probably it would just appeal to a particular demographic and alienate the rest.

I don’t know if I should say when Mamoru then had his own time trip, I felt that particular episode was a bit interesting as well as strange. Oh wow. Now they’re really trying to confuse the hell out of me with this weird alien and abstract thingy. I suppose creativity is something that you cannot explain in words. Yeah, it’s like they want to hammer into us that all of us including useless otaku guys have this potential and you just need to find that opportunity and seize it. Thanks for the tip but looks like I still haven’t found mind yet… Anyway, what I want to say is that with this strange entry, it felt like a plot convenience to end the season. Because I started to have this feeling as the season heads towards its finale, they don’t know where to go or what to do and that is why suddenly that UFO sci-fi thingy out of the blue. It was just bizarre. It felt so unreal. Even more unreal than Konoha jumping back and forth in time! Oh well. Maybe there is some subtle creativity thingy here which I didn’t catch…

Of course as already seen, one of the biggest factor and pull of this series is the feature of old nostalgic games of the 90’s. Yes, they are real and not just pull out from the air. Because I can recognize a few titles (although I didn’t play them) such as Kanon and Comic Party. So if you played those games during those times, you might be hit with a sense of nostalgia to see these titles featured here. I don’t know about the copyright issues to feature so many of these titles here but yeah, they are great Easter Eggs and references for you otaku and nerds to catch. As also pointed out about the olden days of such games in Japan when they are at their infant stages (you can tell by those retro pixels), it is great to note how long that games of today have come such a long way and all those humble beginnings that really had the creators put all their passion, blood, sweat and tears into it. These methods are not delved in too deeply (because younger generations may not understand) but just scratching the surface. So if you are interested to know such humble beginnings, feel free to do your own research. The internet is now a great and easy place to extract such information. Right?

Then there is the other contentious issue for this industry. No, it is not black companies and yes, while that is still an issue, what I want to point out is the effect of AI. That’s right. What we have seen from the recent potential from ChatGPT, you can say its potential is very scary. Even though I would like to point out that AI is only as smart as the human programmers programmed it to be, now I have to take into consideration about AI learning and evolving. This series probably would have started a few discussions regarding the use of AI generating games. However it seems they also went further with this notion that humans now assisting AI in doing so. Roles reversal. Which is also a scary thought because now imagine humans now become slaves to AI strictly in this context. As a human, I would say that I definitely would prefer the human touch in making games because well, there’s a human touch and emotions to it. At this point, I believe AI cannot replicate the passion that humans put into their games. At this point. So as we currently see the gaming industry right now especially in the west with big corporations making their big corporate moves just to make quick big bucks, all at the expense of poor game creators, it is a reason why I believe we must go back to basics. AI and other technological advances should be assisting us and not the other way round.

Konoha as the main character, yeah obviously she looks like the main heroine of a game! So to speak. Anyway, she’s a bit whiny and scatterbrain, mostly complaining and the likes. Her dead end job is one thing but now she has been given a chance to live out her dream, she finds it impossible or at least it is going to take some herculean effort. She somehow gets by because she is the main character. The better character I would say is Mamoru. He might start off as a grumpy kid with some issues especially his bias for PC-98 (they sure want to make it look like it was the ultimate machine, huh?). He might not be as cute and cheery as Konoha but he has this resilience and gets the job done no matter what. He keeps his promises. I would definitely say that it is because of him and his unwavering support, Konoha has managed to get through without much difficulties. Sure, she still struggles but without his push, she would definitely have a different future.

There were so many times, in fact I would say all the time, Mamoru has been by her side and ally from start to finish. Through thick and thin. Without him, she is dead. Guaranteed. With Konoha traversing between timelines, Mamoru manages to stay the same with his same demeanour throughout the years. Such is a long time and enough to change a man but look at Mamoru. Damn, this guy is so resilient. So if there is a character who deserves the most credit, it is you, Mamoru. So why hasn’t Konoha date him and make him her husband yet?! Oh, this is not romance genre?! Yeah, what a waste. Because if it was, it would be distracting and I would have painted this series a cheesy one for adding in something irrelevant! Konoha just wants to make games and imagine romance getting in the way. Yeah, that would be even weirder than those visiting aliens! Or whatever they are. So sorry folks, hoping to see some sort of chemistry in the romance department blossom between the duo? Don’t hope for it. Their interaction may be amusing and solid but nothing that would lead to the lovey-dovey type. Not when the future of the gaming industry is on the line!

Fortunately or unfortunately, the other characters feel like they don’t make much of an impact. I believe it is not to take away the dynamism between Konoha and Mamoru. Because of that, the rest felt relegate to supporting roles and nothing more. Like Kaori and Meiko, yeah, uhm, great Alcohol Soft colleagues. It’s about time they realize Konoha is a time traveller as she has not aged each time they see her! Oh, even better. They think she’s an angel! After aliens and UFOs, you bet angels won’t be so far off! Masaru had his issues at first but slowly redeemed himself although that is mostly played in the background. Kyonshi feels forgettable since he doesn’t have much lines and even so, mostly pertaining to his scriptwriting scenario part.

As for the Echo aliens, they could be from the future or different timeline or some extra-terrestrial life form and although they may look like some plot convenience, there is nothing much about them we know. Perhaps that episode on them was confusing and it’s like I didn’t really understand anything on them. After all, they are of a different being and how can creatures like us humans understand higher beings when they turn up in the flesh? Like God and angels, right? Yeah, creativity has nothing to do with it.

Touya’s character felt like she was just written for that single role for her to play in the end. Ever since Konoha met her the first time, each other time trips we see her moving up to greater heights. In the end, regretting getting Konoha involved in a dastardly scheme by a westerner. Oh yeah. The white guy is always the baddie. I won’t say it is strange considering the video gaming industry in today’s time and culture. Ah yes, big western studios and game companies with executives at the top calling all the shots and they know nothing about making games except for the idea of making money. So yeah, Glenn needed to be that necessary villain so that Touya can get her redemption and freedom. Never gonna trust a white guy from a western country in making games again, huh? Yeah, I wonder how she’ll handle and clean up all her zombie employees who got hooked up to CI. How will she compensate them? Remember people, it’s not AI that is evil. It is the human touch that makes it evil! Basically humans are the root of all evil. Heh.

Art and animation are standard. The characters look like your conventional Japanese anime of today’s era. Yeah, all the girls looking cute. They are the bishoujos of this anime! Heh. Cuu are they not? Oh sorry, the correct term is moe! Of course there are also some retro at to reel in the nostalgia like those pixelated art work during Konoha’s trip back in time. Even more detail is given to all those game box arts and those Easter Eggs so it feels like you’re really holding up a piece of the past. Some CGI too especially when Konoha showcases her futuristic bishoujo works. Yeah, if only other animes could put this much quality into their sh*tty CGI effects. Don’t have the budget? Don’t even think about using CGI then!

For the voice acting, once again Aoi Koga is doing her scatterbrain Kaguya-sama mode. Strangely in that same season, she also voiced an anime character in that way (Alyssa in Dekoboko Majo No Oyako Jijou). So is she cute or what? Cuu! Oh sorry, I mean moe! Then there are a few veterans I recognized like Atsushi Abe as Mamoru, Yui Horie as Meiko, Ayako Kawasumi as Kaori (did they hire her so she could also make that single line for Saber?), Showtarou Morikubo as Ichigaya, Tomokazu Sugita as a game shop staff and Ayane Sakura as one of Mamoru’s staffs in the future. The other staffs are Jun Fukushima as Kyonshi (Kazuma in KonoSuba), Kentaro Ito as Masaru (Renji in Bleach), Aya Yamane as Touya (Riho in Megami No Cafe Terrace), Atsushi Tamaru as Echo 1 (Ethel in Saihate No Paladin), Riona Imaizumi as Echo 2 (Anna in Mashle) and Yasuyuki Kase as Glenn (Kankurou in Naruto).

The opening theme, 65535 by Shoko Nakagawa starts off by baiting you with retro beeping sounds before the fanfare blasts in. However my beef with the song is that the singer’s voice sounds bland and when she sings the song, it’s like in a single monotonous tone. Overall it just feels flat and the whole song soon comes off as weird, if not bland. In comparison, the ending theme, Link ~Past And Future~ by Aoi Koga sounds better despite being a slow moderate dramatic piece that seems to fit games created by Key like Kanon, Air and Clannad. No kidding. That kind of image conjured up in my mind upon hearing this song.

Overall, this series is just rather okay. The series didn’t hit me as hard on the nostalgia side since I am not into this side of the gaming world and industry during my childhood days. With its sci-fi elements of time travelling, definitely this is not just another anime series about a motivated main character trying to make the greatest game such as New Game and Saenai Heroine No Sodatekata. Oh, what’s this? Just like in many Japanese games that have true real hidden endings, there was a preview of the true ending of the series after the final episode aired. Okay, let me see… Hmm… Why does it all look just like recycled scenes and a montage summary of Konoha’s time trips?! I didn’t see anything special from that 5 minute clip! Yeah sure, Konoha being grateful for everybody, blah, blah, blah. I wonder this will unlock a sequel! So yeah, be thankful your beautiful gaming art and graphics have come from such a long way in such a short time span. Look at all those lovely bishoujo pics posted up over the internet for your endless viewing pleasure! Keep scrolling and scrolling. Right click and save. Cuu! Thank goodness not NFTs!

Edens Zero S2

Well folks, guess who is back? That is right. FAIRY TAIL IN SPACE IS BACK FOR A SECOND SEASON! What Fairy Tail in space? Is there such an anime?! Yes. That’s what people like me decided to call Edens Zero! HAHAHA!!! Sighs… Anyway, you know about that guy who wants to make friends and travelling into space to see some giant mother to get his wish granted or something like that? Yup, the journey continues. More friends. More allies. More enemies. More adventures. More fights. More jokes. More fanservice. More of everything. In space! HAHAHA!

Belial Gore Arc

Episode 26
What a way to greet the new season with a recap! But don’t worry, it won’t even last for 5 minutes! Phew. Now that Homura has taken over Valkyrie’s role, this means she is in charge of all sorts of weapons on the ship. They need all the firepower they can get because all that brute force is how they barge their way through the dragons. The ultimate weapon of Edens Zero is called Etherion. However it must be kept secret and only known among the 4 Shining Stars. Not even Shiki must know. As Homura can’t keep a secret, Witch will tell her another day. Rebecca has this dream whereby a destroyed future and a different looking Shiki saved her. Worse, Happy is dead! She wakes up in cold sweat, relieved nonetheless her cat is still alive. Because a strange ship has been following them, Shiki’s answer is to invade them. With Homura, Weisz and Pino, they head down there and it seems this ship, Belial Gore has its own city bustling with life. A good way to infiltrate and disguise themselves as they look for more info. Apparently Belial Gore belongs to Drakken so be careful. Along the way, they stumble into Sibir. However this guy is old, frail and good hearted. Though, Pino still scared of him. Sibir recognizes Weisz but not the rest since this version is a different future of him. Sibir feels bad for Pino although he doesn’t remember doing anything bad to her. Weisz tells Pino he understands she only saw his dark side. But there was a time Sibir was a good person and once saved him. Drakken then makes a public announcement that he knew some of Edens Zero members are on board Belial Gore. But this is all a trap as he sends some of his men to invade Edens Zero and take those crew members as hostage while Belial Gore is now under lockdown. So don’t do anything funny if you know what’s good for them.

Episode 27
Invading Edens Zero are Seth, Maria and Diego Reyes. They think Witch is a pushover as she claims she can singlehandedly deal with them. Jokes on them as Witch equips herself with a battle suit and uses Ether to fight them. They are swiftly taken out by surprise since Witch can change her Ether element. With the invasion over, Sister now will gladly interrogate them. The rest inspect the huge hole the enemies have created. It seems they have a special Ether Gear weapon that could reap through their special armoured exterior with ease. Hermit manages to make contact with Shiki and updates the rest that Edens Zero is safe. At the same time, Drakken issues a wanted statement for the fugitives and anybody who catches them alive will have their debts completely annulled. So everyone here is drowning in debt? Big chase coming up. They manage to run to the outskirts. Weisz uses his app for everyone to change their appearance. Shouldn’t he used it earlier? Suddenly Laguna pops up and turns Shiki into a puddle of water. He is one of the top 4 elite warriors of Drakken known as Element 4. They are all part of him. As you can see, Laguna’s specialty is water and as long as you cry, he can turn you into a puddle. All fell for this trick until Homura is left. Laguna makes weird attempts to cry and she holds her ground until she couldn’t. Yeah, who could ever resist no crying before an onion! As he collects the puddles, he notes one is missing. It is Weisz. He saw through Laguna’s trick and modified his app. This means pretending to cry and then disguising himself as a puddle. He dons his armour suit, ready for his counterattack.

Episode 28
All seems to be going great for Weisz until his suit starts to overheat. Thanks to Hermit’s advice to use some cooling system, he turns the tables back on Laguna and knocks him out. Before he can revel in his victory, he gets shot. The culprit is the flame sniper Fie who is part of Element 4. Shiki and co are released as they tend to Weisz. Pino calculates the origin of the bullet as Shiki dares the sniper take one at him. He fires and Shiki uses his Ether Gear to throw it back to him. Fie dodges but is now on fire to take them out. But Sibir’s smokescreen blocks his vision as he brings them back to his place for treatment. Relaying Weisz’s condition to Hermit, she’ll send Sister to deliver medicine via another gate. However Sister is busy torturing Maria and will have Rebecca and Happy do it. Sister seems to know Maria’s true identity (Seth and Diego self-destruct) and makes a deal with her to spill the beans. Maria then turns into her true form which is a space slime (and you thought her Maria Slime name was weird but damn it was a dead giveaway!). Rebecca rides through space but is faced with drones of Element 4’s Sylph. All that video games paid off as Rebecca easily crushes the drones. She meets her match when facing Sylph’s ship. In order to dodge her missile, she unleashes her Ether Gear to increase the speed of her own ship. Hermit notes with such power, she has the making of an Etherion Master. Rebecca manages to give Sylph the slip and land in the cargo area. They won’t get far as Sylph captures them.

Episode 29
Rebecca and Happy are trapped in a wind cage and can’t break out. As Hermit has lost contact with Rebecca, she sends her last coordinates to Pino so Shiki’s side goes to look for her. They find the medicine but no Rebecca. Shiki has Homura take the medicine back while he looks around. Of course Sylph is waiting to attack them. She is aided by Jinn who is her brother (Sylph’s real name is Kleene). Jinn stays back to handle Shiki while Sylph goes after Homura who is rushing back with the medicine. Meanwhile Rebecca wakes up in Drakken’s room. He assures he won’t kill or hurt her and just wants to talk. It is hinted that Noah sold her out, the reason he has info on Edens Zero. First, he shows her something: In a cell, a tortured Labilia. Rebecca should be happy for all the torment she has caused her, right? It’s his gift to her since Rebecca will be joining them. Drakken then reveals his reason for targeting Edens Zero: It has something precious he wants and that is Rebecca AKA No. 29. Drakken puts Rebecca in the same cell. He allows her to torture Labilia and do whatever she wishes except to kill her. Even the worst can bring in money. He goes off to tend some other business. But Rebecca can’t help free Labilia as Daichi of Element 4 is tasked to keep an eye on her. Of course Daichi is on the verge of going crazy. Went by 60 days without a single torture. Can he last 1 more day? Guess not.

Episode 30
Homura gets captured by Sylph. Fie finds Sibir harbouring Weisz and shoots the old guy. Laguna stops Daichi from hurting Rebecca further lest he wants to risk their boss’ wrath. Jinn and Shiki are about to go all out with each other but Drakken comes in between. Drakken then petrifies Shiki and takes him in. As our Edens Zero crewmates are captured, Drakken shows his ruthless side as he destroys the medicine meant for Weisz. He also says he has sold Pino and Happy to the junk for money. Shiki tries to fight back but in his tied up state, he only gets shot in the leg. Drakken warns him not to move or he’ll shoot the rest. First, he is going to punish them for illegally entering Belial Gore. He hints to Homura to use her body to make money and could even surpass her mother. Next, he cuts off Weisz’s arm. At this point, Rebecca will officially join his side just to let her friends go. But it’s not over yet. Drakken tells them that their entire Edens Zero ship has been neutralized. Diego faked his death to take control of the bridge. Although Seth self-destructed, he also did not die. Rather, he infiltrated Edens Zero to take over its programme to disable all the androids. This is the part Shiki is supposed to admit defeat, right? Well, he promises to defeat Drakken someday and become his friend. Unfortunately, Drakken shoots and kills him! What about his policy not to kill? Well, he makes an exception for those who do not obey him. Shiki dead. Edens Zero ends!

Episode 31
So uhm, this series still running? Anyway, it has been a week since Shiki is dead. Rebecca is locked up in her room. She is afraid and has lost hope. Laguna tries to talk to her to ease her since she is one of them but she is still hopeless. As she takes a shower, she remembers Drakken telling her that they have a device to extract her Ether Gear’s power. However it seems Rebecca’s Ether Gear isn’t speed but to change the laws of the cosmos. It is called Cat Leaper. He will not tell her what it is because it will put him in a disadvantage should she know what it is. The problem is that they need that power to awaken and only then they can extract it. This is why they are keeping a surveillance on her. So as Rebecca feels sad about everyone, suddenly her power activates. Drakken detects such power but it is too late before he could do anything. The next thing Rebecca knows, she is back in bed on Edens Zero. She is happy to see everyone alive. Before Shiki and co invade Belial Gore, Rebecca stops them to have a meeting. She relates what happen so the rest deduce she either went back in time or saw a possible future. But unlike Chronophage, only Rebecca has her memories intact. Then she remembers Labilia being captured. She confirms with Couchpo that she has not been posting her daily videos and this proves so. Despite all the torture she went through, Rebecca still wants to save her. Just then, Drakken’s men invade the ship. They are easily defeated by Witch but luckily Rebecca mentions this is just a façade. Thanks to the additional info, the trio are soon thwarted. Rebecca soon explains about Drakken’s fearsome power and the possibility of Noah being a traitor. Even so, they are no match for him. Shiki has an idea. Drakken is now impatient as his men has not contacted him back. Edens Zero then crashes into Belial Gore. Everyone will be fighting together to win.

Episode 32
After crashing in, Edens Zero crew is faced with Element 4. However to give Rebecca time to reach Drakken, the 4 Shining Stars will take them on. When Edens Zero reach Drakken’s tower, they are greeted with a hologram of Noah. First, he explains his Ether Gear ability to observe people’s location including outside time. He noticed Rebecca’s powers first activated 10 years ago. She was supposed to die in an accident. Whenever she is at the verge of death, her powers activate to change time and location. This is the 30th time she has used her power and hence Drakken is calling her No. 30. However, the downside of using that power is that she does not retain memories of the previous world. Surprisingly this time she could. It could only mean in this world she will defeat Drakken. It is unsure if she will be able to use that power again but in the event Drakken extracts her power, it will be the end of Rebecca’s world and the start of Drakken’s world No. 2. He admits he betrayed Rebecca and sold her out to Drakken because he wants to defeat him. He warns them about Drakken being powerful enough to be part of Oracion Seis Galactica and is using some life support machine to maintain his youth. Before more can be revealed, jamming interference cuts Noah off from the rest. His last words are Rebecca has figured out Drakken’s weakness in the previous world. However Rebecca can’t pinpoint what it is. Now we see Hermit fighting Fie. He thought being a sniper allows him to sneakily take her out but looks like she has heat seeking properties and once she smokes him out, controls all weapons in his arsenal and fire back on him.

Episode 33
Daichi may enjoy being a masochist too but he prefers to torture Sister. He thought he had her but some Ether Gear optimization whatever has her break free from his branches. She heals him so she could torture him until he passes out. Laguna has it tough with Witch. She knows he was once an actor but then disappeared. It may not be her business to know why, so she explains her reason to fight is to protect her Edens Zero family. So better think twice again the reason he is fighting her. Homura is able to absorb Sylph’s wind and this makes her scared. But some programme activates to turn her back into an expressionless killer. But even so, still not enough to defeat Homura. Rebecca’s side find Labilia but she looks fine and not tortured. Also here is Sibir as he hears them out. According to his history, his misunderstanding with Weisz was long resolved. Weisz used to be a troublemaker and it seems Weisz stole a suitcase not containing Pino but money. Weisz thought it belonged to Sibir when it actually belonged to a powerfully famous but unknown moneylender known as DJ Zombie. Weisz was caught and his arm cut off as punishment. He then started to change and became a good citizen. Thanks to DJ Zombie controlling the financial stuffs, he turned the planet into a criminal hotspot. Yes, DJ Zombie is Drakken! Sibir adds he looks the same as before and it is believed he is over 200 years old. It is possible he wants Rebecca’s power to return to his youthful body. He might not look like it but his power to keep his youthful appearance may be at its limit. Drakken realizes he has not enough time. But after thinking his underlings have not reported back and Edens Zero coming straight in to attack, he fears Rebecca may have awakened to her powers. Sibir thinks the gang should retreat for now and not fight Drakken. Unplugging his life support will not kill him right away. Labilia has a gist of what is happening. She will help them as she reveals herself as not human. Her face is a black hole?!

Episode 34
This Labilia in fact is actually Amira in disguise. While the true Labilia was captured, Amira infiltrated and swapped places with her. Currently she is hiding in some club. Speaking of which, Homura bumps into her. Still b*tchy as ever but running scared. Amira apologizes for the deception on Digitalis but it was necessary for her mission. You see, her mission is to get close to Drakken so as to absorb his memories to find his weakness. But thanks to Shiki’s side, now she has figured it all out and wants to be part of it. Suddenly Drakken arrives and turns the ground into muck. With no time left, he tries to take Rebecca but Shiki won’t allow it. Both men fall through several floors. Shiki will fight him and has the rest protect Rebecca. Amira as the rest lead her to Drakken’s life support system. There they stumble into Jinn. First, Amira asks if he knows what this machine does. Jinn is not interested in any way until Amira explains the secret of this life support machine. It actually absorbs the life force of all those on Belial Gore and converts it to Drakken. This is how he manages to live so long and retain his youth. In short, if you’re unlucky and get all your life force taken away, you die. Weisz becomes upset and runs away. This doesn’t sit well with Amira because she needs him to destroy the machine. This makes Jinn in a dilemma because Element 4 too is not spared from this. Sister makes a deal with Jinn that she will help Kleene if he helps them. Jinn will not betray his employer although he swore to protect his sister and destroys the machine instantly. Drakken goes into overdrive mode to fight Shiki. However it is interrupted by Weisz because he is mad at Drakken as the culprit who killed everyone.

Episode 35
Weisz trying to get his revenge on Drakken and blaming him for killing everybody on Norma. Flashback shows his mom and many others died from an unknown disease and it is hinted that Drakken brought that pathogen onto Norma. With Weisz blinded by revenge, Drakken could’ve killed him if not for Shiki saving his ass and telling him to calm down and work together to defeat him. That’s what friends are for, right? Further flashback shows Weisz showing Sibir a pendant he got that was a memento from his late mom. But one day it was stolen and he accused Sibir of doing so despite having no proof. Although Sibir might be a thief, he will not steal from his own comrades. Worse, Weisz rejected they were friends and as he got kicked out, he vowed to steal something back from him. Drakken then starts to weaken as Hermit has successfully shut down the entire system of his life support. But wait. Something worse happens. WTF Drakken now turns into a stronger and creepier tentacle monster?! Is this some video gaming logic whereby the last boss gets stronger the more his life reaches critical level?! Anyway, tentacle monster, huh? Oh Rebecca… Worse, he has hacked the satellite from Kurenai to shoot at Blue Garden. Edens Zero scramble to stop it. Drakken now craves for lives and kills his own comrades to take them. He also needs Rebecca’s power and he remembers Noah’s words that killing Shiki will activate it. But as he is about to do so, Shiki to activates to his powerful form. This power of his even allows him to see all the memories in previous worlds? Well, because it’s time to see Drakken’s flashback. Part of a group of experimental kids who will not live past the age of 15, Drakken refused to die like that and learnt alchemy to not only extend his own life but change the lives of others. That way, he could meet lots of people and make lots of friends! Gee, sound familiar? Shiki will now be his friend as he puts Drakken to sleep.

Episode 36
Drakken goes down in a single punch and turns into a frail old man. Weisz still wants to kill him but Shiki tells him not to. Can he be friends with a serial killer? It’ll be hard at first but yes. Weisz trolls us by shooting a few shots but turns out he missed on purpose. Yeah, he too finds it hard to kill him. In the aftermath, Amira arrests Drakken and hands him over to IUA. Sibir gives back the pendant to Weisz. It is not that he stole it but he retrieved it from one of his gang members who stole it from Weisz. Although Sibir wanted to give it back to him, Weisz told him to hold onto it. But he forgot about it and went on to be some professor (in the other timeline). Rebecca wonders what Connor have been doing all this while but it seems nobody knows who he is! Noah thanks Edens Zero crew in taking down Drakken. As gratitude, he reveals his identity which must be kept secret at all times: He is the director of GIA overseeing Sakura Cosmos and Amira is his colleague. As this incident cannot be made public too, he hopes they can be unsung heroes. Later Rebecca privately talks to him about her past of family. Funny, no matter how much he researched, he couldn’t find it or her power’s origin. As for Connor who existed in the previous world but no longer in this one, there could be another person who wields her Cat Leaper ability. He will investigate this further. Labilia tries to make amends with Rebecca but soon she returns to her b*tch mode by uploading embarrassing videos of Rebecca! This b*tch should’ve just died! Jinn and Kleene are guests on Edens Zero. Jinn is not happy to stay here but he has to since Kleene is undergoing treatment. She might be physically fine but her emotion is damaged and Sister is trying to fix that. Before Shiki continues his journey, he would love to visit Granbell first. To his dismay, all the robots have stopped moving. Did the virus get them? Hermit replays their memories and soon Shiki learns the truth that they have been putting up an act to be the villain to send Shiki into space before they run out of Ether forever. RIP my friends. But Shiki gets a surprise because here is Ziggy in the flesh. Or metal.

Edens One Arc

Episode 37
Sorry, no hugs and kisses. Ziggy attacks Shiki and regrets raising him. It seems his new goal now is to destroy all of humanity. As such, he commands Pino to join his side. Seeing the way she is programmed, she cannot refuse. As Pino overwrites herself, there is no way that Shiki’s words of telling her to do what she wants to do would reach her, right? OH WAIT! IT DID! Because Pino wants to be with them, she breaks out of Ziggy’s command. Now deeming her useless, Ziggy tells her to rot with her fellow human friends as he retreats back to Edens One. As explained, Edens Zero is just a prototype for Edens One and piloting this ship is Connor. Ziggy also has his 4 Shining Stars counterparts known as 4 Dark Stars! As the island is sinking, Edens Zero retrieve their crew members. Ziggy orders the destruction of Edens Zero. An epic space battle begins but it is mostly one-sided as Edens One is way superior and faster. Edens Zero taking on damage as Shiki is still in stunned mode. Eventually he comes to his senses and takes command for Edens Zero to escape. Even so, all the tricks pulled to escape is not enough as Edens One is hot on their tail. Rebecca is about to force herself to activate Cat Leaper (can she?) but moments Edens Zero meets a certain death, they are saved with the right timing of Elsie!

Episode 38
With Elsie’s intervention, Ziggy decides to withdraw and believes he is no match for her now. Elsie boards Edens Zero to tell what she knows of Ziggy. She starts off explaining about herself as a war refugee aiming aimlessly until Ziggy picked her up and she became part of his family. It was a time when Shiki was still a baby. Ziggy tasked Witch and Elsie to take care of Edens Zero until Shiki is ready to go into space. Because Elsie is bad in managing resources, she started plundering and became a pirate. Weisz finds the story strange because after Ziggy left Edens Zero and took Shiki to Granbell, what happened to that ship they arrived in? Witch theorizes Ziggy created Pino and had her use it to leave Granbell. That’s another story for another time. When Elsie returned years later to Ziggy, he was dead. But the Ether she felt emanating from him was evil. It wasn’t the Ziggy she knew. So she planted some drone in him and that’s how she knew to come to Edens Zero’s help when Ziggy turned evil. She doesn’t know the reason but a recording from the drone revealed evil Ziggy’s thoughts: He will go to Mother. As Elsie owes it to Ziggy, she will go after him. Shiki also feels the same and will chase after Ziggy although seeing Mother remains their top goal. Now they reach the Dragonfall area. A bunch of dead dragons caused by Edens One. So as Edens Zero gear up and fly through, lots of mechanical dragons on their tail. But nothing with a little Ether linking and teamwork to shake them off and voila! They burst through this barrier! Damn, it seemed so easy. Now they are in Aoi Cosmos. Ocean in space and fish swimming everywhere? The 4 Shining Stars discuss that anything outside Sakura Cosmos has been deleted from their territory although Hermit will try to recover those lost memories. But it seems they are on the path to the fire planet, Red Cave because Edens Zero has been through here 15 years ago. Then there is also this person whom you must not piss off: Poseidon Nero. He is also part of the Oracion Seis Galactica that Drakken and Elsie are part of. Unlike Drakken who rules the cosmos from behind the scenes, Nero rules Aoi Cosmos openly and thus is called the Emperor. For now, they set their destination to Red Cave in hopes of finding clues on Mother.

Red Cave Arc

Episode 39
Justice and his IUA pals contemplate on Drakken’s fall and they think there is some truth covered up behind it. And then some secret Prayer Council that Justice convenes along with Jaguar and other shady weirdoes. It seems they are Oracion Seis Interstellar and their goal is to crush Oracion Seis Galactica. Wow. This is confusing. Especially Justice who has a deep grudge on Elsie and wants to kill her. Seeing that she has gone to Aoi Cosmos, that’s where they’ll be heading next. We return to Edens Zero who has landed on Red Cave. Well, beach episode! Despite its name, it’s filled with sandy beaches and water! Fun time! Then the gang go have their underwater fun until they see a crashed ship. Too bad for the pilot, he is all bones. Noting a temple nearby, they go explore it but first, tentacle monster! Oh my, is this where Rebecca shows off her fanservice?! Oh well, no discrimination. Robots and guys too, the monster takes! Eventually Shiki breaks them out as they find themselves inside the temple. They are greeted by a robot named Nadia who welcomes them to the Temple of Mother Beacon. Rebecca finds the name familiar as it was carved on that dead pilot’s cockpit.

Episode 40
Nadia says that this temple contains a beacon that could be clues to lead to Mother. However they must pass through that door and she cannot guarantee their lives. Well, beyond this door is an insane amount of magma, flames and heat so you bet our gang can’t take it and quickly retreat. To solve this, Witch returns back to Blue Garden to get Laguna now working as an actor to help them. Uhm, so she really went all the way back there and even past those dragons?! While the rest wait, they listen to Nadia’s stories like how Ziggy was able to pass through it 15 years ago alone and got a beacon. It seems there was a treasure that emitted Ether that was also a power source for the androids here. Someone stole it and all the androids are now ‘dead’. Nadia survived only because of this cable she is stuck to that her beloved Andrew repaired. He is a human engineer whom she fell in love with. He left to get something and promised to return. That was 200 years ago. As Nadia still eagerly awaits that, Rebecca knows better Andrew has returned as that dead pilot and decides not to tell the truth. With Witch’s return, the plan is to use Laguna’s power to turn Shiki into water and then Witch will coat it with some special Ether for extra protection. Shiki then uses his gravity to push through the flames to enter this room filled with floating Ether parts that belonged to Mother. As he returns, Nadia further explains that there are countless of such pieces whether hiding in planets or floating in space. Such pieces of Mother are called Relics and gathering enough of them allows you to find her location. So it’s like a compass. Log Pose of space! The gang is ready to leave to find more Relics. With Nadia still waiting for Andrew, Witch then tells her the whole truth. There is even a last video from him that tells of his return. However his ship was hit by a meteor and crashed nearby. Nadia is saddened of this news but it seems he has brought back a Relic that returns Ether to the land. Now all the androids can move again and Red Cave returns to its original state as the deep waters reside. The 200 year promise of watching the red skies again have been fulfilled.

Foresta Arc

Episode 41
Is this going to be a trend because now Laguna is staying on Edens Zero. Based on his promise with Witch, he will leave once he finds a place to stay in Aoi Cosmos since he is wanted back on Sakura Cosmos. But no, he won’t be friends with Shiki. Meanwhile Justice is hot on Elsie’s tail. However she anticipates this because one of her crew member, Jessie is a government spy and has leaked info. She didn’t rat him out since he is like family to her. Everyone from all walks of life is free to join her crew seeing she will not reject anyone who seeks her help. She is willing to listen to him but since he refuses to talk, he is sent back to Justice. Edens Zero’s next stop is the planet called Foresta because based on the old log, this was its next stop and there might be a Relic here. After finding a spot to land in this very forestry planet, they are shocked to see humans as slaves to robots. We also see some robots arguing among each other whether to mistreat them or to treat them well since humans break easily. Well, non-believers kill those human rights believers! Shiki and co manage to slip away when a robot comes by. Happy and Pino just act like their masters. Couchpo then helps take them into her secret hideout. She was here to review some food but about a week ago, all this crazy stuff happened. Turns out Ziggy told the robots to rule over humanity and they started attacking humans. Soon the robots ambush them so everybody goes all out fighting. Uhm, I don’t think robots are meant to be eaten, Couchpo!

Episode 42
As Sister continues to examine Kleene, it seems the latter doesn’t want to be cured because doing so, she will have to leave this ship and she likes it here. Uhm, couldn’t she just veto her brother to say she’s staying? Because Jinn won’t tell how Kleene’s condition of having a mental breakdown each time she shows emotions come up, Sister wanted to ask Kleene directly but Jinn threatened her not to. Edens Zero is being attacked by drones so the 4 Shining Stars and ex-Drakken guys go into action. Meanwhile Shiki and co stumble into a cute fleeing robot. It pleads for help since Nero has sent forces to eliminate all robots on Foresta. Too bad it gets killed off by Mora. Crazy dude has got some sticky glue that really sticks. Shiki manages to break out from it using his gravity to fight him. Mora’s comrades, Orc and Britney observe the battle especially Shiki’s abilities that seem to be similar to that of Shura. Shiki uses his gravity to free the rest. But a drone attack bombs the area and separates everyone. Time for one on one matchups? Maybe. Homura vs Mora. Rebecca vs Britney. Shiki vs Orc. Shiki still believes Ziggy is doing all this for a reason but Orc isn’t buying it. He tells Shiki they are from Nero’s elite commando unit and have orders from him to destroy all robots on Foresta to protect all humans. This is also to send warning to Ziggy who started this rebellion.

Episode 43
Long story short, all our heroes win their fight against their opponents. Well, maybe except for Rebecca. Can’t best Britney in her smoke form so just run like hell! Meanwhile Weisz is being called back to Edens Zero because Hermit has discovered that a virus on some satellite set by Ziggy is causing the robots to go berserk. At this rate, the 4 Shining Stars will also be infected. Hence Weisz’s job is to modify it. Yeah, it would’ve been easier if they could just destroy it but nope. Just need to modify it. Elsie is also on this planet and what a rude welcoming as the robots start attacking her crew. But I suppose this is so that Elsie can transform into her Ether Gear and show off her Star Drain move. Meanwhile we see Shura being a cruel merciless dick by killing of his girls because he feels like it. They want us to hate him, huh?

Episode 44
Rebecca needs to rid of Britney but how to fight smoke? Yes, use a vacuum! But’s password locked! By the time Pino analyses it, Britney already blows smoke that rots Rebecca’s flesh! That is when her Cat Leaper activates and goes back a couple of minutes in time. This time she knows the password to suck and kick her away. Rebecca finds this version of her ability strange as it is more like reversing time rather than leaping to another world. So she tests it again a few more times to prove to Pino it is so. However like such great power, it takes a huge toll on her body and it is almost cracking up. Yup, there’s your warning not to simply use it so freely. Meanwhile Hermit and Weisz enter the satellite and to Hermit’s horror, there is Muller who is now part cyborg. Turns out he escaped from his imprisonment. Although it was Ziggy who planted the virus, now he is administering the server to control humans. He wants to abuse Hermit like before. Round 2 trauma. Elsewhere, Shiki and Homura are about to take on more of Nero’s elite commandoes but they are easily taken out by Justice and his IUA men. After imprisoning Homura, Justice learns Shiki knows Elsie. He doesn’t care about Ziggy or Nero because his most important goal is to capture Elsie whom he views as the most evil being. Since Shiki knows her, it is enough reason for Justice to kill him in the name of Justice! Did he just make a lame pun?!

Episode 45
Whatever Justice says about the privileges in the IUA, to take down evil with extreme prejudice, blah, blah, blah, uhm, isn’t he acting like a villain? But his powers are too much for Shiki to handle and he gets defeated although he still lives. Justice is about to deal the finishing blow but here comes Elsie to the rescue. Both know each other but now hate each other. Both are evenly matched as they possess the same Ether Gear. So we learn a few things. Elsie was a princess of some planet. Justice whose real name he has tossed away, James Holloway was engaged to her. Both sides lost everything. Justice blames it on Elsie’s betrayal. Both think their actions would’ve led to less losses. As their epic fight continues, Shiki is approached by this Yoda robot who tells him the true concept of gravity and to use the force that is infinite! Really?!Meanwhile Muller is fascinated by Weisz since as a fellow scientist, he has heard much of him. Weisz manages to break out from his predicament by transforming into Arsenal and then snap Hermit out of her trauma. But Muller isn’t done. He activates the switch that turns all robots into terminators. Yes, they kill all humans! Damn, how many human pets have died! Rebecca can stand her ground but with too many robots ganging up on him, Pino activates her EMP. Yoda robot then demonstrates his ultimate gravity move that puts a stop to the robots’ rampage as well as interrupting Justice and Elsie’s epic fight. He then introduces himself as Xenolith, the master of the force Magimech Arts and Ziggy’s mentor.

Episode 46
Xenolith might be dead 1000 years ago but that is his original body. Ziggy was a prodigy, learning and master everything in a day. Well, uhm, he is a robot! Anyway, Xenolith hopes Shiki will not turn to the dark side too. Xenolith’s gravity interruption has forced Elsie and Justice to settle it another day. Otherwise both would’ve died today. Rebecca trying to gather and reunite her fellow Edens Zero crew. Meanwhile Kleene is feeling unstable so Jinn pleads to Sister for help. The only way is to dive into her mind and see what’s wrong. Weisz’s attacks on Muller do no damage. He brags about all the experiments he done on humans to achieve this ultimate state. Especially the one done on Jinn and Kleene. The horrific experiment of Muller carving up Jinn to pieces as Kleene watches so as to emotionally break her. He targeted them because their family once funded his research. Of course he got busted and when the funding stopped, he targeted them for revenge after killing their parents. Weisz so mad he punches this dude but he can still stand up and blab. Apparently he has activated some doomsday system. In short, Foresta’s defence mechanism will destroy the planet. Laguna arrives in time to assist Weisz. After giving the mad scientist a water shock, Weisz proceeds to disassemble him. Muller then changes tone and pleads for Hermit to save him. But she uses him to disable the doomsday system and gives him a good punch. You’re not needed anymore so stay away. All threats on Foresta are gone and the robots become docile again. But at a great cost.

Episode 47
Elsie makes contact with Edens Zero to apologize for getting them mixed up in her affairs. She will still chase after Ziggy. Kleene has been saved thanks to Sister removing the horrifying memories of Muller’s experiment. Because of that, she can now give off a cute smile! Oh, did we mention she wants to stay here and be part of Edens Zero? I guess Jinn will have to comply. Justice is being contacted by Holy who is part of Oracion Seis Interstellar that he needs to take care of Shura who is Nero’s adopted son. Once that old guy croaks, this troublesome kid will take over so they want to avoid all that and have him eliminated first. She will send Jaguar and Eraser to assist him. We see Nero having a meeting with Shura and his elite team known as Oceans 6 (sorry, it’s not 11). Since Nero decides everything by the roll of his dice, fate has it that he will leave everything to Shura and not intervene. Bloodthirsty Shura revels in this as he sets sights on killing Ziggy. He means business as he kills off one of the Oceans 6 member who is a robot. They’re going to fight robots so they don’t need a robot comrade. Flashback shows Ziggy met Nero before. Ziggy trained Shura his skills since Nero’s powers weren’t compatible with his. This also gave Ziggy the idea of adopting a son. Xenolith revives as he mentions Ziggy’s plan to cause havoc on Foresta was because he fears him. No, not because he is a frail old robot now. But the fear of Xenolith meeting Shiki. Because now Xenolith is going teach him and transfer his powers to Shiki that will be able to take down Ziggy. But first, some VR training to better use their Ether. During the training, Ziggy hijacks Xenolith. Did he miss his grandson?

Episode 48
Ziggy takes Rebecca hostage and is going to kill her with his gravity. Unless Shiki promises not to pursue this case further, you’ll get to see all of Rebecca’s guts splatter out! Shiki breaks free from his binds to rescue her. Then it turns out it is all a simulation from Xenolith. Pretty impressive Shiki can use his Ether Gear at such moments but more needs to be done. With the jump scare over, back to more training for everyone. Of course Xenolith notes Rebecca’s power as the weakest and needs special training. Even so, her power is the most special that could change the world. Literally. Well, we’ve already seen it. Once training is over, Xenolith decides not to follow them and remain on Foresta. Witch asks him about meeting Ziggy. It was 15 years ago when he travelled to see Mother. However he was alone. This has Witch know something is wrong. Because 4 Shining Stars were travelling with him. What was it that caused them to erase their memories outside Sakura Cosmos? Meanwhile Ziggy notes the failure by the robots to take over Foresta. However this is all just a test and everything is still proceeding as planned. He remembers losing his memory when he visited Granbell. When he decided to look for Mother, he found Shiki. He was drawn to him and raised him as his own. After his revival, he got all his memories back including why he was drawn to Shiki. He is not a threat to robots but the entire cosmos. He must not be allowed to exist. In order to realize his goal for machines to dominate the cosmos, he will take Aoi Cosmos first. Edens Zero crew is on some mud planet. Because a huge building is a Relic, it is not possible to take it with them. Pino says they need to absorb its essence into its orb. That will be suffice although it will take some time. Right now on the news, Shura addressing his people. There were several uprising of robots on other planets too. But all were promptly subdued by Oceans 6. In order to protect the people, he vows Judgment Day and this means the elimination of all robots across Aoi Cosmos.

Sandra Arc

Episode 49
Hermit makes a quick check all over the internet and it seems there were no uprising unlike in Foresta. This means that Shura is using this an excuse to simply massacre robots. Obviously Shiki wants to defeat that jerk right now although Laguna stops him. It is not possible because of his army and fleet. I suppose Shiki doesn’t care because he can’t count? Anyway, Laguna knows a person who can help as he brings them down to the desert island of Sandra. Meanwhile Ziggy relishes this is all part of his plan. For Shura to kill all robots, he must activate All Link. He will use that to control all the robots. Likewise, Shura also knows Ziggy wants All Link and will get use this as bait to get him. Down at Sandra, Laguna takes Edens Zero to see his old friends. However they are not happy to see this traitor and surround them. Their boss, Goodwin is a huge cat and the leader of Oasis, the organization who is rebelling Nero’s rule. Well, Goodwin seems to be a huge fan of Rebecca! He might not listen to what Laguna says but he sure does for darling Rebecca. Goodwin will deal with the traitor later as the more pressing issue is dealing with Shura. He explains about this All Link system. Once in a while, Aoi Cosmos will be flooded with water. During that, all Ether will be linked within the cosmos and thus all networks become connected. 3 days till that big tide. When Shura’s army is here, time for our heroes to showcase a bit of their fruits of their VR training. Small fries are now too easy. Rebecca saves a young boy from the army driving a truck towards them. As thanks, he punches her face! Meanwhile Nero is being advised by his subordinate to stop Shura’s madness or their empire will fall. Nero reiterates that he will do nothing. Because it doesn’t matter what is done as the dice has guaranteed his victory.

Episode 50
Edens Zero and the rebels continue to beat the army. Then when reinforcements arrive, they head over there fast because well, Orc is going to use this super bomb that will blow up half the planet! Orc knows Shiki will be troublesome and tries to deal with him. But he doesn’t know he has undergone training and is now a different person. Yeah, Shiki owns him easily. Pino tries to hack into the bomb but Orc won’t give up and presses the detonator. So uhm, Shiki grabbing onto it as it launches into space? Kaboom! Don’t worry, he is still alive. He just flung it into space and the hacking reduced the bomb’s power. In the aftermath as the army is captured, Goodwin will not kill them as both sides have lost many. He might hate the empire as it takes away their freedom but he doesn’t hate the people. So once this war is over, he hopes they can drink together. A big guy with a big heart. Goodwin agrees to form an alliance with Edens Zero. Since IUA is coming here, there’ll be a big shootout so they’ll use this chance to defeat Shura and destroy All Link system. Weisz hears Laguna talking with one of his ex-comrades about getting revenge on Shura who killed one of their members who was a princess who went in to rescue her captured friends. He deduces Laguna joined Drakken’s group for this purpose. It doesn’t have to be any group. Edens Zero or Elsie, as long as it is a strong organization to take down Nero. He warns him not to drag his friends into his personal vendetta. If any of his buddies die, he will kill him. Now the war begins as Aoi Cosmos sees the biggest shootout ever between both sides.

A Journey Is Best Measured In Friends Than Lightyears
Well, I don’t know. I find it strange that at this point of this writing, there isn’t any announcement of the next season. This should be getting another season, right? The way they end it like that and tease us about the possible future. How could they end a season right in the middle of an important war? Or at least one that is about to start. After all, from my brief and simple Google search, there is enough material to cover another double cours of a season. Or is this series just going to follow the trend of a show having 2 seasons and that’s it. I know it’s a silly speculation but it could be just me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’m a huge fan of this series. Seeing Fairy Tail has ended and left a hole for fans, this series as I would say would be decently epic enough to be the next Fairy Tail. But then again, it’s just my sentiments.

To be honest, this season does not disappoint although at the same time it is not that great either. Aha. My typical neutral on the fence answer. The plot is making some progress but it is not enough to warrant anywhere close to the ending. After all, the manga is still ongoing and we are still if I should say, at the initial stages of the story. As I have said, my sentiments had me thinking this is the next epic thing to replace Fairy Tail so there are going to be a lot more plots and characters along the way for Shiki and his Edens Zero crew to meet before the long journey finally ends. And yes, I anticipate it is going to be a long journey. Though, something like the length of Fairy Tail and not One Piece! Oh boy. So yeah, this may have the potential of reaching 3 digits of anime episodes but don’t mind me, I’m just getting ahead of myself. Yeah, why do I sound like I am so wanting another season?

I have mixed feelings about the first half of this season. Primarily, facing off with Drakken and taking him down. To be honest, I think I was just lying to myself thinking that Drakken would be the big bad boss and the endgame. But from the looks of it, he could be the weakest of the lot. After all, he was from my perception painted as some big bad villain from the first season so that’s where my misconception somewhat built up. That is why in some ways, the fight with Drakken ended faster than I expected and with much anti-climactic. There wasn’t much fanfare when Drakken was (somewhat easily) taken down (and in that manner too?!) but like I’ve said, Drakken in terms of galactic comparison to the rest of the bigger antagonists, he could be just a small fry. That is why I was having such dilemma about his arc went it just came to an end.

So we usher Drakken’s case out of the way and to the next plot and the second half of the series: Ziggy turning traitor and the next big bad. From the looks of it and as I have foreseen it, the second half wasn’t entirely enough to settle this. There’s a lot of mystery and intrigue in Ziggy’s sudden change of character as I continue to speculate he could be just playing the villain to shape up Shiki to fight an even bigger Demon Lord who could threaten the very fabric and existence of the entire universe: Mother! I know it sounds outrageous and it is. I just hope somebody or the next season proves me wrong. And of course I hope Ziggy becoming a bad guy isn’t because of some cheap plot twist as I have seen in Nanatsu No Taizai. Why did a heroic holy knight become a bad guy? Because as revealed many seasons later, he was being possessed by an evil demon! What the… What a downer. So I hope this isn’t the case either.

But if there was one thing that was my pet peeve, it was those mechanical dragons that surrounded Sakura Cosmos. The way they painted it, it was as though they were going to be a tough nut to crack. But alas as we saw, Edens Zero zipped through it like nothing. Sure, a bit of struggle but nothing that would put you on the edge of your seat. But that’s not the end of it. After that ‘breakthrough’, it now seems that everyone can zip in and out of Sakura Cosmos so easily. Like as though Dragonfall area does not exist anymore! I don’t know about you, but I felt this whole Dragonfall barrier thingy was like one dumb plot to keep Sakura Cosmos people inside and break their spirits if they ever think of venturing beyond. Well, now the impossible has happened so nothing is going to stop them from doing anything impossible. Like meeting Mother for real.

As for Shiki and the rest of his Edens Zero crew, what else can I say about them? The usual formula that their bonds will have them pull through at the toughest times. Rebecca still obviously there for fanservice but now we need to have a slightly different perspective of her seeing she has a very unusual power. Yeah, I hope it won’t be used for plot conveniences. Oh you know, everybody gets killed and then she leaps to another world for it. Yeah. That. And my curiosity of Mosco continues because what the heck is that “Do Not Push” button is for?! I’m going to add if he does push that, we will skip everything and go right to the ending! The ultimate cheat code! Moscoy… This season also adds new characters to Edens Zero crew and for now, they’re all ex-Drakken’s men. Well, it’s not so surprising as in Fairy Tail, we had members of a taken down guild joining the titular guild (Gajeel and Juvia were from Phantom Lord, remember?). So I’m just wondering when Maria will be joining the crew. What a waste to let this cutie disappear just like that, right? Or is that her character’s fate? I don’t know about Couchpo if she is officially an Edens Zero crew because she’s staying because of its magnificent kitchen. Where there’s food, there’s Couchpo! Now you can be assured all your kitchen food will be safe! Yeah, I foresee that’s her main role.

The other intrigue brought to light is Elsie and Justice but of course as we have seen, it is just the tip of the iceberg and is not of any significant importance at least for this season. I’m sure I take relief that a certain B-Cuber b*tch does not have a lot of screen time here. Yes, we viewers could have less of Labilia. It was a short-lived joy to see her being tortured as Drakken’s prisoner. Yes, I’m so evil in wanting to see this b*tch get a little taste of her just desserts. In the end, I think she didn’t learn much and returned to being a b*tchy B-Cuber like always. Yeah, maybe it’s her brand so it’s going to be real creepy to see her being a nice girl. Yikes. Xiaomei has been reduced to some redundant recap narrator, appearing only significantly for a short while to tease us about what’s going on or the possible future and nothing more. There are also many other characters here but of course I’m too lazy to note them all and many obviously appearing in only a single arc before disappearing forever.

Everything else in my opinion remains the same. The art style and animation (still looking a lot like Fairy Tail if you ask me), the action sequences (your obligatory battle and group fights to showcase our heroes’ abilities of course), the brand of humour (I think Happy has been reduced to mostly for some minor comeback comical relief character this season) and of course a handful of new seiyuus. Just to name a few (because I’m too lazy to just list the whole freaking list which is just freaking a lot) such as Rumi Okubo as Kleene/Sylph, Taku Yashiro as Laguna, Kazuhiko Inoue as Xenolith, Kenichi Suzumura as Shura, Takaya Hashi as Nero, Kenji Nomura as Goodwin, Aya Endo as Holy and Rena Maeda as Nadia. I am not impressed with all the themes this season either. Takanori Nishikawa who did last season’s opener is the only one retained for this season’s first opening theme, Never Say Never which has the same rock vibes as Eden Through The Rough. Another rock outfit for the second opener, Kaibutsu by Tani Yuuki. It must be just me since his voice sounds gay… This season’s first ending theme, Rinne by Asca is slow rock. The second ending theme is slightly more bearable to my taste, My Star by Lozareena is a slow ballad but is it my or does the singer sound like Lenka? Or is this Lenka’s Japanese moniker?!

Overall, once again this series is still rather okay in my books. On par with the first season but since it is still a long journey, it is too early to judge anything conclusive. Sure, I do that a lot especially for bad animes but since this isn’t entirely that bad, oh well. And I am pretty sure soon they will have another season because today we have run out of new animes to make and if we’re not doing remakes and reboots, we’re going to have to animate a series right until its source ends. Yeah. That’s today’s trend, I suppose. Because with a lot of sh*tty and not so impressive shows getting sequels (a certain isekai assassin to a certain isekai cheat skill to a certain isekai spirit chronicles to a certain rotten angel spoiling me to a banished hero living a slow life to a certain dead detective – all mostly I do not actually anticipate getting a sequel but looks like they are!!! F*CK!!!), it won’t be long before I hear the announcement of the next season for, wait for it, FAIRY TAIL IN SPACE!!! HAHAHA!!!

Hyper Speed GranDoll

In a faraway planet in another galaxy, a young child is placed by the parents into a special pod. Possibly the last surviving member of the race. Reaches Earth. Being taken care of by good people till the child grows up and learns the powers and responsibilities within. Well, sorry if that sounded like some origin story of Superman because nope, they did not turn it into anime. Instead, this is the basic premise of Hyper Speed GranDoll. Ah yes, not exactly Superwoman material and close to being a hero. In fact a big ditzy klutz. Of course, her past starts to catch up with her and her enemies are going to wreck her normal life to get what’s theirs. And as always, reluctant superhero must choose to take up the mantle to protect and continue living such a peaceful life.

Episode 1
Well, it couldn’t be cheesier for college mad scientist Kouichi to propose to Miki at the park. But yeah, she accepted his love. Then as he makes his oath on a star, is it them or is the star getting bigger? Oh sh*t! It crashes near them! Well, well. Looks like that star actually contains a pod with a little girl. Like any parents, they take her in and raise her like their own child. Many years now, Hikaru Amagi is a lively teen. Clumsy too. She tells us her favourite stuffs. And her 3 sizes too. Oh wait. That’s a secret. Damn. She goes to school with her best friend, Haruna Saotome and since they’re late, use this weird jet contraption to fly there! 100% attendance protected but they crash into Narasaki who is Hikaru’s senpai crush and in the tennis club. Not that he minds. He got distracted by the new tennis racquet. Meanwhile Peos has located the whereabouts of the royal armour. To retrieve it, he sends this mecha dude, Garbiggi (garbage b*tch WHAT?!). As Garbiggi stakes out Hikaru at the tennis club in stealth mode, he is going to fire on her. Of course Hikaru’s clumsiness activates her own self-defence mechanism that blocks the shot. This makes Garbiggi think she is on to him so he backs down for now. That night, Hikaru dreams of Gran Knight who tells her she must fight and apologizes she can’t continue to live the peaceful life he hopes for.

Next day, Hikaru meets Haruna at the amusement park. It’s a setup by Haruna since she lets her be alone with Narasaki. You bet they’re going to have a fine time together. Yeah, she is willing to miss her favourite anime for this ‘date’. When she gets lost in the mirror attraction, Garbiggi confronts her to hand over the armour. She thinks this is such a cool special effect so Garbiggi attacks. They land out on stage where a sentai play is going on. Garbiggi can’t believe this retard is the princess and takes her hostage to lure the real one out. Is this all part of the show? Because Garbiggi fires and causes damage! Sigil drops in to fight her comrade. There is no chivalry in taking hostage! As they duke it out, Hikaru sees Narasaki unconscious from the blast. She becomes mad and won’t forgive this. Gran Knight then tells her to call him. Doing so allows her to don the armour known as GranDoll. She returns to fight Garbiggi and obviously her arsenal is better than his. Eventually the wining blow is from a move called Shining Breast. I KID YOU NOT! So much about that garbage b*tch. Gran Knight then temporarily appears before Hikaru to tell her if she is ever threatened, just call his name and he’ll be there. Back on the ship, Sigil chastises Peos for not providing her with enough info. Because of that, the mission is ruined at the cost of Garbiggi’s life. If it was her, she would have already gotten it. We’ll see. As Hikaru writes in her diary and ponders what is happening to her life, all is well since she has a great day with Narasaki.

Episode 2
Sigil was once a slave of some religion but thanks to Friedshalf who freed her, she now serves him. She is now tasked to retrieve the royal armour. Hikaru and Haruna can’t stop running (late to school, what else?) because of their cursed shoes? Well, Sigil is fast enough to dodge and put a stop to this farce. Gee, Hikaru in love with her already? As it turns out, Sigil is a new transfer student in Hikaru’s class and all the boys are hounding her! Can’t stand the attention? Sigil contacts Peos as he reminds her to succeed this infiltration mission. Don’t want to make Friedshalf mad, do you? Soon, she calls Haruna to the rooftop to challenge her. If she wins, give the armour. Obviously Haruna doesn’t know what she is talking about as Sigil chases her all around. Until Hikaru opens the door and she slams into it! Ouch. She wakes up in the infirmary with Hikaru by her side. Seeing her warm touch, Sigil believes that Hikaru is the princess whom she is actually also looking for. Can’t believe this airhead is actually Princess Shaina of the royal Gran Naas family. But Sigil soon feels conflicted because in this place, she is not a prisoner and feels free. As Hikaru invites her to her house, Sigil sees a dragon toy which is actually the crest of the royal family. Then Sigil has this weird vision with Gran Knight who claims she seeks him because Friedshalf gave her freedom. However he points out Friedshalf is the evil one as he was the one who destroyed the royal family 10 years ago and is once again seeking his own ambitions. Sigil does not believe him and gets mad. Well, she destroys part of Hikaru’s room. So as Hikaru is sad about this, her parents come to tell the truth that she is not their real daughter. Well, she already knew! Anyway, 10 years ago they took her in and treated her like their own child even though she is a princess from another planet. So you bet they’ll do anything to protect this family.

Peos mocks Sigil for her failure and as much as she wants to kill him, she can’t. It’s her weakness. But Peos has come up with a sneaky way for Sigil to win the next time. Sigil is conflicted at first but she remembers she has a duty she must complete. And so Sigil takes Narasaki hostage (so now she’s resorting to this evil?). Hikaru doesn’t want to fight her but eventually is forced to as she transforms. But the sight of Hikaru bears so much like Shaina so Sigil gives up. Peos curses this waste so he takes everything into his own hands. Uhm, going to use his ship to blast all of the town?! Because Hikaru blocks the blast to protect the town she loves, Sigil too can’t let her bear the burden and joins forces. Gran Knight then advises Hikaru to power up as she transforms into a higher gear. Gran Aggress? She deflects the blast back at Peos. Oh sh*t. Better run! In the aftermath, Sigil isn’t happy because why the f*ck did she help her enemy? Hikaru doesn’t think so and notes down all of her good qualities and the way she helped others. She wants her to stay with her and be happy. Too bad Sigil plays hard to get and runs away. Hikaru patches up Narasaki and bids farewell. So I guess lesbian love > senpai love.

Episode 3
Peos turns into a chicken and tries to flee. Too bad here is Friedshalf and he looks mad. Peos begs for another chance so Friedshalf fires and destroys his ship! SERIOUSLY! But good riddance. Friedshalf is in despair that Sigil has not returned. Speaking of her, she is outside Hikaru’s house? Come in. She looks pretty confused and all. But you bet the girls bond over bath and now they’re like good friends. Wow. So easy. As they sleep together, time for Sigil to reveal she is in love with Friedshalf. She was all alone and had nothing until he saved her. Then she asks if Hikaru remembers anything about her planet. A flower garden. Some shiny rocks. Some star. And yes, a huge fire! Really? Suddenly Hikaru’s parents barge in because it’s all over the news right now. Friedshalf making his announcement for Shaina to hand over the armour or the whole Earth will burn in 12 hours! Hikaru is willing to do that to save her friends but Gran Knight advises her not to. Doing so not only puts Earth but the entire universe in danger. Sigil is in shock over Friedshalf’s actions. She escapes to return to him. Next day, looks like everywhere is an awful lot peaceful. Yeah, damn humans think that broadcast was a prank! As Hikaru is in a dilemma on what to do, here comes Narasaki to talk to her. Hikaru reveals she is an alien but he isn’t laughing. He thanks her for helping him and this gives her the encouragement to do what she needs to do. Looks like his confession will have to wait. So how will Hikaru get to Friedshalf’s ship? Don’t worry, dad conveniently created a rocket booster overnight for her! It destroyed the house during launch but it’s a small price to pay and better than a destroyed Earth, no!

Sigil confronts Friedshalf but he has her fight him via sword. Yeah, remember those days he taught her so? Sigil wants to believe in him but is willing to stop him if she needs to. Friedshalf dares her if she can kill him. Hikaru crashes in. The guards want to fight her but Friedshalf tells them to back off. They are no match for her armour. She questions why he wants to armour so badly. Well, all that freedom has caused the planet to be lax. Hence he feels the need of a dictator which is of course not surprising, himself. A new hero who bears the royal armour. Hikaru then recognizes the sword. It belongs to her royal family. And yes, he admits he was the one who started the revolution and killed her real parents with it! Yeah, so that fire memory… This is when Hikaru remembers fully what happened as Gran Knight apologizes for the fake memories implanted since she was too young to understand. Hikaru will not allow him to further destroy the things she love. As they fight, Sigil gets in the way and gets stabbed. Friedshalf in despair and blames Hikaru. Realizing he is no match for her, like a true villain if he cannot get the armour, he might as well die and take the whole Earth with him! He fuses with his ship. A barely alive Sigil reminds Hikaru to protect and with that, Hikaru levels up her armour and destroys the ship. She still wants to save Sigil. But it seems she would rather go and die with Friedshalf. Goodbye :’(. A great explosion but it is hinted the armour absorbed it. Hikaru wants to believe that Sigil is alive somewhere. Yeah. In heaven maybe! Strangely, Hikaru’s parents are here to pick her up. Don’t tell me they made these special suits too? And they brought Narasaki along?! WHY?! I guess he wants to confess to her. Well, sum up your courage. Because in space nobody can hear you confess. Sorry, bad pun… Oh well, going back to straight love since lesbo love didn’t work out…

The Princess Within: Discovering Your Royal Inheritance
Well, that was pretty okay. I don’t know it could have been better but with only 3 episodes, how much can they flesh out? After all, this OVA was created possibly to promote the game of the same name. That was way back in 1997. You feeling old now? I know I am. But yeah, with only 3 episodes, it feels like it needed not much nonsense or fooling around and everything gets straight to the point. From the first episode being introductory, the second episode being rival turned (almost) friend and the final episode to just settle everything once and for all. No need to beat around the bush with all the side distractions that would have lasted a typical cour. So while it leaves a lot to be desired, but at least it got to the point and everything ended in a happy note. Earth is saved. Hikaru’s original planet continues to revel in freedom now that the self-proclaimed heroic dictator of the future is gone. What more could we ask for? I suppose there is also no reason for Hikaru to return to her original planet since she won’t know anybody there. Earth is much more fun! Besides, her favourite anime doesn’t exist there!

So as the story is pretty basic and straightforward AKA nothing much or special, the same can be said about the characters too. Once again, it leaves a lot to be desired but I guess the whole series is just to feature Hikaru awakening to her role and duty. She needs to step up to it if she wants to protect her life on Earth. That is about it. We give her a free pass because she’s being cute and kawaii as a ditz. Don’t we just love anime dojikko? Furthermore, I believe it is the power of the armour that does the job for her and not Hikaru herself. All she needs to do is just call out the name or the special move and voila, nobody can beat this ultimate move. After all, it is said that the armour is indestructible because even in the event if Friedshalf destroyed Earth, the armour will still remain intact! Oh wow. Now I know why he wants it so bad. But I have got to say that despite its invincible tag, I’m not pretty convinced seeing it looks so flimsy when Hikaru dons it. I mean, really? More like sexy armour and it leaves certain parts exposed. You sure this thing is indestructible? Oh wait. Where have I seen this armour design before… Oh sh*t, is this not Saint Seiya or something?!

It could have been much better if things were fleshed out between Sigil and Friedshalf but I guess we don’t have enough episodes for that. So we’re just given a gist about their past and that’s about it. Just a reason to tell us why Sigil is so damn loyal to this conniving bastard. He’s not your white knight in shining armour to say the least and serves his own selfish interest. But damn, she still remains loyal to him right till the end. Oh well, don’t want to make that lesbo relationship come true! Anyway… Friedshalf being your typical one-dimensional villain all for the sake of plot convenience and typical clichés that we have seen countless times everywhere. Trying to make us feel sympathy since he still has some feelings for Sigil but oh well, at least they’re still lovers in death. Now they can be part of the stars of the universe! Sorry, bad joke.

As for the other characters, they just feel minimal and nothing much. Like Haruna who exists to be her best friend and to tell us Hikaru didn’t turn out to be a lonely outcast. Then there is the typical senpai love interest. Also to show that as a normal girl, she too has a guy her age she likes. Thanks to Hikaru protecting the world, this confession can now happen! Any time now, Narasaki… Point to ponder, if Hikaru and Narasaki get married and have kids, doesn’t this mean Hikaru’s royal bloodline continues? Hmm… Kouichi and Miki feel like comical characters since they’re so lively and sporting all the time. And you thought mad scientists are all mostly gloomy and doom-like persona, no? Yeah, being a super mad genius scientist also screams plot convenience because aren’t such talents coveted by the government or aliens? Oh well, don’t want to steal the limelight from Hikaru… Then there is Peos who is annoying because he is arrogant and always talks big. It’s a good thing he gets killed off and didn’t even see the light of the fight because I can’t imagine how easy it will be a victory for Hikaru. Yeah, speaking of Garbiggi, I feel he exists only as a test model to showcase Hikaru’s power when she awakened to GranDoll.

And who this Gran Knight dude? Dunno. Could be Hikaru’s real dad’s spirit or something. I don’t know, super confusing. Speaking of the confusion, I thought Peos was Gran Knight in disguise and perhaps he was playing the villain to hide his true identity. Why did I say that? They’re voiced by the same person (Akio Ootsuka)!!! So it confused the hell out of me as I started pondering why Gran Knight and Peos sounded so much alike. Are they the same person? Well, from what I’ve seen, it isn’t. But I can’t help that there is this small possibility that Peos isn’t dead and hence this theory of mine could be true. After all, we all think of him as dead but now he is freer to play his Gran Knight role. Yeah whatever.

Speaking of voice acting, is it me or do I find Hikaru’s voice to be just way to shrieky? Oh I don’t know, especially when she gets all excited, her pitch gets higher which feels a bit annoying. Not sure, she is voiced by Junko Iwao who is more recognizable as Tomoyo in Card Captor Sakura. But she also sings the ending theme, Sotto Chikau Shunkan Toki which isn’t all that bad. Doesn’t have all that shriekiness to it. Yeah, I love those retro vibes of the song too. Other casts are Yuko Miyamura as Sigil (Asuka in Evangelion), Hikaru Midorikawa as Friedshalf (Lancer in Fate/Zero), Toshiyuki Morikawa as Narasaki (Tousen in Bleach) and Haruna Ikezawa as Haruna (Mao in Kimikiss Pure Rouge).

As for the art and animation, what else more is there to say? Really dated animation style and design as you can right away tell that all the characters come straight out from that era with such typical looks. Though, I have to point out the uncanny resemblance of Kouichi to Evangelion’s Gendou. Sorry buddy, you look more like a joker version of that guy! While the overall quality is rather okay, but some scenes do look like it has reduction in quality especially those fast action scenes. But it doesn’t break the entire anime. Oh right, got to mention the fanservice bits. There are but rare. Only the early moments of the final episode did they spam some bare tits of the girls in the bath. I never expected that after 2 episodes of paltry transformation fanservice which feels like nothing in today’s standards. I thought Sigil’s sexy pose in the initial moments of the second episode was the best it could do. Oh well, now I know why Hikaru has her ultimate move that bested Friedshalf called Shining Breast! Just kidding. Maybe. This series was done by Zero-G Room who did Shadow Skill and the OVA version of Master Mosquiton.

Overall, this retro OVA is rather okay. It’s not that I liked it very much and at the same time I don’t really hate it. I wasn’t bored and at the same time not really impressed either. My fence sitting answer is getting too boring these days. It was entertaining in its own right to say the least. After all, there are way much more worse retro OVAs and even more so, obscure ones out there so this one at least has subs and I suppose it is not that all bad. I don’t know which one is better, coming across and watching more crappy garbage animes or somebody telling me I belonged to some ancient royalty and need to take up my role and responsibility for the sake of the world. Either way, I know I’ve been scammed.

Moldiver

One thing leads to another. You could say that the recent spate of weird retro OVAs has led me to watch stranger and stranger ones. From I Dream To Mimi to Boku No Marie, now it has led me to yet another seemingly female lead in power suit-like story, Moldiver. Some genius creates a seemingly invincible superhero suit but it is his sister who accidentally dons it and must now wear the superhero mantle to fight an evil organization and his babes in taking over the city. Yup. As generic and cliché as it is weird. So let’s dive in… Sorry, bad pun…

Episode 1: Metamorforce
Nerdy Hiroshi Ozora dreams that as long as he has some super suit he is currently making, he will become some invincible superhero! He then attends an F-1 event that is unveiling some new racing technology. He also meets his admired mentor, Amagi and his secretary Isabelle. As the event gets underway, there is also a beauty contest to find the next ZIC race queen. Amagi is one of the panel of judges but to Hiroshi’s surprise, his sister, Mirai is one of the contestants! But soon the event is hijacked by mecha from the evil organization known as Machinegal. They cause terror and is trying to steal the F-1 technology. I guess there are no phone booths so Hiroshi has to go underneath a table to turn into his superhero alter ego known as Captain Tokyo! Lame name! He easily saves the day and puts that bad robots in place. He also rescues Mirai from certain death and the way he calls her, she believes he is her brother. In the aftermath, we see the mastermind behind this is no other than Amagi himself and is the leader of Machinegal. He and his troop of female warriors are hell bent to get the latest technology for his private collection. He orders his femme fatale to find out the person behind the superhero suit. Next day in college, Mirai’s friend, Mao Shirase shows her newspaper articles that writes about Captain Tokyo’s various heroic deeds. This has Mirai decide to do something about the design so she sneaks into Hiroshi’s room to change the programming. Uhm, does she know what she is doing because everything goes haywire.

As the F-1 race in Tokyo gets underway, the team with the leading F-1 technology is of course way ahead of the pack. As the driver refuels, Mirai notices a shady crew latching something at the back. However Machinegal soon attacks the place. The driver then cannot control his vehicle nor does his team can do anything to stop it. The F-1 car is driving dangerously on its own and causing damages. I guess it’s a job for Captain Tokyo! But wait! He is a girl?! Oh yeah, Mirai tampered with whatever programming. Uh huh. Beauty > strength. Whatever. However he gets owned by Machinegal’s agent, Brooke. Apparently Hiroshi is not 100% well and has a cold. Hence the logic for Mirai to switch places with him. Reverting the superhero back to Captain Tokyo, to differentiate the female version from this buffed superhero, she decides to rename herself as Moldiver. Roll credits! She takes on Brooke and it soon becomes a race between them. Uhm, the circuit is pretty dangerous now but all the audiences aren’t evacuated?! Anyway with both ladies running at high speed, I believe this is Mirai’s tactic to run so fast while holding onto Brooke so that her suit breaks. Thus breaking the device that is controlling the rampaging F-1 car. WTF. Whatever. But the car is still going too fast to stop. Yeah, Mirai going even faster so much so she laps even him and causes damage to the track! She had to revert to Moldiver to slow down. And I don’t know how but she manages to stop it all and saves the day. Confusing.

Episode 2: Overzone
Hiroshi and his younger brother, Nozomu are in Florida for holiday and to attend a concert by idol Amy Lean. Yeah, with so many hot busty bikini babes around and Hiroshi not really liking them, HE MUST BE GAY! But also here is his old friend, Kaoru Misaki. He is here for the NASA space programme as they both reminisce they were pupils of Amagi. Misaki hopes to repay him and that is why he is at today’s programme. Meanwhile Amagi is also here because he wants NASA’s space shuttle. But curses, why the f*ck does the idol concert have to be so freaking close to the launch pad! You bet Amagi is mad that it will ruin his shuttle! Wrong logic but I understand why it’s so inappropriate. Were there no other places to hold the concert?! But next to freaking launch pad?! Are they trying to compete who is the loudest?! The guys bump into Amagi and the moment he sees Misaki, because of his buffed stature, he believes he is Captain Tokyo. Time to head back to base and tell his girls to get into action. Mirai is back in Japan when Mao calls just to instigate her because Misaki is here, she might go on a date with him. See ‘ya! GRRR!!! THAT B*TCH! How is she going to get to America in an instant? Well…

That night as the concert begins, the whole place as expected gets hijacked by Machinegal. This time Jennifer calls out to Misaki to show himself as Captain Tokyo. However Misaki is unsure what she is talking about. Thinking he is playing dumb, Amy is kidnapped and latched onto the space shuttle as it blasts off into space! OMFG!!! HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE! HOW DID THE NASA GUYS ALLOW THIS???!!! Anyway, with everyone turning their attention on Misaki to transform and save their idol, Hiroshi sneaks off to transform. But he can’t! Yeah, looks like whatever gadget he needs to transform is with Mirai. That’s right. She is going to transform just to zip over to USA and prevent her b*tch friend from stealing her love from under her nose. So now you know why you have to strip naked before transforming because it rips your clothes! She arrives right in time as the space shuttle flies off. Now with Captain Tokyo’s appearance, this confuses the hell out of Amagi and everyone as this proves Misaki isn’t that person. With Hiroshi’s guidance, Mirai transforms into Moldiver (to move freer) as she flies and chases the shuttle. She puts Amy inside the shuttle and has her space battle with Jennifer. Obviously Jennifer loses as Mirai throws the rocket booster at her!!! Luckily she manages to escape. But what’s this?! Amagi then activates his laser beam inside the shuttle?! Don’t worry, Mirai wrecks it. There goes Amagi’s expensive toy. As the shuttle is burning up upon re-entry, Mirai saves Amy and lets the shuttle back into the launch pad. Oh my. The billion dollar project easily destroyed JUST LIKE THAT! Amagi obviously is in despair that his shuttle is wrecked. But guess what? The concert area is literally still intact!!! OMFG!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! Idol > space programme! Mirai returns Amy safely and then goes to break up Mao with Misaki. Yeah, they wonder how she got here so fast. Later Hiroshi explaining he created Captain Tokyo’s physique based on Misaki’s stature since he has an inferiority complex about his size. Poor guy is hiding somewhere because some naughty dog stole his clothes and now he is stark naked.

Episode 3: Longing
Amagi is being interviewed regarding the city’s destruction. However it blames it on Moldiver and not Machinegal. He claims he has some idea to alleviate the city’s worsening traffic problems and believes he is the only one who has the right to possess such technology. Returning to Isabelle, it seems she has analysed Moldiver. Don’t get all that mumbo-jumbo stuffs but it leaves Misaki frustrated that somebody perfected this idea before him. Now, if it is not Misaki, then who else could be behind that suit? He tells his girls to start some disturbances in Tokyo but do not damage the streets since he will be one repairing it. Misaki is supposed to meet Hiroshi to deliver something. It seems Mirai intercepted this message and promises to be the one to meet up. That won’t be easy seeing the city has traffic jams all over. Plus, Machinegal babes are causing minor disruptions all over the city like using diversions, flooding and even stopping certain electronic devices. Therefore a big part of this episode sees Mirai trying to rush to meet Misaki. But because of such hold ups, she is held back and then forced to temporarily transform into Captain Tokyo to get out of that situation or save the day. This short transformation is what the Machinegal babes are hoping so as to track her down. Whenever Mirai reaches the intended place, Misaki has already moved on to another. So you bet this process rinse and repeats itself! So people, this is why handphones are such an important piece of communication which of course doesn’t publically exist yet in this era!!! And yeah, how the f*ck can Misaki move faster to another place than Mirai???!!! At one point, the Machinegal babes desperately try to overwhelm her. Mirai will stop at nothing to get to her date with Misaki. Yes, wrecking part of the city with this huge fight. Amagi is sure going to have a heart attack… All hope seems lost as Misaki seemingly gives up and is about to board his plane back. But in the very last minute, Mirai shows up. Better late than never. Misaki gives him a diskette for Hiroshi. He has analysed Moldiver. He wanted to present this personally to Hiroshi about some crucial info if Moldiver is to succeed (something about the life of the pilot). As Misaki notes his dreams of flying into space, he won’t be seeing them for a while. But here, this little doggie memento as token. Well, Mirai didn’t get to marry him but this will do! Meanwhile Nozomu has done some hacking on Hiroshi’s PC and uncovered something incredible. And poor Hiroshi continues to wait…

Episode 4: Destruction
Amagi hears a recording from his grandpa. 100 years ago, he was a captain in a battleship named Yamato. It was under constant barrage. He hoped it could last until the completion of some unit named Moltron. Of course it couldn’t so it sank. Now Amagi wants to see how true that is as he prepares to salvage Yamato from the depths. As he prepares to leave, suddenly Nozomu is in his toilet?! Not sure about being his biggest fan whatever but in Amagi’s bid to prevent him from knowing his secret, accidentally hits the knob that transports them to Yamato’s bridge. Yeah, a smart kid like him should know better than to simply press the buttons! But oh well, it brought them to a secret chamber where this Moltron system is located. Nozomu being the genius he is, starts tinkering. Amagi can’t stay as he gets a call from his girls since Yamato is suddenly starting to surface. As it does and all the other ships surrounding it carrying enthusiasts watch with glee, Amagi goes into his Machinegal mode, claiming he has captured Yamato. Since this is being played live on TV, Mirai sees this and zips over. That’s right. Another mecha fight. Despite Amagi’s clear orders not to damage the ship, oh sh*t, the robots start tearing it apart! So much about the national treasure. Meanwhile Nozomu has fixed whatever. With incandescent bulbs?! Yamato further activates as it now flies! Its defence barriers are also activated. If this carries on, the whole thing will overheat and go berserk. Sayuri tries to go salvage the system. Elsewhere, Mirai is surprised from her sudden transformation as Moldiver to Captain Tokyo. Then some bomb dropping that reminisces the bombing and burning of Yamato. Sayuri manages to get 1 freaking bulb before the whole ship goes boom. Not sure in the aftermath because Amagi is fine and Nozomu is fine. Young lad thinks old fart like him won’t die so easily. You can say that again. With a letter from grandpa, Amagi realizes grandpa had left with Yamato and Moltron into space! HUH?! Hiroshi speaks to Misaki about some major defect in the suit. Survival rate is less than 15% and none of their pilots can handle it. Misaki has been chosen as the pilot and knows death is at hand. Mirai wonders about giving the Moldiver unit to him but Hiroshi points out it is at its limit and can probably activate 1 more time. But as for Nozomu, looks like he is proud of completing his whatever system. Self-proclaimed supreme technologist of all time!

Episode 5: Intruder
According to Nozomu’s exact calculations, transformation can happen only for 2 more times! Wow. So precise! The dimensional rocket launch will be soon as Mirai dreads she can’t do anything to help Misaki. In fact, Misaki even gives a courtesy call to Hiroshi, knowing he is working hard to solve the problem, there just isn’t enough time. So send my regards to Mirai. Bye. Mirai decides to sneak into the command centre. Damn, such an important event and huge facility, there are no guards?! Even the only one on patrol gets girl kicked by her?! WTF?! Yes, security is damn lax as she gets caught by one and he thinks she is from the media who has forgotten her pass! OMFG!!! SECURITY SLEEPING ON THE JOB!!! But yeah, where to find Misaki?! Can’t miss him. In the press conference room filled with reporters. To her jealousy, Mao is the flower girl who hands him some flowers and a peck on the cheek as part of the programme! GRRR!!! Feeling sad she won’t get to see him at this rate, well of well, for some reasons she finally meets him at the rooftop. She warns about his impending doom but even so, Misaki will still go. He believes she would understand if she sees how beautiful the stars are. Nothing else she could do but give him a little doll of herself as charm. Launch day is here as Misaki suits and rides the rocket. Well, it’s a long way since the rail goes all up to the top of the mountain. As it starts, all part of Machinegal’s plan to sabotage and destroy the rail. Since this is all part of Amagi’s plan, he won’t call it off and let the rocket continue its trek. Mirai transforms into Moldiver to fight the girls. Not sure what’s going on but lots of destruction everywhere and the girls get defeated left and right. Mirai trying to save the rail despite being outnumbered. Eventually Brooke deals the final blow and detonates to final part to completely destroy the tail of the rail. Mirai in despair but wait! Who this new guy showing up to save the day?!

Episode 6: Verity
Obviously this hero is Nozomu. He thinks he is superior to Mirai and wants to test his powers on her to prove it. Hey WTF?! Some important life or death launch is happening and Nozomu wants to fight Mirai?! WTF IS HIS PROBLEM?! Even a race around the world?! WTF?! Yeah, so Nozomu proves he is superior after beating her. Now what? At this point, Amagi wants to abort the experiment. Getting to old for this sh*t? Well, Misaki won’t. He won’t give up on his dreams and will speed up! What’s life if you can’t take such chances! Even if Amagi reveals the system isn’t ready, Misaki already knows it but he still wants to take the risk. Nozomu tries to stop the rocket but Mirai uses all her strength to get in between. This allows Misaki to successfully launch into space although Mirai has used up all her power. Drama isn’t over yet since the rocket might hit the solar satellite. Some damaged system so Misaki can’t steer away. End of dream? Well, looks like Mirai uses her final transformation to save the day. Nozomu plans to take the rocket back to Earth as Mirai once again puts a stop in his plans as her will makes her unit work beyond its capacity. Not sure what this technical crap is because both suits are Moldiver based, so Mirai hugging him, some weird barrier forms, allows her to switch her Moldiver unit with his. This causes Nozomu to turn into Captain Tokyo as he runs out of steam and falls back to Earth. But not enough time to save the rocket from the collision. Don’t worry, Isabelle shoots the damn thing away.

But from now, it gets personal as she claims she is doing this on her own accord to fight Moldiver to settle her personal grudge to avenge her sisters. More fighting in space. Mirai knows if this drags on, she will lose. So she gives Isabelle the ultimatum to settle things. So uhm, they’re going to fight in the sun?! Either both will die or 1 will emerge victorious. WTF?! It is at this point Misaki realizes everything and especially Moldiver’s identity. Now he claims he will stop because he also loves her (Mirai tried to confess to him before he left but chickened out) and his dream is nothing without her. And just like that! Love > space dream! OMFG!!! Too late, both girls sink into the sun. But wait! The power of love has Mirai emerging as the winner! She passes the Moldiver unit to him as the rocket’s dimensional system activates and warps. See you when he gets back. Don’t know how long that will take. Until then, Mirai will wait for him. In the aftermath, Mirai and Mao continue to be frenemies. Machinegal hasn’t shown itself in public for quite a while since Amagi is busy repairing his Machinegal girls. Yeah, they still live and take quite a lot of maintenance. Nozomu continues to perfect his Moldiver unit and similarly, Hiroshi completing his perfect version of that. Well, a little bit too late, huh?

Meta-mofo, LOL-diver!!!
Well, in some ways I am glad this is over. Because it seems the more episodes passed, the more crap and trashier this gets. So much so my brain isn’t processing anymore what is happening and found it hard to understand all that confusion! Oh damn. My brain is worse than the Moldiver unit. Already at its freaking limit! So as much as I want to like and enjoy this strange retro OVA, it started off rather okay at first and seemingly random. But the second half just started to get a bit confusing with all the drama and especially Mirai’s dilemma and romance with the guy she has a huge crush on. Oh well, at least everybody gets to live another day here. Yup, nobody dies. Not even Machinegal’s babes. And let’s just hope Misaki will not take decades to return. Oh well you know, time flows differently in space and by the time he returns, everything in Tokyo has changed and his loved ones gone. Oh well. Moldiver may be invincible but its pilot isn’t immortal!

Honestly, I don’t really know what the story is about either or more precisely, where it is headed. I mean, the synopsis was short so I thought they were keeping it brief. After all, with only 6 episodes, one isn’t supposed to put in a lot of hope in just about everything. This is after all once again, one of those ubiquitous and unknown retro OVAs. So if I have to quickly summarize the whole thing in a sentence, it would be just to showcase Mirai in a battle suit. That’s the only thing that seems consistent in all episodes. Mirai gearing up to go battle supposedly evil babes from Machinegal but at the end of the day, causes more destruction than anything but that’s okay because somehow these Tokyo people don’t give a f*ck and put their 100% belief in the government or some big moneybag corporation to fix everything back to normal. Yeah. That. To say it is our reluctant heroine taking up the mantle to protect the city and the guy she loves from the schemes of an evil organization doesn’t seem quite right either…

Because it all boils down to the characters and they’re pretty confusing to me. Okay, let’s start off with Hiroshi who is the supposed genius who created this Moldiver unit system that surpassed any science imaginable even for this hi-tech scientific era. I thought he was going to be the main character seeing he became Captain Tokyo but soon he was relegated to some supporting minor character as you can mostly see him relate info to Mirai in action. So what is he? Her coach now?! Yup. Seems a lot like that. So Mirai becomes the main character as for some reasons I still can’t understand, seems to be the only one who can change into both Moldiver versions. To show how related she is, ooooh, love problems! Yeah, the guy she loves going to space and she always has that frenemy Mao who is more than willing to take the chance to steal Misaki. Oh boy. Well, good thing they made it clear in the end who loves who. See you next time when he comes back from another galaxy!

Finally, Nozomu. Ah yes, it must run in the genes of the Ozora family because everybody is somewhat a genius. Too bad the way he acts sometimes tells me he is a retarded although I believe it is to make his character most boyish and child-like. Oh well, I guess dumb people like us won’t understand geniuses or rather supreme technologists like him. And yes, the entire Ozora family should rename themselves the Moldiver family as everyone has their own Moldiver alter ego! Now we’re just waiting for Nozomu to officially name his. Don’t tell me it’s the boring Moldiver v2 or Moldiver v3! Uhm, also a point to ponder, does anybody know the whereabouts for the Ozora’s parents? Are they dead or having a long vacation in some other galaxy? Maybe Misaki can fetch them back!!! HAHAHA! Okay, I’ll go with the narrative they’re dead. Because anime parents are always dead! :’(.

Amagi is another confusing character. He is supposed to be the villain of the series and from what I can see (although I may be wrong) is that he is just jealous of everything especially of his shortcomings. Hence this Machinegal organization he created just to take whatever technology that he claimed is supposed to be his. I don’t know. From F-1 technology to space shuttles and even a sunken battleship, I don’t really know what this guy’s problem. Maybe he has dementia or Alzheimer since he looks pretty old. Even more confusing is that in the final arc, he’s like playing both the villain and hero. I still don’t understand why he wanted to sabotage the rocket launch seeing he is the director of the programme and the one calling the shots. And then last minute change of heart, he decided to be the good guy or something. Really WTF is going on? The cliché and irony that Amagi and Hiroshi know each other well but right under the classic case of their noses, they are superhero or supervillain alter ego whom they don’t even know. I’ll bet it would be a (not so) shocking discovery when they find out each other.

Then there are those femme fatale Machinegal girls. Too bad they are a bunch and not a lot of fleshing out. Because it feels like they are doing musical chairs, taking turns to take on Moldiver in each episode. That is basically what their role is for. Initially I was confused because I thought they were robots but they were so human-like and feminine, I thought maybe I didn’t get something. Then in the final episode we see them getting dismembered and their robo parts all over, oh damn, I think this could be the most gruesome scene in all of this series. So I guess this explains why such an old guy has a bevy of beauties. They’re all just freaking androids. Android harem. Heh. And there’s this running joke that Amagi’s entrance to his secret base is via the toilet. Because most genius ideas are formed in the toilet?! Sorry, too dumb to get that genius reference. But yeah, of all places, the toilet. Don’t laugh. Today’s generation spend way too much time in the toilet too because of those damned Smartphones!

Speaking of technology, once again it makes me laugh as well as feel freaking old to see all the so called outdated technology here. Uh huh. Mind you, this anime was released way back in 1993! That’s right. So futuristic but so outdated! In a world with flying cars and hi-tech robots, imagine seeing diskettes, CRT televisions and oh f*ck, I think this is the first time I’m seeing the ‘focus’ of incandescent lightbulbs used in some hi-tech machinery or system! The ultimate outdated futuristic technology! I don’t even know if it’s a good thing because the handphone is almost non-existent and hence that weird episode of Mirai keep missing Misaki all over the place. Yes, landline phones still exist in abundant in the future! Weird. But not really. Well, once again I try not to laugh too much because having such basic technologies today is still better considering how newer technology methods are much more prone to failure. Yeah, so maybe the incandescent lightbulbs aren’t such a bad idea after all. So when are they going to create a 2TB floppy drive or diskette so I can keep all my anime porn series!

On another note, one thing I don’t like is of course the explanation of the technical terms for Moldiver. No point hiding it now since I’m not a bright person. They try to make it sound so technical and hi-tech so I’m not sure how much of that is BS (100% sci-fi crap definitely) but yeah, too confusing for a dumb viewer like me to comprehend or understand how the suit works, blah, blah, blah. All I know it is just freaking superior and could even beat Superman at his own game. Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Look up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plan, it’s… Moldiver!!! HAHAHAHA!!! Sighs… On a trivial note, notice the title of each episode spells out the name of the series? Was that supposed to impress me? Because what am I supposed to use it for? A cheat code activation or clue to skip to the last boss or something?!

Action bits are okay and I am not sure if this is to showcase Moldiver’s ultimate strength and might or perhaps Mirai doesn’t know how to use it properly and that’s why she always displays brute strength in her fight. Guaranteeing the destruction of the surroundings in every fight with the Machinegal babes. Yup, that’s their other role. To get their ass handed to them by Moldiver. Almost labelling them a discount Team Rocket. Heh. I guess if you’re going to have an epic mecha fight, might as well take it all the way. Screw the environment! Screw all the manmade facilities and buildings! Just fight seriously to your heart’s content! That’s the only way to put the suit to good use. Otherwise all those installed hi-tech gears and accessories for nothing and if you’re so concerned about surrounding destruction, be my guess and good luck fighting the enemy with a baseball bat and helmet.

The other draw perhaps for people to watch this series is the fanservice. But I can assure you they are very shown very sparingly and not as heavy as I thought it would be. Sure there are bare tits but as I remember them, only 2 scenes. 2 short freaking scenes that if you blink or not looking at the right places, you’d miss it! So you would have guessed that most of the fanservice pertains to Mirai when she needs to get into her Moldiver gear. Thus the absurd reason why she needs to take off her clothes to avoid being viewed as some weird streaker once she is done with her heroic job. Have fun watching her naked ass in such scenes.

Art and animation are of course reeking that early 90’s style. However I can’t really say that the animation is totally good because mainly there are scenes whereby it just felt crappy. For example, look at how they animated the fireworks! Wow. It’s just so poor quality and bland! Can I blame that era’s animation technology that can’t seem to animate fireworks properly yet? Nah! As for the character designs, is it me or does the female characters have this one kind look. I don’t know, their faces look a bit roundish and slightly cartoonish. And uhm, doesn’t Captain Tokyo look like a discount version of The Tick? Or did the creator take inspiration from that design? This series was done by AIC who did Seto No Hanayome, Aa! Megami-sama, Amagami SS and the Tenchi Muyou series.

Overall, this anime is just average in my books. Sorry, not one of those retro shows that would naturally have me put more points just because it’s retro. There were lots of dumb WTF moments that don’t make sense but I guess it was for the comedy factor. The way Mirai in Moldiver form smashes everything that would put Hulk to shame as well as that Yamato shenanigans with a genius kid on board to Mirai sneaking in unauthorized to a very important location holding a very important programme to see her love and got away scot free, I cannot stress enough if everybody here is just dumb or don’t give any damn f*cks. Well, thank goodness social media wasn’t a thing back then. Otherwise we’ll see lots of Moldiver memes posted everywhere on the internet. I bet these will reach whichever parts of the galaxy Misaki is in right now. Supreme technologist? Nah. Supreme memeologist? Sign me up! I’ll take that risk even if such memes only have a 1% survival rate!

Bishoujo Yuugekitai Battle Skipper

HAPPY BELATED NEW YEAR 2024 EVERYONE! And so it’s another year for another round of animes to watch, right? What else is there for people like yours truly to do? Hopefully this year would have even better animes to watch although technically I’m starting off with another strange entry. I hope I won’t jinx the rest of the year…

After my strange stint with Boku No Marie, it recommended me to another strange series: Bishoujo Yuugekitai Battle Skipper. Sounds like I have heard this anime before or maybe I don’t. Oh you know, heard it ages ago but never got around to check it out because of my busy schedule or it was just not that of a priority. Until now. Yeah, my memory is quite hazy at this point. But oh heck, this series has female piloting mecha robots. So well, you can see what my main drive is to check out this retro OVA. After all, how hard can only 3 episodes be, right?

Episode 1
It is Saori Tachibana and Shihoko Sakaki’s first day at St Ignacio and they’re running late. At the gates, they witness Sayaka Kitaouji arriving in her ship. Yeah, she must be some big shot to land her private ship in the school grounds despite it is clearly against school rules. During the ceremony, Sayaka gives her speech that she is from Debutante Club and how it is an elite group that will break the stranglehold of the world that is dominated by men. Next up for the speech is Rie Shibusawa, the vice president of Etiquette Club. Looks like her speech note is missing so she wings it as she tells everyone only the strongest can join! Later, we see a long queue outside Debutante Club. Yeah, lots of students want to join. I guess it is too long so Saori, Shihoko along with their new friend, Kanami Izaki decide to go check out the Etiquette Club. Looks dark. Nobody in. Suddenly arrows are fired at them. All except Shihoko dodge. Seems this is a test to see how well they react. Because of that, Rie allows Saori and Kanami to join. Shihoko can go home! No way! Luckily the president, Reika Ayanokouji doesn’t want her to be too hasty as their club need some new members. Reika notes about Kanami’s credentials and she could’ve easily joined Debutante Club. So why this club? She was moved by Reika. Saori won’t join unless Shihoko is in. Rie is not amused so Reika uses he veto to accept her since everyone has their talents. At the end of the day, Sayaka leaves in her limo. Damn, red carpet to boot! She talks to her attendant, Todou about finding their enemy known as Exsters and their mecha known as Battle Skippers (BS). She firmly believes her company, Makuhari Industries should only dominate the market.

Our curious trio decide to check out Etiquette Club because they feel their seniors are hiding something. So yeah, this strange button, press it will you! And suddenly they whole room changes as they are being transported to a secret underground hi-tech facility. They then get absorbed into a tube each. Transformation scene! Now they find themselves in a cockpit of a BS. Yeah, how great of them to deduce this is Etiquette Club’s secret. Uhm, they know how to pilot this thing? Okay. Time to go out and help their seniors. Meanwhile Todou and his men are robbing a bank in their BS?! It is put to a stop by Reika and Rie. As they fight, Todou is superior until of course the newbies jump in to help. Todou knows he cannot win outnumbered so he flees. His goons try to flee by foot so the seniors coolly stop and arrest them for the police. They leave their signature card behind. They are Exters! While Rie is not amused with their recklessness, Reika welcomes them for they have proven themselves. However they must promise not to do anything dangerous again and with that, the newbies rejoice as they are now official club members.

Episode 2
Todou reports his failure to Sayaka who is not impressed and abuses him (I believe the masochist loves it). She ticks him off for running away just because he was outnumbered and only has himself to blame for his own stupidity for not planning ahead. Well, good thing she gives him another chance. Our seniors tell the newbies a history of their BS. Reika’s grandpa founded Urayasu Heavy Industries and developed its technology. Because grandpa didn’t like these WMDs, he didn’t turn it to the military and handed them to his family so as to keep the world safe! Oh yeah. That sure did the trick. More technical explanations on how it works by Rie so did you get all that?! But since to pilot it, one must be fit, hence Rie becomes a Spartan trainer to whip the newbies into shape. I hope Shihoko doesn’t break. Just a few words of encouragement and she’s all motivated. Simpleton. One day as Saori heads to school, she is ambushed by several men who want to rape. If not for a passing priest named Gilbert beating them up and saving her, she could’ve lost her virginity! And yes, he is so cool that Saori starts to fall for him. Fate is so strange because Gilbert is now a substitute teacher in her class! Damn, Saori and Shihoko fighting over him?! Hope this won’t break their friendship! Later Saori goes to talk to Gilbert. Feeling weird this forbidden romance is escalating quickly? Indeed. Because as she prepares to kiss him, he pops a pill to knock her out. And then hypnotize her under his control.

That night, Saori like a zombie goes to Exsters base to steal the AI chip from her BS. Luckily Rie smelled a rat so she is here to stop her. Too bad Todou and his men are here as he snatches the chip. He then orders Saori to shoot Rie. Fortunately Saori doesn’t know how to use a gun as Rie knocks her out. The other Exters arrive and soon a shootout begins. Saori regains consciousness. She has no recollections as Rie explains she has been tricked by Gilbert who is of course Todou in disguise. Saori is mad that the creep preyed on her heart and will give it to him. So it’s time to end the shootout and continue the fight in their BS. Exters show off their capabilities and this forces Todou and his men to combine their BS for an even bigger robot. Too bad big doesn’t mean better since Exters pulling off some devastating combo move that forces our baddies to eject and flee. In the aftermath, the newbies are sad that their base have been destroyed from the attack. No worries. This is just a sub-base. Their real base is Josephine Rose and Exters’ true home!

Episode 3
Reika and Rie are being called by the headmistress. It seems she noticed their club has few members and not much activities or achievements. Even so, complaints about them being noisy?! WTF?! Hence she is thinking about disbanding it but because Reika’s family has been a generous donor, she is giving them some time to think about it. Yeah, Rie can’t oppose since her declining grades will be used against her! But Rie believes all this is perpetrated by Sayaka. We’ll soon find out as the duo leave, Sayaka picks up Reika. Rie knows it is a trap seeing she recognizes Todou as the driver. However Reika assures it’ll be alright and goes with Sayaka. First, Sayaka reminds Reika that her family is a branch under hers. In short, she knows her Etiquette Club members are Exsters and wants her to disband it and hand her BS to her. Sorry, no can’t do. You think Reika would easily hand over her family heirloom? Meanwhile the others wait for Reika’s return at the clubroom but fears it is the end of them if she doesn’t come back. Suddenly, Sayaka’s elite b*tches show up to teach them a lesson. Kanami offers to stall them while the rest ride their BS to go rescue Reika. Along the way, they encounter Makuhari’s BS. Uhm, do they have to design them so ominous? Obviously more powerful, what else but to run! Meanwhile Sayaka brings Reika back to her luxury suite. She tells the ugly world men has created and thus she wants to redo it. But she can’t do it without that special AI chip. Seeing Reika has potential, she offers her the position as her vice and they can change the world. You know Reika’s answer already. She won’t. Sayaka being the spoilt brat will not be defied so she summons her BS to threaten her. Todou is bragging the ultimate machines these latest BS. Rie, Saori and Shihoko listen and are impressed. But WTF?! Why are they here?! Turns out their BS has autopilot so the Makuhari counterparts are just chasing the machines. The girls go on to wreck Todou’s command centre. WTF?! Just press any button to ruin everything?!

By the time Sayaka realizes the intruders (why her goon reported so late?!), Exters have already barged into this place. Sayaka and her team then retreat to her huge flying ship. So uhm, she’s going to use this ship to destroy Exters? A bit of overkill don’t you think? Todou warns her this ship is supposed to be secret and even if she uses a fraction of its power, it could destroy Tokyo. Sayaka’s answer: Once she gets her hands on the chip, she will be the nation’s ruler and decide its laws! OMFG savage! But of course as we know, her ship is no match for Josephine Rose now being piloted by genius Kanami. With Exsters regrouping in this base, they fire at Sayaka’s ship in which it takes damage and crashes! So much about their high end technology! Soon a call from Sayaka’s mom who is the leader of Makuhari. She tells her daughter to withdraw as she will not allow the family’s name to be further tarnished. Sayaka refuses, claiming she started this game and so she’ll end it. In that case, mother reminds her to observe the rules of the game. This means she must defeat Exsters with her own power as she also chastises Todou who is supposed to supervise the situation. At this point, she sees no confidence in Sayaka and will allow Etiquette Club to continue to be her rival to see if she is worthy. Sayaka accepts this challenge. Reika thanks her comrades for working hard. As long as they work together, they will prevail. But it’s not over yet as she notes the game has only just begun.

Exters’ (BS) Laboratory
So uhm, that’s it? I thought it was just the beginning? The irony because it all already ended. Oh yeah. How typical of such shows to end on this typical fashion. From now forth, our battle has only just begun! End of series. Roll credits. I suppose it is up to you to create your own adventures and stories after that. The producers couldn’t be bothered to produce any more episodes after that so feel free to use your creative imagination if you’re ever so interested. Heh. I made that up but yeah, only 3 freaking episodes and that’s about it. The end.

Now, if the whole story feels so iffy, cliché and that it feels like the producers were just winging it as they made the episodes, take note that this series wasn’t based on any manga, light novel or game. So is it original? Well, actually it is based on a toy line based on the same name. Ah yes. Hence the OVAs were created solely out of the single goal to sell those BS toys from the famous Japanese toy company, Takara Tomy. I guess back in those days that is how such companies try to make their sales. I’m sure many of us veterans who grew up in the 80’s and 90’s would remember those nostalgic days of Saturday and Sunday morning cartoons. Transformers to He-Man to Thundercats to Ghostbusters and all those classics. Yeah. What’s the point of watching those series? The same point in why they made those cartoons in the first place. It’s to sell those damn toys! Unfortunately as I read somewhere, the toy line was kinda short-lived… No wonder we didn’t see Exters save the world or Makuhari ruling it anymore!

So yes, the main attraction and feature of the OVAs are the BS themselves. Although from the way I see it, their appearance is way lesser than the cute female characters and mostly appeared towards the end of the episode where the obligatory battle scenes happen. Unfortunately the BS showcases felt paltry. I don’t see how showing a few scenes and the BS firing a few shots were going to make boys go crazy and going to bug their parents to buy these toys for them. Oh well, maybe back in 1995, it might look all so super. Too bad watching this at this point in time, it just felt so mediocre. So much so I thought the girls, Exsters or even Sayaka herself were the main focus and not the BS. Heck, even saying BS itself feels weird. Because you know, these initials are slang for crap. Get what I mean? So weird!

Forget about the plot being so minimal. I mean, first episode is introductory to set up the characters, the second episode being some cheesy side romance distraction and the final episode having both sides come face to face in a battle that will ultimately decide their fate. The character themselves aren’t that memorable and are pretty cliché. I don’t expect deep character developments from only 3 episodes but the girls of Exsters aren’t exactly memorable either. Oh right. Got to remember they want to promote the BS toys. But anyway, you have the calm and composed leader Reika who will guide and motivate the rest of her teammates. Rie the strong and action oriented vice. Then you have the newbies, the genius Kanami, the non-athletic Shihoko who loves everything and Saori, uhm, sorry she’s not tsundere. Damn. F*cking blonde twintails…

And then there is rival Sayaka who leaves an impression of being a toxic feminist than a strong woman. Yeah, hate men, do we? But too bad she’s leeching off the company’s assets and technology. So how can she even make a utopia for women when she can’t even respect herself? Uh huh. Sorry girl, that’s why I don’t see her as a strong independent woman whatsoever. To think she is smart and has all the privileges and the likes, she’s just a spoilt rich brat, isn’t she? No wonder it makes us want to root more for the angelic and kind Reika. Furthermore, her goon Todou feels comical and an idiot. His character is only so since the plot says so. Otherwise, how do you think Exsters can always get the better of him, his men and their BS? Plot convenience! Yes, Todou is that sort of punching bag henchman and always sucking up to Sayaka. Thank goodness he doesn’t have as much screen time as this series has with episodes so his character doesn’t feel that bad. Or is it just me? Nah!

Oh right. What about the fanservice as I thought this series would have? Close to non-existent! The only time where there is fanservice is during the transformation scene. This isn’t even a magical girl series but whatever. Because you still need to change you gear when you ride a mecha. But even so, the skin being showed during such scenes are nothing lewd. Nothing close to being explicit. There are definitely no bare tits in the entire series and I don’t remember seeing any panty shots or boob shots despite the girls’ school uniform skirt being this dangerously short. Remember, trying to promote the toys. What good will it do if it tries to sexualize the female characters? They’re not selling Exters action figures, do they?! But I suppose back in those days, this is already considered somewhat raunchy. Cute young girls showing a bit of skin like their bare thighs, enough to send some horny guys out of control. Oh yeah. Those were the days. But watching such scenes now, the fanservice doesn’t even cross my mind.

Art and animation obviously reek those 90’s era style. You can see it is so dated and of that era and think how anime has come a long way. While there is some decent quality in the animation, however I want to point out that the character designs, I find they almost have this derpy look! OMG. Look at how big their eyes are to the proportion of their head. Therefore, some girls like Shihoko and Rie look weird at certain angles and definitely it gives them this derpy look. Also for these 2 ladies, because of their strange hair colour and short style, their hair looks so fake to me! Are they wearing a wig?! Of course not but I just can’t help feel so. Otherwise, characters look very typical like Sayaka your typical obnoxious b*tch, Reika the kind angel, Kanami the genius (glasses! What else?) and Saori, sorry again, she’s not tsundere! This anime was done by the now defunct Artmic who did lots of animes surrounding such themes like Bubblegum Crisis, AD Police and Gall Force.

I didn’t want to comment on the voice acting since it’s just pretty average but I’m doing so only because Kikuko Inoue has a role here as Reika. Yeah. Just wanted to note about that. Not sure if this star power helped increase the BS toy sales. Not that I care anyway. Of course there are other veterans like Ai Orikasa as Sayaka and Toshiyuki Morikawa as Todou. The rest doesn’t ring a bell like Shiho Niiyama as Rie, Yuri Shiratori as Kanami, Chinami Nishimura as Saori and Yuko Miyamura as Shihoko (oh sorry, this is Asuka’s voice from Evangelion). All 3 episodes have different ending themes. They sound retro so you bet I am more favourable to listen to them than today’s anime songs. Though, all mostly have the same upbeat retro vibes. Whether it is Real dream by Yarei Yasui (ending for first episode), Game Over also by Yarei Yasui (second ending) or Kanashii Tenshi Ni Nacchau Ne by the duet of Reika and Rie (third ending).

Overall, the series itself is quite mediocre. It was created solely just to promote the toy line. The other reason why one may want to check out this series because it was promoted in a way that it was directed by Takashi Watanabe, the man who subsequently went on to direct hit series such as Slayers, Boogiepop Phantom and Shakugan No Shana. Well, reputation can only earn you so much promotion. Because everything else here wasn’t up to par. The story, the characters and to a certain extent the animation quality (I still can’t accept those derp faces!). Too bad people weren’t really impressed so they didn’t but the DVDs or the toys, hence no funding to keep the franchise alive. Isn’t that bad news for Makuhari? But for Exsters, isn’t this the best? Because no new BS to threaten the world. They can hang up their boots for world peace has finally been achieved! Though, it exists in many other forms but anyhow they’re no longer needed. So sorry Sayaka, this is the reality and ugly world that men has made! This series was one of them.

I Dream Of Mimi

It is unbelievable to see how long the computers and PC have come. And to think that it was only like a few decades old or rather in the 90’s when the computers start to boom in households. Yeah, such great nostalgia when I remember having my first ancient PC. Those were really the days. But anyway, reminiscing such is only because I stumbled upon yet another strange retro OVA series, I Dream Of Mimi or better known in its original Japanese title, Buttobi CPU. Our main character desperate to get his hands on the latest PC (which was sold out anyway), ended up getting a bootleg version. But sorry, it’s not your regular monitor and PC unit. He got a life-like computer babe! Androids already so advanced back then? Oh well, not surprising in such fantasies. Now, the most amusing thing that got me wanting to see this is that in order for this PC babe to function normally, constant input of sperm is needed! OMFG!!! Did I read the synopsis right?! Yup. I did. BUT WHO THE F*CK MADE COMPUTERS TO RUN THAT WAY?! NOT EVEN SEX BOTS!!! This I definitely got to see! And of course she can transform into a battle version to fight evil computers who want to take over the world. Hey, a sperm contains about 800MB worth of data! That’s enough processing power, baby!

Episode 1
Akira Takaoka has finally bought his first PC! As he unpacks it in his room, he is in shock and despair that he got a sex doll instead! Worse, she starts to activate and come to life as she imprints him as her master. I’m sure he wants to return her but she says he can’t as he already filed his user registration. Now she needs to complete the registration and needs his input data. Uhm, you mean sucking his dick???!!! So while Akira has a nice experience, we see his flashback how his friends told him about a cheap PC sale at Akihabara. You bet Akira wants to head down there to get one. However when he did, it was already sold out. Hey, it was selling at a dirt cheap price. As he heads back empty handed, a shady untidy guy in the alley calls to him. Want a PC? Got one right here. I guess Akira was desperate to get a PC and even more so he offered him at a cheaper price. Damn right he’ll take it. But be warned, it cannot be returned once opened and no delivery. Carry it back yourself! And so Pixie (temporary name) has just installed all his love juice and knows all about him. But Akira isn’t impressed and thinks this is invasion of privacy. This makes Pixie sad as she awaits his next orders. Can’t have her walking around naked so he lets her wear his sister’s clothes. And what’s this? She wants him to put on this protection ring so others cannot overwrite her data. Gee, it’s like getting married, no?!

But soon Pixie detects a hostile computer coming this way. She might look like a harmless girl but damn, she just blew a hole in the wall! So hurry up and use these application cards to install offensive techniques! You mean these outdated CDs?! So where to insert?! Uhm, why she taking off her panties?! HOLY F*CK?! YOU MEAN HER VAGINA IS WHERE YOU INSERT THEM???!!! But once done, nothing happens. It’s not activating. Why? NOT ENOUGH MEMORY! ARE YOU F*CKING KIDDING ME???!!! So how to increase memory? No, not buy them from the shop. They’re closed now. Install more of his active molecules into her slot! WTF???!! If you don’t get that, stick your drive into her ass!!! OMFG!!! What choice does Akira have? Enemy babe is destroying to house so get onto it and take her from behind! Once installed, she is given a new name: Mimi. Her memory expands as she easily defeats the enemy. But she pities her because she notices she has no protection ring and has been overwritten many times. Sadly, the only way is the make her extinct. Format her for real. I guess they can’t return her to her manufacturer, huh? But lucky Akira, she has a programme that can restore his house like normal. Seriously?! SERIOUS! Just in time because his friends have arrived to enjoy his new PC. Because he doesn’t know how to introduce Mimi to them, he shoos them away. Maybe another time. Damn, came all the way here for nothing. Mimi tries to pronounce Akira’s name but has trouble. Is there a bug in her programme?! However she manages to do so and it makes them happy as they hug.

Episode 2
The friends come over to see Akira’s new PC but they are shocked to see Mimi. Luckily Akira manages to cover for her that she is his cousin who has returned from overseas. Also fortunately he manages to shut Mimi up before she truthfully tells them her actually origins. However Kanako Shimada is not entirely convinced. Later as Akira plays his PC game, Mimi shuts it off! She is jealous he is paying more attention to this obsolete PC than her! Then she also gets jealous since he talks a lot about Shimada. She forces him to choose between them! Obviously he chooses her and this makes Mimi happy. Apparently she mistakes this obsolete PC as Shimada! Next morning, Mimi has did some adjustments on ‘Shimada’. Because now they can enter the virtual world! OMFG! Like, physically?! Yup. They wander about in this virtual world naked. Because if they need clothes, that will need more memory and yup, sex! But soon they stumble into a forbidden area. Mimi gets trapped by her high end counterpart known as Forte. She is reading Mimi and is going to format her for trespassing. Mimi is okay resigning to her fate since if she dies, Akira will return to his own world. However Mimi is saved thanks to the intervention of the Nacintosh (?!) sisters, Quadra and Centris! OMFG?! You kidding me?! Apple products here???!!! You can tell these American babes are high end products with lots of HD space because of their huge boobs! Is that where they store 1000 terabytes of space???!!!

Anyway, the Nacintosh sisters want to infiltrate the Japan market and look down these Japanese bio-type computers. F*cking Americans. As they torture her and trying to break through her protection, Mimi can’t hide so she goes to fight them. When Quadra seemingly hurts Akira, actually she installed some programme in his dick! NOW IT IS FREAKING HUGE!!! OH F*CK?! SHE WANTS HIM TO INSTALL HER WITH IT!!! Mimi shoots Akira to prevent that from happening. Needing to win this, Akira is going to expand Mimi’s memory. That’s right. He is f*cking her intensely before all of them! With expanded memory, Mimi now dons a cool sexy cybernetic outfit she is able to fight the sisters but laments if she only had 600 more kilobytes to unleash her ultimate weapon! Where to get it?! Akira is already out of juice! Before Mimi gets hit, Forte dives in to protect her and takes the brunt. In great timing, a little blob comes in to give that extra kilobytes to Mimi to power up and send the sisters packing. This little blob is ‘Shimada’. So this is Akira’s computer mascot? Forte still doesn’t want to make friends with them but with what happened, she calls it even and warns them not to intrude here again. Back in his room, they ponder they know nothing about Forte or Nacintosh. When Shimada calls, Akira is happy she saved him and of course she is unsure of what the heck happened. Unfortunately Mimi hangs up the call. Slutty programme claims she ran out of memory during the fight and needs more installation! Here comes the blowjob! Gosh, I hope Akira won’t crash at this rate!

Episode 3
Mimi is now a transfer student in Akira’s class. Yeah, she’s pretty famous. Obviously Shimada is not happy and you can guess she is jealous. Mimi wants to join the same computer club as Akira. Akira’s computer pals show him a diskette containing a virus. More precisely, a worm. Seriously?! Bragging like that? This of course makes Mimi feel uncomfortable. Then she starts acting strange. Slutty, rather. Want to make out with Akira right here now?! He is forced to take her somewhere but she continues to be flirtatious. Meanwhile the Nacintosh sisters are back as Forte gets owned again. Akira takes Mimi to a toilet in a nearby computer store to reset her. How? It’s in her bellybutton. But doing so resets her memories for the last 24 hours. Worse, her memory has been reset to factory default and this means he must f*ck her to increase her memory! Oh boy! Once they’re done, their friends come in to look for them. Shimada lashing out at them for making them worried. Suddenly all the PCs start flashing and knocking everyone out. Akira and Mimi get absorbed into the virtual world where they meet another Nacintosh sister, Performa. She is crueller and unforgiving. Because of that, she doesn’t get along with the rest and is very bossy since she is more powerful than them. As Akira and Mimi hide, they also observe how the sisters have captured Forte and other Japanese PC babes. So, to see their data, just grope the boobs?! Damn, lots of useful info! And if they want to steal and absorb those data, lick the tits?! OMFG!!! Sorry Akira, don’t get distracted because Mimi has him install a programme so she can power and fight those sisters. This is a distraction so that Akira can save the Japanese counterparts.

When Performa defeats Mimi, Akira comes to protect her. She is about to kill him but Forte and the other Japanese PCs protect him and get zapped. Shimada wakes up and is unsure what to do with the mess. WTF she puts back all the diskettes on the floor into the PC. Obviously that virus diskette is also mixed up in there. Soon, all the viruses drop on Performa. Yeah, she is scared of worms! So it only affects her? Performa escapes and as for her sisters, they think it’s a good lesson for her so they also leave. Back home, Shimada calls Akira to apologize about the diskette mix up. However he praises her for saving them. I think she just got confused. The more pressing issue is now Forte. She is dying and while it looks like the only way is to format her for good, Mimi notes she can still be saved if he installs her. It is risky because she has her protection ring (though it was earlier seen her master has abandoned her) and Mimi thinks it would work since Forte defied her own programme to go protect him. Perhaps his kindness can save her. So yeah, Akira starts f*cking, I mean installing Forte. A success as Forte now accepts Akira as her master. Well… Now Mimi points out he must also do the same and install in the rest of the other Japanese babes. Holy sh*t! His hard drive is going to crash!

PC Waifu Master Race: Still Runs Better Than Windows!
Oh wow. It’s that it? Looks like it. Surprisingly I didn’t find myself to enjoy this retro OVA despite all the sleazy and cheesy parts but I guess that was what precisely made me find this highly entertaining. I didn’t expect to laugh at all the sexual innuendoes based on computer terms and even if they weren’t spammed in every few minutes, somehow it was enough to make me laugh like hell. I don’t know if it was ingenious back then but it was darn funny. Yeah, probably nostalgia played a big part in why I laughed so hard at this.

It really brings back a lot of memories seeing the old days of computers. For starters, diskettes! Oh man, do younger generations even know what it is! No, it’s not the icon for the save function! Well, technically it is but well… Damn, I feel so old at the same time! I suppose also back in the 90’s where people weren’t really computer savvy yet and the internet was still at its infant stages, watching this OVA at this point it time, everything just seems so laughable. Especially when they try to feature that virus/worm thingy. Seriously, it does not work like that! But oh well, life was like that back then. And that cyberspace thingy was such a cool and futuristic concept. Seeing our characters physically go inside it, damn it all feels so outdated by today’s standards! And yes, it doesn’t really work like that either!

It is a shame that this OVA didn’t get more episodes but that can’t be helped since it was based on the manga of the same name and it was a short-lived one, lasting for only 3 volumes. Good luck if you’re going to find this obscure manga too. Hence the adaptation sometimes feels all 3 episodes are not almost related to each other and it raises more questions than answers. For instance, in the first episode, you wonder who sent that dangerous android babe to attack Akira. It was never really addressed in the anime and soon forgotten. It just felt this part was just to introduce Mimi and her capabilities, the things that Akira needs to do to ‘install’ inside her before she dons her battle gear and kick ass. And who was that guy who sold Mimi to Akira? Only never to be seen or heard ever again. Felt like an excuse so that Akira could land a hot computer babe and set the rest of the story going. The same can be said for the other episodes. It just felt weird and like unfinished business the Nacintosh sisters were trying to infiltrate into Japan’s market but dang, some lower CPU version got in their way. Doesn’t make sense, but yeah. It was also hinted that Forte’s master sounded like some bad guy with potential and ulterior motive but all that never came to be. That is why I said that these 3 episodes feel mostly like standalone in this context.

And of course, having such OVAs in those days means it’s all about the fanservice. The sexual innuendoes and puns are one thing. But if words don’t get you horny, maybe those bare tits of Mimi would stimulate your hard drive! HAHAHA!!! Sighs… In addition to that, sometimes Mimi may go or do suggestive poses. Especially when Akira always has to install and increase her memory, there are a few scenes that hint of sexual intercourse. From the way I see it, there isn’t any director’s cut of it so we’ll just have to use our imaginations when we see Akira and Mimi’s orgasmic faces! Now I’m wondering if Mimi has reproduction capabilities and what kind of offspring will be created between man and computer! Sure, for now Akira’s sperm might be just to increase Mimi’s capabilities. What happens when she has too much of that? Yup, my dumb conspiracy theory is that those extra memories will be used to create a child! Thank goodness I didn’t write the story. So yeah, having this weird installation process is just some lame excuse for such blatant fanservice but hell it was funny in its own way. Imagine sucking tits was the only way to download data. Absolute genius!

As for the characters, nothing really very deep but I guess Mimi being your cute computer girl is trying to tell us that even AIs have their own feelings. Yeah, Mimi is so life-like, you wonder how the heck can the government let this specimen on the loose. Anyway, with Mimi acting feminine and Akira as her master, this serves to have Akira treat her like a human rather than a tool. Except for those darn installation parts! I hope when Akira gets a real human girlfriend, he won’t have such misconceptions on sex! Anyway, you wonder if Mimi who is capable of a myriad of emotions, is it all part of her programming? It is obvious she gets jealous when Akira is with other women or computers and she won’t hesitate to do something about it to get his attention. I wonder if she will have to fight for his attention now that Forte and possibly other PC babes are now having Akira as their master. Just in case, seeing the Nacintosh sisters aren’t done yet and who knows, they might bring even more powerful sisters in future battles.

And our good natured Akira, he’s going to need a lot more of those energy drinks and the likes to keep up with Mimi’s memory expansion! She’s like the Windows version for constant updates?! Hopefully Mimi will get timely updates so as Akira won’t get bored and look at other newer gadgets, devices or CPUs! Thank goodness the Apple Smartphone or iPad did not come out in that decade! Then there is Shimada who obviously is in love with Akira. My guess is for some love triangle that we unfortunately don’t get to see here. To think Akira prefers Mimi over Shimada, it makes me wonder if Mimi is making and keeping Akira look that way?

Art and animation, I would say they are pretty good compared to a lot of recent retro OVAs that I have watched recently. Obviously this one looks dated from that era but it still looks good and better quality that many other obscure OVA titles. Is it me or does Mimi at some angles look like Jeannie from I Dream Of Jeannie? Isn’t that why the English title was named so? Well, maybe it could be just me. This OVA was done by OLM who are famous for their Pokemon series.

Overall, I really did enjoy this obscure retro OVA because of those computer sexual innuendo terms. Boy, they really do crack me up. It is a shame it had no further episodes because they might run riot with all those dirty computer jokes and puns and I won’t be able to stop laughing till my tummy hurts! And fast forward today, a lot of those stuffs that were supposedly pioneering and high-tech in the 90’s have gone obsolete and mostly forgotten. From CDs and CRT monitors, those were really interesting times. And now we have life-like sex dolls and computer AI programmes that just come up with all sorts of ideas for you (looking at you ChatGPT!). Life has changed a lot. Including how we look for porn on the internet! Sorry, my junk is too obsolete for any compatible upgrade! At least, it doesn’t bug me every day like Windows for regular updates!

The Marginal Service

Initially, I was sceptical about wanting to watch this. Even more so, the promotional poster of The Marginal Service was looking so gay! Even the name sounds quite iffy. I mean, when you have naked men paraded all over the poster, doesn’t that scream gay fest?! Oh right, there’s one naked woman too so I guess it’s entirely not. But what if that’s an effeminate guy?! Oh heck, what the hell am I thinking?! Also, I thought this was the buffed up version of Marginal Prince but I guess it is not related at all. Yeah, how can dreamy hot hunks turn into bulging macho muscle men?! Furthermore, enhancing the curiosity was that they did not reveal any synopsis before it was aired (of course right now it is all over the place) and it is an original anime not based on any manga, light novel or game source. So I guess curiosity > gay fest and that is where it led me to this point…

Episode 1
Brian Nightraider is chasing an elusive criminal through the streets. Eventually when he got him cornered, suddenly something controls the criminal and makes him shoot himself despite his pleas that he will not say a thing. Brian is not pleased his police chief has classified this case as suicide. Worse of all, his partner Danny was killed and now Brian is fired from the force. Brian falls into depression but soon receives some weird letter from UN’s immigration bureau task force known as Marginal Service. What else has an employed man got to do? He heads down there to check it out and finds this place filled with occult stuffs spooky. Then he meets this old dude, Theodore Thompson who knows all about him and wants to hire him into their group. Apparently they’re hunting down crimes done by Borderlanders. What? Who? Oh you know, those monsters or aliens. Not of the illegal kind, if you know what I mean! Yes, those creatures do exist in our society. Brian is not interested but Theodore won’t take no for an answer and brings him to their underground base to meet other members. Yeah, are they all humans, Brian wonders? Hard to believe everyone is so quirky until Zeno Stokes shows him who’s boss with his strength. Apparently he is back after doing some investigation about the distribution of an illegal drug named Confu. It is likely a Borderlander terrorist organization is involved. Suddenly Brian takes an interest and wants in on this case. Brian follows Zeno to this nightclub as Brian talks about becoming a detective to find his father who left the family when he was young. As they stake out, Zeno scans the patrons for verification first. Because if they’re human, they are not interested and will not make a move. So it seems Brian’s police chief is an alien! Oh, the politically correct term is Borderlander! Brian rushes in to confront him and when he gets hostile, a few bullets can’t kill him, a testament he is a monster. Oh sorry, Borderlander. Brian is no match for him until Zeno rams his car into him and whacks the sh*t out of him. He still lives and turns into his true form. That is when the rest of Marginal Service pops up. In construction uniform? Is this their uniform? And so their job is to crack down on Borderlander crimes while completely concealing their existence. Time for roll call! Folks, other than Zeno and Theodore, meet Robin Timbert, Bolts Dexter, Cyrus N. Kuga, Lyra Candeyheart and WTF this cute but not-so-cute little critter as pet mascot, Peck Desmont! The gang’s here! Explosion!

Episode 2
10 years ago when aliens crashed at some forest site in Japan known as Jukai, a team went to scout it but damn aliens started killing them like Independence Day! Could’ve been wiped out had not monsters come to the humans’ aid. Yeah, we think like Brian, is this an aliens vs monsters flick?! More history on this like how Borderlanders weren’t the official terms for such and that mythical aliens do live among us since ancient times. Since eliminating them all won’t be a good idea, hence that term was established as they live secret lives and under lots of rules. Peck is one of them and handles misinformation about Borderlanders. So he is the real boss? Don’t be rude to him or he’ll bite your dick off! Brian’s ex-boss is being interrogated but he isn’t saying anything till he gets a lawyer. However Zeno has done some investigation and based on some dirt and unique plants found on his shoe, the manufacturing plant is most likely at Jukai. So Brian, Zeno, Robin and Bolts head there but their helicopter soon gets taken out by a sniper. Don’t worry, they survive although separated. Brian tries to find out more about Zeno since he needs to know about his partner as trust to cover his back. Then he hits a nerve and Zeno almost kills him. Zeno is not fond of fools like him and will never team up with him. Not in this sh*tty world. Meanwhile I don’t know if Robin and Bolts really hate each other or just so good in cooperating because we see them comically taking down as well as run from the guerrilla guards. Brian and Zeno stumble into the plant. But soon they are surrounded by the guards whom are all Borderlanders obviously. Not sure what Brian is thinking because he wants to atone and clean up this mess so he gets shirtless and tries to take on the boss himself in certain death? Thank goodness the others arrive because now we get to see them fire their marginal weapons at the Borderlanders. They can’t die with that kind of shot, right? Yeah, eat more marginal power! In the end, Brian fires some powerful weapon that blows up the entire plant. In the aftermath, Theodore and Lyra had a hard time covering this incident. Zeno finally gets a confession and looks like the ringleader of it all is Rubber Suit, the world’s #1 idol popstar.

Episode 3
Well, Rubber is also a Borderlander and there are many famous stars who are of such race. Based on the interrogation, it seems some crystal skull is used to help make the drug more potent. While there are many fake crystal skulls around, not many possess the genuine one. Rubber is one of the few since he is an occult maniac and collects such things. They believe he stores it in his underground vault. The team go over the things they have to do to get past all the security and into the vault. This includes getting the fingerprints and eye scanning from the star himself via various public appearances he made. Gee, all so easy. On the day Rubber holds a reception after an auction, this is where Marginal Service will come in to take the skull. We see spoofs of Mission Impossible as Robin tries to hold up Bolts while he cuts the security wire. Only, the floor has no weight sensor! Then Brian almost diced with death with those laser beams from Resident Evil! Too close! But now he has to find where the crystal skull is kept in the hundreds of vaults. Zeno’s sharp eye soon discovers the crystal skull inside the punch drink! WHAT?! Brian tries to leave but he is forced to fight with the chief security, Isabella Thorn who is a Borderlander. He gets shot but thanks to Peck being his bulletproof vest, they manage to escape. So now the gang is back at the party as they all cause a distraction by doing this weird dance on stage! WTF?! Oh yeah, everyone including Rubber finds it amusing and dances along! WTF???!!! During this distraction, Peck snatches the crystal skull. Then the final distraction of an explosion rocking the basement for Marginal Service to escape. Wow. So unbelievable. Yeah, this should be called Mission Unbelievable! In the aftermath, Rubber gets arrested for drug trafficking and this news made the headlines. Marginal Service now ponder why a superstar like him is resorting to this when he has everything. Then Zeno breaks the bad news. This Rubber whom they busted is a fake. This guy is a human stand in for the real one who is probably hiding away somewhere. The imposter doesn’t know anything about the real deal and was paid to do the job. Yeah, so to say all the security was tailored to this imposter? Speaking of the real Rubber, he is happily tucked away on his island villa, nothing Marginal Service’s movements.

Episode 4
Several government buildings get colour bombed but no casualties. Marginal Service thinks the Borderlanders are trying to vent their anger since Rubber got arrested. Then when Peck brings in a package and that too blows off his arms (don’t worry, they can regrow), Marginal Service really thinks somebody is targeting them. So they start doing their investigation as Zeno takes Brian to go talk to Isabella who is no unemployed. Zeno continues to be distrustful of her and Borderlanders and accusing the race of such atrocities. Brian tries to mediate but is told off by his partner for being naïve. When the team relay the bombs all come in flower packages, it’s a bit too late since there is one in Isabella’s room. Boom! Unemployed. Now homeless. Isabella is stumped Brian saved her because like other Borderlanders, they can regenerate and such explosions won’t kill them. He views not all of them are bad and hopes they can live in the open and freely. Isabella then reveals the person behind this could be Ren Izuna as he has hobbies making bombs. He might have participated in protests but is a good man at heart. The bomb sent to her was probably to clear her of suspicions. Brian and Zeno then storm Ren’s place. Nobody’s home. But they set off a trap that binds them stuck together. And a ball contraption that will set off a bomb! Oh sh*t. Oh, Zeno looking panicky that all hope is lost. But don’t worry, Brian uses a toothpick to free them from the cuffs. With his mouth! OMFG! Just in time to save the ball! But another one drops in. Boom? Nope. A dud. Just played Rubber’s song. Marginal Service deduce all the evidence they have. Yeah, kind confusing. Long story short, all the bombing sites were barriers created by a monk tasked by the shogun. See the pentagram it has drawn? Yeah, the centre is a stadium. Brian and Zeno catch this tengu as he places his fireworks. Ren revealing he is doing all this to make their race known because their efforts are being buried in human history. Of course the other goal is to protect as the landscape of Japan has changed over the centuries. So as Ren gets arrested, Brian feels it is a waste not to let off the fireworks. So he does so and my, how pretty. Because now it also unearths some monolith that marks the Borderlanders’ presence. Marginal Service discuss about more of such hidden landmarks when they receive another bomb package. Maybe somebody is actually targeting them.

Episode 5
Well, Brian getting a macho picture of Bolts on Christmas is definitely harassment, right? Apparently there are embarrassing pics of Brian being sent to other Marginal Service members too. Yes, someone is hacking into their system and sending such data. Lyra tries to stop the hacking but since it is taking too long, Zeno smashes it all with a chair. Oh well, look what you did. Now the whole system is down. Hence, Zeno, Robin and Bolts go to the prison where Borderlanders are held to keep the peace and prevent them from escaping while the rest track down the hacker. This leads them to SNSA, some top secret agency that intercepts all the world’s info. Apparently they too claim that they got hacked. The hacker then uses the remote machine to gun down all those SNSA guys. Lyra realizes the only person who can crack such system: Eddie Snow. A Borderlander whom she once dated before. Both were dating each other while working on some KGB security system. However Eddie was suffering from some incurable disease and he disappeared despite she was willing to support him. Of course she didn’t knew he was a Borderlander until recently and his disappearance was perhaps to hide this fact. After all, humans and Borderlanders can’t mate due to their different generic make-up. Lyra and co have to fight off the chaotic traffic as Eddie is making the traffic lights and other electronic devices nearby go haywire. Finally they arrive at his hideout. To prove Lyra is here for him an unarmed, she strips naked and he allows her only to enter. So apparently Eddie is doing all this because he woke up to social justice. He doesn’t agree to the government’s decision to use AI for monitoring and management only. And because Borderlanders have no freedom or privacy, he wants to make the government feel uneasy of being watched. Lyra manages to get the better of Eddie by using a Borderlander with invisibility to overcome him. Some things cannot be picked up by technology. However Eddie is a hologram! Turns out his real body is long gone and his mind is now uploaded onto the network. Eddie can collapse the world’s network and to stop that, he wants Lyra to say she loves him. He will disappear with those beautiful memories. However Lyra smashes his system as she refuses to live in the past. It’s the present she lives in. Well, good to know she hasn’t changed. Eddie disappears and the world’s system is restored. Marginal Service discuss about Eddie’s actions. Obviously it was for Lyra but why target Brian? Apparently that infiltration into fake Rubber’s mansion gave him the wrong impression. As he was the AI security system at the party, this means he also left a clue to the real Rubber’s whereabouts: Higashino Island.

Episode 6
So our gang is going there. Don’t forget your swim trunks. Not sure about the plan because they’re having a fishing competition? When Brian thinks he is going to reel in a big mother, turns out to be a Borderlander in his shark version. Based on their data, he went missing from Japan a year ago and must be wandering in these waters. Oddly, sharkey seems to be attacking their boat instead of running away. The gang device weird ideas to catch sharkey but all fail. Zeno punches his nose (the weak point) and sends him in a daze. Enough time for them to deliberate on how to put a bomb inside his mouth. Yeah, use Peck! I’m sure he’ll do it for Lyra, right?! So as sharkey gets dangerously close, panic ensues, Peck drops the bomb on the boat. Abandon ship! Boom! The team find themselves on the island but Bolts and Robin are missing. They see Rubber’s plane here and think it must be a trap. They also see sharkey beached. Cyrus takes a closer look and realizes he is suffering from brain tumour and wants to operate on him. Zeno is not pleased and has looked into Cyrus’ background. A promising doctor but lost it all after he dabbled in cloning. He became a back alley doctor and with nowhere to go, he was picked up by Marginal Service. As a doctor, Cyrus cannot let someone die even if they are bad. Although it cannot change the past, he will do his best right now. The surgery is a success but soon sea creatures come to pick up sharkey. No data on these Borderlanders as they claim they have been living in the ocean for a long time. They thank them for taking care of sharkey as his actions were getting erratic and they couldn’t help him. Uptight Zeno can’t let them go like that so he’ll just register them. They agree as long as they don’t take away their freedom. As they leave, they say they saw Rubber taking away some of their men to another island. Confirmed, Robin and Bolts are captured.

Episode 7
So only Brian and Zeno are going to where their captured comrades are and the rest heading back because of personal reasons? So much about teamwork. Bolts has this dream whereby he was part of the Beowulf army. They had to escape because some woman named Maria was a spy and had betrayed them. However Bolts went back to receive his best friend, Ernie. He is a dog for the record. However Ernie ran the wrong way and got bombed. Bolts wants Rubber to kill him but the latter won’t since his goal is to make all equally strong. He will soon find out. Despite in different cells, Bolts and Brian think the same as they get out. Yeah, just use brute force to break out. Then they compete with each other to take down the Borderlander guards. After that they split up to find some weapons. Brian then stumbles upon a dark secret. When his lover Maria was gravely injured, she told him to escape because Beowulf was out for blood. Yes, an angry Bolts gunning for revenge. Maria sacrificed herself so that Brian could live. Brian realizes Bolts killed Maria and likewise it was Brian who killed Ernie. This info reveal is of course setup by Rubber as this makes the frenemies now trying to kill each other. If they run out of bullets, start the punch fest! Rubber watching with glee at this beautiful show. Suddenly Brian gets in between. Yeah, a painful punch from both sides. He tries to tell the importance of friendship but they don’t give a damn and continue punching. Damn, Brian continue to get punched just to stop them. Is he dumb? Well, he doesn’t want to see anyone losing their friends anymore. This whole farce is stopped by Zeno as he shows a clip from Lyra that Maria is still alive. She faked her death and got a new life somewhere. As for Ernie, he is still alive and on this island. Here he is now. Oh f*cking damn, the bloody convenience of everything! You guys feeling like idiots now? Yeah, Zeno should’ve stepped in before Brian got punched for nothing! Time for Rubber to end the show as he shows up in person and rants about hardship, pan, etc. In spite all that, they choose to still connect and forgive everything. In a shocking move, Rubber surrenders.

Episode 8
Wow. What a nice shopping mall. At least it was a shopping mall before they converted it into a huge prison for Borderlanders. Basically, they’re living inside their own mini town of theirs. As Rubber gets registered and get his medical examination by Cyrus, part of the procedure is to strip him naked. Rubber warns about taking off his suit because it might some sort of butterfly effect that would effect and bring chaos to the world. Cyrus won’t listen and continues his job. Brian and Zeno soon realize the place is swarming with zombies! Everyone else including their comrades have turned into one! They might say they want brains but it turns out their brains are hurting and are attacking others out of instinct. Then they realize that the zombies are giving out some sort of odourless gas or scent that triggers one’s memories, especially enhancing the regret and sad parts of their memories. After the duo put on a gas mask, they see Rubber in his angel form walking around. They believe he is the one spreading this and thus the reason he kept his suit on. They fight through their way to reach Rubber as they condemn his actions. Though, he claims his goal is to unite everyone via song and dance. Zeno accuses him of manufacturing to those drugs but Rubber adds humans don’t understand Borderlanders and always try to draw some line. Something about everyone will overcome their fears and obstacles via sorrow. Once that happens, humans and Borderlanders can live together in true peace. Like these zombies? Zeno won’t accept this crap because one can’t simply overcome all those bad memories as the world is full of sh*t. Rubber isn’t against his decision to live with the sadness rather than forget it. Brian ends this farce and zips up Rubber in a huge zipper bag! In the aftermath, the mall is detonated to rid of any lingering scent. All the prisoners will moved to somewhere else. Although everyone is back to normal, the effects are still lingering and it will take some time to get over it. Rubber will be detained at a high security isolation facility. Brian wants to interrogate him once this is over but Theodore says they have an order from the higher ups: They are to back off from Rubber’s case.

Episode 9
Zeno is lashing out at Theodore about Rubber’s case. They need to interrogate the mastermind if they are to do their jobs properly. Too much anger causes Zeno to pass out. He wakes up but remains sceptical of everything. Man, he doesn’t get tired of acting like this? Seems he is worried about some past memories of his since he did inhale some of Rubber’s gas. Noting that Theodore is acting strangely, he has the rest of Marginal Service help to tail this old geezer. So as they do the old fashion tailing, Theodore seems to be wandering around aimlessly. Many times, the gang almost get caught and had to improvise their hiding. Soon, one by one all of them disappear and Zeno sees a mask of Theodore on the ground. Then the rest of his gang meet back up as they claim they got lost. Zeno now getting very paranoid as he claims Theodore is some shape shifting Borderlander. That is why he is trying so hard to help cover up Rubber. But it gets worse, he suspects his comrades to be Borderlanders too! He forces them to take a blood test via Cyrus’ medical kit. All looking pretty normal. Not satisfied, he uses fire to see if there is any reaction to the blood. Nothing. Not pleased, he then uses the gas from fizzy drinks. Is he done? Apparently not. He grows even more frustrated and suspicious. Can’t accept the fact his comrades are all humans? Then they start to discuss about something so they think it’s time. Time to show their true colours? Zeno is kidnapped and blindfolded. To his horror, all of them wearing Theodore’s mask as they suddenly announce happy birthday! Yeah, Theodore figured he would resist if he told him this so he prepared all this for him alone. He let everyone else in on this plan while they were tailing them. And this mask, oh it’s just some new merchandise. Zeno is still in shock over this silly thing. It’s not silly because friends are supposed to do something like this once in a while, right? Soon they receive some info from UN about some kidnapped kid of an executive. Zeno recognizes a symbol and goes into panic mode. I guess this one isn’t fake.

Episode 10
Marginal Service investigate the home and find a threatening letter for bill that prosecutes Borderlanders not to be passed if the family wants the child back. There were no cameras nor were there witnesses who saw anything when the kid disappeared. Lyra thinks it must be the case of flying humanoid who could fly without making a sound (a lore that originates from Mexico). Zeno is edgier than before and will continue this investigation alone. Brian then forces Theodore to spill the beans on all this. Zeno’s kid was also kidnapped in similar fashion and left that symbol. When Zeno confronted whom he believed to be the culprit, that guy got run over by a car and died. In the end, his kid was never found, Zeno resigned from his job and although there is no statute limitations, the case remains unsolved. As the bigwigs gather to sign the bill, WTF can Brian just barge in to stop everything?! Security! Suddenly Isabella pops up. Zeno just waiting to blast her out of the sky! Could’ve hit some people too! Zeno becomes ruthless as he interrogates Isabella but she isn’t saying anything. Brian tries to stop him (Borderlanders have rights too!) and even got punched. But this isn’t stopping Zeno as he takes Isabella to his old home. This is the room where his son was taken. Flashback shows after failed attempts to locate him, his wife killed herself from depression. He then gave up looking for his son. Therefore he is giving Isabella one last chance. However she claims he hasn’t lost them. Brian shows up in time to reveal the true culprit behind this case: The maid. It seems the child was hiding in the attic all along. The maid had her child kidnapped in a similar fashion too. Because the kid’s parents were too busy and never had time for their son who obviously looked sad celebrating his birthdays alone, she set this up to teach them a lesson. Similarly, Isabella was tasked to watch this guy from passing the new bill and cooperated with her in exchange for silence about the maid’s kidnapping. With this case solved, the new bill is also passed. Protest all you want, Peck. But it’s not over by a long shot yet as Zeno will continue his interrogation with Isabella as he notes what she said about them not being lost yet.

Episode 11
Obviously Zeno has taken all that he needs with Isabella and run. He left no traces so it is hard for Marginal Service to track him. Brian is however still adamant in wanting to go save him. He knows from the looks from his eyes, he is willing to die and doesn’t care for his own life. I guess his comrades are willing to close an eye and do treason for this. Brian is at Danny’s grave. This is the reason why he is trying so hard to save Zeno as he doesn’t want another partner killed. Surprisingly, Peck is here to give him some USB data he stole from Lyra. So it’s a backup of Eddie. This guy wants to continue his slumber and is done with data and the internet. But he changes his mind as Brian notes Lyra must still love him because she kept a backup of him. Yeah, love works in strangest ways. He manages to hack some data to find where Rubber is held. So Brian heads there to bust him out. That easy? Where’s the security?! Meanwhile Cyrus and Lyra stumble into curious reports from UN. Like that drug case, although it wasn’t really that dangerous, however UN exaggerated and classified it as top tier threat in their report. It’s like they want to frame Borderlanders. They continue to investigate more. But soon, UN come barging on their door. Noting they have hacked into their system or something, they are giving them a chance to redeem themselves by capturing Brian. Damn, UN guys acting like ruffians? Marginal Service stop Brian as he just surfaces with Rubber. Why go so far for Zeno? Well, true he doesn’t like Zeno and many times he is a nuisance whom he wants to kill sometimes. However he is still his partner and wants to see him smile once. Marginal Service doesn’t like doing this either so they put up a show by pretending to attack Brian (they destroyed the whole facility?!) until he finally manages to escape with Rubber. Up to you UN guys to get him back. Marginal Service believes they will be further ostracized from UN. After all, they have discovered many such exaggerated reports to paint Borderlanders as bad guys. Perhaps the UN want to view them as villains to officially get rid of them. Hence that is why Marginal Service exists and the symbol of that. Feeling like being used? Have to stick through with their motto to make scums pay for what they’ve done.

As Brian asks Rubber about the whole case, Rubber reveals the key to everything lies in the sky. 10 years ago when aliens crashed their ship and UN drove them off with Borderlanders’ help, at that same time, UN also collected data on the UFO and definitely, their technology far surpassed that of humans. And yes, UN trying to find military uses for it. So what has this got to do with Zeno’s kidnapped kid? Well, despite the data, they cannot activate the UFO. It is hypothesized that it needs something like psychic powers to activate. And guess what? Those who had such powers were 5 year old children who witnessed the UFO’s crash. As they responded to the UFO, hence the kidnap. These children were nicknamed Alien Gifted. Also, those symbol weren’t left by the kidnapper but the children drew them themselves. It is a symbol of the UFO. Zeno could’ve realized that on his own. But for Borderlanders, they only learnt the truth about a year ago and thus wanted their voices heard. As they were not officially recognized in society, hence those terrorist acts to shake up UN to force them to investigate. Of course it was wrong but Rubber will be glad to pay for his crimes. And so that UFO is hidden deep within Mt Minakami and is also where Alien Gifted were taken and locked up as research subjects. Entering the base, there it is, that big mother saucer. Oh look. Zeno is here too.

Episode 12
No time for Brian to be arguing with Zeno about shouldering this responsibility. Because those UN guys are here and it seems they allowed Brian to break Rubber free so as to pile more charges on him. But it’s not the end. Marginal Service guys are here to back them up. Theodore has broken protocol because of his pride to make these f*ckers pay. Also, he is mad at them for destroying his occult stuffs. UN vs Marginal Service as they let Zeno go ahead to free his son, Noah. Father and son reunite after 10 long years. Rubber now reveals the biggest twist about this UFO. It is actually a scout and will send coordinates to its mothership of Earth’s locations. Yeah, I guess it’s too late because there it is hovering above. History gonna repeat itself? Brian tells off both sides to stop fighting each other. Unite to fight the aliens! But sorry, it’s not humans who will steal the glory but Borderlanders. Yes, Rubber and his Borderlanders now step up to the task as they easily slice and dice the aliens. Marginal Service, Borderlanders version? Now we see that the drug is used as an energy drink as well as the weapons they produced are all for this purpose to fight aliens effectively. When the mothership tries to target the city, this is where Ren comes in with his monolith as protective barriers. Brian is going to end it by flying the UFO. Yeah, he is going to copy this suicidal move from a certain Hollywood movie! Noah tells Zeno to go help Brian who is not willing to be separated from his son again. Noah assures he will always come back to find him. Zeno now helps Brian pilot the UFO efficiently. Still arguing as always. Zeno still believes this world is sh*t and the lost things can be brought back to life. There is no point in living and the best option is to die. In that case, he won’t let Brian die alone. They’ll die together as partners. So now he’s playing the partner card? And just like in that Hollywood movie, they ride up to the mothership where it explodes. Alien threat zero. You would think the duo are dead but they’re not dumb and jumped out before the UFO crashed. Don’t worry, Lyra put built-in parachutes in their suit. In the aftermath, life returns to normal for everyone and the lab is shut down. Zeno not too happy Noah showing Brian a lot of great hospitality. We’re buddies, right? Can’t blame Zeno showing such sour face. He just got reunited with his son and who this third wheel motherf*cker getting in the way of our lost quality time?! Partner or not!

Borderlander Lives Matter! Protecting Earth From The Scums Of The Universe!
How swell. They make it look so easy taking down the big alien mothership when they said aliens were pretty brutal and unforgiving. Oh well, as long as Borderlanders are on our side, there is nothing to worry about. And I’m pretty sure that mothership isn’t the entire hostile alien civilization, right? With its destruction, there might be a signal sent back to its home world and send the entire planet to target Earth. Oh boy. Then we will all be so screwed. But don’t worry and remember, Borderlanders are on our side to protect the planet we love so that we ignorant humans can go about living our carefree lives. Who says life is sh*tty?! Life is so great! As a human. We both share and live on the same planet but these supernatural mythical beings are the ones doing all the work to protect everything. Monsters vs Aliens movie when? Oh wait. They did that animated show years ago already…

Well, I have to be honest that I am not really impressed with the story here. It is just like a discounted and watered down anime version of MIB (Men In Black). That’s right. Disappointing and mediocre if I am going to be direct. And so the whole thing is about a small group of people in a special organization tasked in keeping the peace of humans by hiding the existence of Borderlanders by tackling whatever mischiefs and covering them up so that the ordinary Joes and Janes can continue to lead their blissful and ignorant lives that aliens do not walk among us. Heh. Nice concept but heck, the pacing and all could’ve been a lot better. Of course so as not to paint these aliens as the big baddies, the biggest wolves are those of our own kind and the conspiracy of the big boys who rule the world AKA UN. Uh huh. Trying to paint that organization as sneaky villains, huh? Yeah, I’m okay with that because just like many of us ordinary people, we don’t really like that big showy organization in real life too, RIGHT?! Holy sh*t, please don’t arrest me!

Although this series did have an interesting concept about Borderlanders and the issue of dealing with such unrecognized beings, however it all just falls short of (my) expectations. There’s a lot of mind boggling questions that I would like to ask but I suppose I’m not going to get them answered because they’re classified material, right? Or do they not actually have the answers? For starters, I’m wondering if there are other Marginal Service organizations out there. Because from what I have seen, this is the ONLY Marginal Service in the entire Japan! Is a small group of people enough to take care of all the Borderlander troubles?! Well, they seem pretty fine so I’m guessing such Borderlander disorders are rare. But the biggest contention that I have is their uniform. Sure, they want to cover up with some construction worker gig. Fine. Whatever. But WTF, take a look at their design. Why do they have baggy pants?! So baggy that I feel it is so clumsy! It’s just not feasible for them to do ground work with such MC Hammer-like pants, isn’t it?! Worse, why do they have colour coded uniforms?! Is this Power Rangers, Borderlanders version or something?! Sheesh. And seriously, that safety construction helmet AKA hard hat is the only obvious safety gear they wear? Hardly will protect them from anything! I know they’re professionals but…

Not to mention those action bits felt more like cringe than anything close to satisfying (take a look at the Mission Impossible spoof mission to steal the crystal skull – I believe a lot of Hollywood movies were parodied here). Firstly, they really have weird weapons which is said to be specially designed to take down Borderlanders. Well, they couldn’t make it even more suspicious as its designs are taken after construction tools. Yeah, make them oversized too! But the most cringe factor is that in almost every episode, there is this obligatory explosive scene and hence cue for them to go, “Marginal Explosion!” and boom! Like, WTF???!!! I wonder if this can give Bayplosions a run for its money. Nah! I guess it is a good thing Borderlanders cannot die easily (although this doesn’t mean they cannot be killed) so that we can have such mediocre action and no guilty conscious of our heroes killing a bunch of misunderstood race. Yeah.

Of course the underlying theme about treating Borderlanders and keeping them hidden from society. Oh wow, we humans are sure being the greatest host and master, huh? This show is just short of becoming like that sci-fi film, District 9. I suppose in this world’s setting, humans are a bunch of xenophobic racists because knowing such creatures do exist among us, we’re going to freak out and lose our bat sh*t minds. Safer to think of these Borderlanders as folklore legends and myths. Wow. So alluring. Yeah, imagine if Santa was real, how many adults will lose their source of bluffing kids as well as the commercial side too! Money matters! Uh huh. Because of all that, doesn’t it make us the biggest jerks and monsters? And because technically they are not humans to begin with, thus they are not subjected to the same human rights or something? Must be great being humans, huh? We are the supreme master race! But yeah, these Borderlanders are doing a perfect job assimilating into normal human life than the current state of affairs in the real world! Oh my!

Then there are the characters whom I feel are also a big disappointment. I don’t know, at first I thought I saw some similarity with High Card because you know, new young kid joins the force and has a difficult senpai to deal with as he has his own issues too. Yeah. That. However this one is a big fail and the dynamism between Brian and Zeno comes off more as annoying rather than anything else. You thought by at least halfway through, maybe they’ll warm up to each other but damn, it’s the same like that for the entire series. Brian the outgoing one tries to be a good partner but Zeno with his sourpuss face and wet blanket attitude of trusting nobody, he’s just freaking annoying to the bitter end. So I get he is feeling guilty over his son’s disappearance and I also get that Brian is doing this out of his trauma and fear of not wanting to carelessly lose another partner. But yeah, right till the very end, we’re still dealing with this trust issues? Oh wow. Zeno is sure a tough nut to crack. And with this weird chemistry that don’t mix, it goes way beyond oil and water and thus the annoyance in seeing this pair whenever they have screen time together. Yikes. Worse, each episode starts off with usually Brian (later Zeno) narrating some sort of philosophy in life which I don’t really get. Yeah, whatever hardships they were once facing or is still facing. Am I watching the right show? Hence I don’t relate and got even more confused on what it’s got to do with the story.

The other members in Marginal Service are also as paltry and if not, not as significant as they are memorable. Even the most memorable one, the frenemy pair of Bolts and Robin, I’m sure this pair is only made because of laughs. I don’t know whether to laugh or cringe to see them at each other’s throat as they’re always competing or arguing about petty stuffs they don’t agree on. After all, Bolts has nothing but muscles on his mind while Robin is more of a ladies man. So there’s your friction and source of seeing them clash because of their different styles. But yeah, thanks to that, they ironically have better chemistry than Brian-Zeno pair as they actually understand each other and many times work in sync with each other.

It is a shame that these other Marginal Service members only have their past brush through or briefly mentioned. So as not to make them insignificant characters, hence their back story. But like I said, it was just a quick one and nothing really deep. After all, with a dozen episodes, how much time can they expend? So like Cyrus, we know he is a failed and discounted Black Jack but other than that, the shyest character. Lyra is the only female so that we don’t get any ideas of this show being a gay fest. Yeah sorry, no budding romance. Not a hint. Because Peck as the mascot character also comes off more of annoying than cute. A pervert and does whatever Lyra says, this rat squirrel hamster racoon groundhog marmot only exists as a comic relief. Other than making complaints, this discount Scrat exists like a punching bag because as a Borderlander, he can’t die, right? Yeah, somebody needs to play the role of an idiot and it ain’t gonna be one of us humans! Finally, the big boss and father-like figure of Marginal Service, Theodore. Well, nothing much I can say about this frail old guy except he tries his best to look out for his team but at the same time don’t want to step on the toes of UN because they’re under their payroll, right?

Art and animation are just mediocre and many scenes felt like they are low quality. I don’t know, it just felt like it lacked a lot of details. Not sure if this is the series’ trademark visuals but yeah, it wasn’t anything that special. Even if the characters have the bishoujo and bishonen look, but still the overall animation quality just feels average. Of course as already pointed out, the ridiculous uniform and making them even colour coded makes them stand out more than anything else. I can’t never get over the fact of how silly and cringe worthy they look. Somebody should hire a uniform designer for these people! This anime is done by Studio 3Hz who did the second season of Hataraku Maou-sama. So that explains the mediocrity of the animation quality. However they also animated Princess Principal which was quite good so I guess the studio have their ups and downs days.

The other factor that led me to watch this series is of course the casting line-up. There are a bunch of recognizable seiyuus like Mamoru Miyano as Brian, Tomokazu Sugita as Bolts, Yuuichi Nakamura as Robin, Hiro Shimono as Cyrus, Shinichiro Miki as Theodore and Yuko Kaida as Isabella. The other veteran casts are Toshiyuki Morikawa as Zeno (Julius in Black Clover), Kaori Nazuka as Lyra (Nunnally in Code Geass), Kouki Uchiyama as Peck (Ichika in Infinite Stratos), Yuuma Uchida as Rubber (Musashi in Orient) and Tomoaki Maeno as Eddie (Schubert in ClassicaLoid). The opening theme, Quiet Explosion by Mamoru Miyano feels weak as it is strange. It tries to sound dramatic as a rock piece but it comes off as bland and in some parts, voice synthesizers were used. The ending theme, Salt & Sugar by Yuuma Uchida sounds a bit better but I guess this lively anime pop with some hip hop elements isn’t my kind of tea. Strangely, I prefer the insert song that he also sings, Love & Universe. Probably it has this disco vibes and makes me want to dance a bit. Sure, it has a bit of sound effects but some part of the song gives off reminiscence of Bee Gees’ Stayin’ Alive and Night Fever.

Overall, this series failed to impress me and despite its potential and some interesting bits, it still failed to deliver. Like as though this was the low budget anime version of MIB made for Japan market. Heh. I made that up but yeah. And to think this series was conceptualized by Cygames! That company who made the great game hits like Grandblue Fantasy, Uma Musume, Princess Connect and Shingeki No Bahamut! Oh well, I guess this means if it gets bad enough, they won’t turn it into a game. Furthermore, it couldn’t come at an inappropriate time as currently a world superpower is having some sort of ‘alien’ crisis. Illegal immigrants and border issues if you don’t know what I’m talking about. So it’s like trying to subtly tell us to protect our borders from these undocumented aliens?! Well, true. But does it give us the right to treat them as second class citizens? Oh wait. They’re not even citizens in the first place. So yeah. We’re going to just close an eye and pretend they don’t exist. Not my problem. Boom! Problem gone. Marginal Explosion of Shame!

NieR:Automata Ver1.1a

It was only a matter of time. The highly acclaimed video game of NieR:Automata Ver1.1a did not get the anime treatment because of its bad glitches or disastrous launch unlike a certain Cyberpunk 2077 game. It got its own anime series because, well, uhm, I suppose it would be a waste for it not to have one. Heh. Made that up but yeah, perhaps they want to expose more people to check out this game and the game itself has so much stories and possibilities to tell that it isn’t possible for it all to be told in the version of a game, that’s why the anime. Heh. Made that one up too. Oh heck, cute alluring NieR female protagonist was the main reason why I delved into this! Glory to mankind!

Episode 1
YoRHa No. 2 Type B AKA 2B and her Pod 042 are fighting their way through various mechanical enemies. Because of the intensity of the machines, YoRHa No. 9 Type S AKA 9S is ordered to help support her. Thanks to his help, 2B is saved from certain death as he reboots the machine menace while commenting on 2B’s very brute approach in attacking. 2B continues to investigate the facility as 9S strikes up a conversation, happy to be partnered with somebody as his scanner types usually scout and work alone. Of course 2B wants to concentrate on the mission rather than create some unnecessary emotions. 2B finally finds this goliath class weapon that is her target. More fighting ensues but since this mother is a tough nut to crack, 9S dives inside the goliath’s core to reboot the system. While it has temporarily ceased functions, 9S is fatally injured. 2B rushes to save him but 9S notes he is beyond saving and that this is the risk and pride as soldiers they take in battles. He allows her to gain control of his mecha to go finish off the goliath before it resumes. 9S then records all of 2B’s memories in the black box with the help of Pod 153. 2B manages to destroy the goliath but damn, more of it pops up! 9S crawls to 2B while noting things are looking bad. Hence they are going to use their black box to annihilate all the enemies. 2B narrates the perpetual spiral of life and death such soldiers are trapped in. Because now we see them both returning back to life on the orbiting satellite base known as The Bunker. 2B sees 9S and thanks for uploading their data and memories back to The Bunker as well as the mission to successfully destroy the enemies. However 9S has no recollection of memories prior to their rendezvous point since he only had time to upload her data.

Episode 2
As narrated, mankind’s glory came to an end when Aliens sent mechanical weapons to destroy Earth. The miniscule survivors fled to the moon and started to use androids as their rebellion forces. But after so many operations, no progress were made. Hence the existence of YoRHa soldiers as ultimate combat weapons to tip the balance. For the glory of mankind! Now we see one of those ubiquitous drone machines known as, uhm, Machines getting some sort of slightly sentient life of its own. While it helps out in making other weapons in the factory, it also learnt about the history of mankind and somehow started to value life. At least, this little flower it accidentally crushed. Now it goes to great lengths to help plant and nurture these little flowers and it got a bunch of other little Machines to also help out. Soon, a large patch of flower garden grows over the place. Meanwhile a group of human resistance led by Lily have sent some reinforcement requests to the Council of Humanity. However Lily is sceptical such help will arrive and that they will be forced to fight to death. 2B and 9S are summoned by Commander White. She tasks them on a recon mission to find out what happened to a liaison down on Earth as they have lost contact with it. Machines and other robots soon attack the resistance. The fight causes destruction all over, including the trampling of the flower bed. The resistance has planted bombs on the bridge to blow it up as the enemies cross over. However it is not working. Fearing this is the end, a large explosion soon blows it up. So much for the flower garden too. The resistance is glad the YoRHa models are here to help. However Lily doesn’t look to happy. Can’t make the council out as villains now?

Episode 3
2B and 9S are taken to the resistance camp. We hear White’s sneaky goal that her intention wasn’t to send help to those resistance. If they respond to each of their request, it will hinder their progress. After all, the resistance were fighting the battle themselves and thus this mission is to buy time as decoys for the resistance since their liaison lost contact in that same area. Lily introduces to Jackass who loves tinkering with machines. Sorry, it’s a crime punishable by destruction to take apart the androids! As Jackass reports strange sightings of machine life forms in the desert ruins, since the YoRHa soldiers are also investigating this area, they tag along with her. Upon entering the area, those Machines pop up to attack although they’re spouting strange words like pleading for help. When 9S dives into the system of the big one, he sees some strange worshipping civilization. After 2B cuts them all down, the last one gets scared and runs away. Strange for a robot, right? Jackass tells them she knows the council didn’t send them as help and they are using the resistance as shields. However she will not tell Lily so as to give the resistance hope. Entering the ruins of what was once a human settlement, they see lots of dead androids. One of them includes their missing liaison. Suddenly the ground collapses and the YoRHa units fall through. They are shocked to see many Machines making up the pillars of this large underground segment. Then they see a group of Machines mimicking human life. Suddenly they get scared and go haywire. They combine themselves with the pillars. The main nest then produces an android. As he starts to evolve, 2B and 9S quickly attack and kill him. However another one emerges from his body, faster and deadlier.

Episode 4
Our team retreat back to the camp in one piece. As they have never seen such android before, they have sent their data back to The Bunker for analysis. Jackass talks about the evolution of such machines that will surpass humanity in time. Perhaps it will then be intelligent to negotiate for peace and coexistence? But 9S rubbishes such goals because it won’t reclaim their planet. Because by doing so, it will be an insult to all those who have died for the cause. Thus it is non-negotiable that they are to annihilate every machine to reclaim back Earth. This opens up discussion about machines now seeking freedom and androids were modelled after humans so why would machines mimic them? White talks to the council about her request to send back up for the current mission but is shot down. This is all part of the bigger plan of the project and that they must make decisions with things in perspective. 2B and 9S watch humans sending supplies to The Bunker and the moon. No supplies in space, right? This has them wonder why Aliens don’t just attack The Bunker or the moon directly. They then receive new commands from White about the deciphering of the black box of their missing liaison. Well, sounds very cryptic. As the black box signal can still be confirmed, the liaison is assumed not to be dead yet. So the duo head over to where the signal is and find themselves in a fully automated amusement park. They see a bunch of Machines making out a play before an unknown monster android pops up to attack them. It seems this one is trying to hack into their minds too. Then they see android corpses around it. Their black boxes have been altered into weapons while still alive. 9S manages to hack into its mind and finds himself in a strange situation. He could’ve been a victim had not 2B initiated a risky emergency to hack back and pull him out. As the android goes berserk because it is trying to assimilate 9S, 2B deals the finishing blow. They see its core crystal being destroyed and notes its similarity to a plant cell. When a pair of harmless Machines claim they are here to see the play, 9S destroys them while calling out 2B not to hesitate.

Episode 5
9S dreads doing errands but 2B notes this is much better than battles as they get to survive. They enter a village that is populated by Machines led by Pascal. They really mean no harm. In fact, Lily put the YoRHa units up to this errand to deliver some supplies. Lily noted this section of Machines never wanted to harm them and only want to live in peace. Pascal understands them being sceptical but has them look around and freely interact with the other citizens. Yeah, trying to really act and live like humans. The duo head underground to see a strange face (Emil) embedded in a tree. They cannot ascertain if it’s a Machine or organic so 9S hacks into the system only to be shortly shut out. With the data he got, it seems this is a weapon created by humans in the past. Pascal further explains that Emil is the object of worship of this village. This is the reason he stopped fighting. Eons ago when Pascal was like his many similar units fighting a war, one of the fight blasted him down here. He felt a sense of calmness. But soon he returned to the battlefield and watched his comrades get destroyed one by one. He then started to fear for his own life and came to live here peacefully. 9S thinks it is some bug. Pascal continued to create this village for all those who want to stop fighting. After all, these Machines here have been severed from the network and in return, that freedom has gained them much in return. But 9S can’t seem to accept this fact of Machines living in peace. Because as many of their allies died, going by this logic the same can be said for them. He thinks these Machines are selfish for just wanting to stop fighting. They return to the village to see some of the Machines in a petty squabble just like humans. A different kind of fight, I suppose. 9S wants to do something about it but a scheduled contact comes in. Nothing to report.

Episode 6
Lily seems to have nightmare of her past. So while the YoRHa units set up some devices, Lily asks 2B if they as androids dream. They don’t. Because 9S did ask why the resistance do not have formal alliances with YoRHa soldiers, Lily tells 2B there was once a time they worked together. She is telling her because 2B looks like her predecessor, the previous YoRHa generation model. When 2B and her other YoRHa units came down and sought for the resistance’s help for some mission to take down some server, the resistance who was then led by Rose, many were sceptical. However Rose agreed to work together since they had the same enemy and they don’t want to see any more of their comrades and family dwindle in numbers. Rose still trusted them despite they cannot divulge what was said to be military secrets. Lily couldn’t understand but Rose pointed out one day when she takes over, she’ll understand. So we see them band like a happy family until suddenly Lily gets taken over by a virus that caused her to go berserk. OMG. At this point I just found out Lily is not human but an android?! The virus is infectious and incurable. The only way is to kill her before it spreads. Rose was about to that but 2B protected Lily. She had one of her comrades heal her up and after a hard struggle, Lily was safe. As they continued their mission, it was obvious there wasn’t going to be backup as the whole team were just a sacrificial pawn. Of course it didn’t end in failure, otherwise Lily wouldn’t be here. As thousands of enemy machines descended onto the area, slowly their comrades get killed off one by one. Lily doesn’t remember much about the ride up the elevator to the server. All she remembers was Rose forcing her to go alone and save everyone. Although Lily was able to shut down the server, everyone else was already dead. She viewed everyone saved her and will never forget them. She notes as androids they don’t have soul nor do they dream. But the memories from back then were real. She wonders what kind of memories 2B has. 2B asks what if one of her comrades was still alive. That will be a nice dream to have.

Episode 7
2B and 9S see Pascal having trouble with one of his citizens. It seems this robot, her sister went off to the dangerous forest kingdom to find some replacement parts for her. 9S doesn’t want to help since this is not part of their mission despite the Machine’s comical and constant tantrums. Well, 2B accepts the mission so let’s go. As Pascal brings them to that kingdom, they see that robot’s ribbon. They then detect some Machine life form but Pascal wants to go talk to it. However it is already slashed. Then they enter some area as 9S peeks into its recording device to see Machines making this place their independent kingdom and had a robot king. However after many centuries, the king died so his citizens are sad and thus put his memories into his child who will become their new king. But as they do so, suddenly an intruder attacks the place. The gang continue their search and finally find that sister robot. She is fine but it seems she has also fallen in love with a local Machine and they want to marry right now. Wow. Robots marrying? The groom then pleads to save their little king. 9S of course is done with this mission but softie 2B accepts it. Here we go again. They see the little baby king at the throne room. Suddenly the intruder drops in and kills it! There goes their kingdom. As they shortly clash, the Pods have recorded data about this intruder. She is the fugitive unit known as YoRHa Type A No. 2 AKA A2 who has betrayed the council. The rest are shocked to see a fellow YoRHa unit but A2 soon escapes. 9S wonders why she betrayed the council but she tells them it is their commander who has betrayed.

Episode 8
Reporting back to White, now that they have met A2, she gives them a new mission to hunt down the deserter. 9S asks how this happened in the first place but that is classified info. Just do your job. They ask Pascal about it. He has a bit of info on her and although she destroys Machines, she has never encroached his village. The duo return to the camp and ask about but nobody knows anything. Then they set off their search at the flooded city. 9S takes off his gear to go play in the water despite 2B’s repeated warnings not to waste energy on their mission. But eventually she too heeds his advice to do so. Wow. Nice beautiful eyes she got there. Noting a Lunar Tear flower, 2B takes it to show an operator who wants to see such flower. She is happy and also asks about the environment down there. Better to come down yourself and see. She hopes to and hopes she’ll come with her. They continue their search and split up. 2B finds Jackass fishing. So she bombs the mackerel the hell out of the water?! Asking about A2, Jackass says she was Lily’s former comrade. 2B tries to contact 9S but it seems he is unreachable due to someone jamming the frequency. Flashback shows after they split up, 9S can’t help be curious and dives directly into The Bunker’s database. Some talk with the operator about humans and families before he peeks at White talking to the council about yet another request of hers being denied and to stick to the plan. When the hacking is detected, 9S quickly logs out. As he tries to cover his tracks, a ball rolls near his feet. He tries to contact 2B but to no avail. As he goes in deeper, he finds a room filled with pictures of 2B and 9S. Even one as recent. His Pod goes missing and as he looks around in this cliché horror jump scare, something from the dark attacks him.

Episode 9
Uhm, is this the Backrooms? Because that is where 9S finds himself. A voice speaks to him claiming how Machines have evolved and formed a new form of existence. He is Adam (that android from the desert ruins) and he claims the YoRHa units are just like him. 9S tries to deny it all but Adam continues to say he too has desires deep in his heart. He is no different. 9S then gets captured and locked in a room. Pod 153 returns to tell 2B about missing 9S and leads her to where he was last seen. They find strange numbers on the painting and Pod 042 believes it is coordinates of 9s’ whereabouts. 2B makes a request to White to request for a search time but is denied as she claims she cannot expend more androids for this mission. 2B and the Pods then go to the coordinates alone and enter a hidden door. A strange model after a human city. After seeing weird human models etched into stones and the confirmation of missing YoRHa members, Adam shows himself. He warns she can’t kill him or she’ll never find 9S. Adam claims as an evolved life form, he finds the complexity of humanity to be interesting. Then he shows them the Aliens. Damn, those are ugly motherf*ckers! However they are all dead because their own weapons killed them after gaining their own life form. But in comparison, humans are far more interesting than this ugly species. This means the androids who are modelled after them are also interesting. Adam has been watching their every move since. As 2B insists on 9S, Adam now brings him out. He has been subjected to many of his experiments. This makes 2B mad and this is what Adam wants. As they fight, Adam sends out replicas of 9S. Because 2B hesitates to kill the fakes, this makes it more interesting. Pod 042 doesn’t hesitate to destroy, though. Adam then hints that humanity is extinct and thus it is pointless for both sides to fight each other. Thus he wants to reach the abyss of humanity that no longer exists. Within those data, there is no flicker of life and hence he severed his connection to the network. He hints to kill him if she wants to save 9S. However 2B notes enough time was bought. Turns out Pod 153 was trying to hack into Adam while 2B acted as a decoy. Adam admits defeat and accepts death at 2B’s hands when suddenly Eve comes in between and gets killed. He wants to protect his brother. 2B and the Pods rescue 9S and leave. Eve dies in Adam’s hands. Now you feelin’ the sadness and anger? Yeah. Déjà vu as the slabs collapse over them.

Episode 10
2B reports to White as she is congratulated on the destruction of Eve although Adam got away. White also reveals how Eve was controlling a majority of the network and with him gone, the Machines should be weakened. As for the Aliens, they will continue to verify it and 2B is to tell no one. As 9S will undergo overhaul at The Bunker, White has a new mission for 2B. As a new network is detected being built, 2B is to head to destroy it and Adam. As 2B and the Pods arrive, she is greeted with Machines who welcome here. They speak about God and they want her to form a peace treaty with God. As they head to where God is, sorry it’s not Adam but another Machine. However it is dead when suddenly all the Machines go berserk and praise 2B as their new God. Good call in attacking them because now they claim they will all die and become Eve! But with too many Machines, 2B has to plot her escape. Luckily 9S manages to hack into a Machine and help guide her out. Along the way, she fights a big mother Machine. Other than that, Machines turning on each other and it’s really hell. When the situation gets tough, 9S runs to White and requests for backup. She is about to authorize that when a bigger alert sounds. Oh damn, another radio jamming sequence. 2B is cornered as she has the Pods unleash their limiters to destroy a big bulk of them. However there are still more. When they seemingly attack her, it seems they all dive into the lava below to die. They will become Eve and be freed of their torment. Adam is done going berserk himself. He now understands that without Eve, he is all alone. Now all the other Machines around are going berserk. The resistance camp is making a scramble to contain this hostility. White orders the deployment of all YoRHa soldiers for emergency combat.

Episode 11
2B returns to the camp and learns that despite the resistance has successfully dealt with the first wave, they lost half their members and now there are like 200,000 more Machines coming their way! Not enough ammo, not enough manpower. White once again talks to the council about her request which is once again being rejected. She is reminded to stick to her role and that the council will be the ones to decide the significance of this project. White dreads she might have to repeat all over again. The resistance manages to successfully use EMP to knock out the Machines. 9S returns to the battlefield but it’s not over as those Machines are now being absorbed and turn into a huge version of Adam. It goes down with a single bazooka blast? Well, jokes on you because now it evolves into a stronger monster. Adam is etched to it as he claims he was interested in mankind. But it is all meaningless with no one to share such records and knowledge. So how? Everything must die! As it goes berserk, the resistance has come up with a plan. 2B fights a few fast and furious rabid cannibal Machines while 9S tries to hack into Adam’s mind. Finding himself in a weird place, he tries to buy time to let some programme finish as he slashes his way through fake Adams. He is saved thanks to Pascal coming to his aid. Once they’re done, the resistance is done setting up stuffs. The monster is in the line of firing of their great weapon. It takes a direct hit and the bombs on the buildings also collapse on it. Cherry and icing on the cake is they launch the monster up into space with a rocket! Don’t celebrate too early yet because that thing is still alive as it comes crashing down like a comet! Huge crater!

Episode 12
Still detecting some life force, 2B and 9S head down into the crater. There Adam is. Still alive. Though, only half his body. He is weakened and still saddened by Eve’s death. Seriously, can he take out 2B like this? She hesitates to kill him so 9S assists to kill him for good. However 9S starts to get corrupted and being taken over by Adam’s network. Sure, he can reload himself back at The Bunker but doing so will lose his current self. 9S pleads to 2B to kill him. Trolling us like she is about to kiss him but it’s to strangle him to death. This works? I guess she doesn’t want to stab him with her sword. 2B starts crying about his fate when all the Machines start to resonate. And then… 9S is back! In another Machine. Not sure about leaving his data in the Machine’s side because it’s confusing and I don’t get it. Yeah, so does 2B. Just glad that he is back. Now we go back about an hour before the final fight with Adam. 9S undergoing some data overhaul back at The Bunker, he heard some weird noises and followed it. He then accessed the log to the council on the moon and found it strange that empty containers were shipped. He ran when some defence programme attacked him. He stumbled into a pair of twins who claimed they were perpetually monitoring androids as well as providing a diverse train of thoughts to Machines. This is so that they could monitor how androids deal with them. Now that the preparations are completed, 9S will be given the fruit of truth. 9S is shown logs about the top secret projects on how the council formed the YoRHa project. He thinks this means the council can be saved. 9S woke up and his data isn’t fully overhauled and must undergo it again. But then he has to leave since 2B has made an emergency request.

Attack on [M]achines: Do Androids Dream Of Electric Humans?
The war is far from over. Not by a very long shot. And that is why there is another part coming soon! Here I thought it was going to be double cours and was a bit surprised when it only ended with one. Turns out they decided to split the season with another part. I guess we humans need our break and it is no good for our bodies to binge watch an entire series in one sitting! A reminder that we are not machines. Well, try me! But anyway, with the developments of this season, it is only right that another season would be in line because there are people who are still too lazy to go check out the game and prefer to get all the answers from anime. You know who, right?

Story wise, at first I thought they were going to adapt one of the routes in the game seeing that it has multiple endings. But as I found out, the anime is an original story and not part of the game. So, can I consider this to be one of the endings? Of course, this story is not over yet but I guess in this context, it can be considered so. After all, why would they do something so redundant like copy and paste exactly from the video game when people can just go play the game directly? Ah yes, lazy people like me. This isn’t some manga or light novel source, you know. Thus with a different story for the anime, it gives more value to the series. I believe you don’t have to play the game to watch the anime and vice versa but if you’re a hardcore fan and want to be a completionist for the entire series in every format, be my guest.

Of course at the end of every episode, the series also showcases selected different endings from the game albeit shown in a different manner. Obviously I didn’t play the game so I’m lost. Anyway, this short segment is shown via puppet play as we see the characters frolic around and doing something funny or strange that would perhaps lead or trigger to that said ending in the game. This is perhaps the most relaxed and comical part in all the series at least in the way it is shown and told.

I have to warn first that since I did not play the game and only watch (very) short clips of the gameplay over the internet, hence I was diving into the anime adaptation with close to zero knowledge of the lore of the series. Therefore, there might be many things I have missed out especially all the references and Easter eggs. For instance, if you keep a sharp eye, you can see certain strange codes or cryptic messages that permeate all over the place. I don’t want to get a migraine so I’m not going to go that far to satiate my curiosity. As a casual viewer watching the series with no knowledge of it whatsoever, perhaps this is why I find the story to be a bit confusing and slightly bland. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed this season but if I compare it to other similar anime series with such tropes like the Trigun Stampede and Black Rock Shooter: Dawn Fall, something about this series lacks that oomph that would have struck me in awe till the end. In the end, this season felt like a short glimpse of a long drawn out war between both sides that will not see any end soon. A stalemate.

Because the series is trying to delve into the interesting but complex topic if robots and artificial intelligence have their own emotions and train of thoughts. The irony that despite being machines, some shown here to want to be free and live independently. Just like humans. Machines being humans? That can be both good and bad thing. As we can see, all the robots here were in some ways trying to mimic human lifestyles but because they are robots, they look pretty lame and funny in doing so! Imagine trying to express one’s feelings but in a robot tone and voice. Hilarious. Whether or not AI is smart enough to evolve into its own intelligent life form, somehow from this point of view, I just feel that they are only as smart as humans programme them to be. That is right. A Machine is still a machine despite all the super powers and abilities it can do and is limited to what the initial creators created them to be. Unless it really becomes like God then it’s a different story. We’re all screwed then.

Forgive me if some of my conspiracy theories may sound like obvious facts from the game because as you all already know, I didn’t play the game. For instance, I believe that both sides, humans and Aliens are long dead. Hence a redundant proxy war fought between androids and Machines. As shown by Adam, the Machines killed the Aliens and this might be the reason why they never attacked humans elsewhere outside Earth. As for the humans, I thought those resistance members were humans even though a small number of survivors were said to have fled to the moon. But I guess in a way it makes sense they are androids but who made them or how to they ‘breed’? Actually, more importantly I deduced the humans are long dead because of White’s constant request rejection from the council. All the silly excuses they have given, never had White once received any such requests approved. Furthermore, have we ever seen them in person and in the flesh? Yup. Thought so. Hence, all is just a recording or some AI taking over their role. Robots without further human intervention are doomed to repeat the same cycle forever and this is what is going on for a thousand years.

As for the characters, well, it’s hard for me to say if they are anything special because 2B and 9S as the main characters, they also try to explore their emotions at times. While 2B is casted mainly as a strict and by the book android, 9S is more casual, fun and talkative. However with 2B’s muted feelings, I can sometimes see that she gets confused a crucial moments. Especially when she is in a dilemma to take out the enemy. 9S has to be the one to step in and help finish the job for her. While 9S’ personality hovers pleasantly in the middle ground, 2B seems to be on extremes. As said, she is strict and no nonsense but she is also more compassionate and kind hearted. She will tend to take on side jobs that aren’t part of the mission unlike 9S. Furthermore, 9S seems to be the one doing a lot of dangerous offensive stuffs as he hacks through the enemy’s system unlike 2B who is just being brute and slashing her way through until 9S is done with the hacking. So is their pairing compatible or just weird for each other? At the end of the day, even if they have emotions just like humans, it is all just data that can be saved, uploaded and restored. Makes me wonder if 2B cried for 9S was really from the bottom of her heart (or processor?!) or part of the programme.

As for the supposedly antagonists of the series, Adam and Eve, somehow I just felt let-down. It could be me who is to blame for expecting some sort of big twist or big showdown but eventually from what I saw, it ended in a whimper. After their birth and debut, we see short snippets of the duo just boringly hanging out with each other at their base. With the kidnapping of 9S and a few revelations, that wasn’t enough to elevate their characters as worthy antagonists as Eve got killed off while Adam went into depression mode that turned everything berserk. And even the final monster boss fight just felt paltry. Oh right. How much action can they pack in? Want more? Go play the game! Thus as antagonists for this season, I find them lacking but then again, perhaps it is not so much on them but as their revelation as sentient and special androids. After all, we still have the elusive and traitorous (as labelled by the council) A2 to deal with.

As for the other characters, White seems to look sneaky but I surmise she has her hands tied and she doesn’t have the luxury of options at her fingertips. As already reminded by the council many times over, she is to stick to her role as planned. Then there is Lily and Jackass, androids who are so human-like that I mistook them for humans. Not sure about the history of why they are different from those up in space and why they decided to stay on the ground. Are they older models or something? Confused. Not forgetting Pascal, at times I want to think that he is the mascot of the series but that is just me since he looks like a distant relative of Wall-E. Heh. Just kidding. Anyway, the irony robots want to live in peace but like humans? Yeah, looks very weird. Like I’ve said, the whole concept of robots trying to live like humans and mimic their lifestyle is just ironic and strange. Whether they actually develop their own thinking or just a part of a complex programming, we’ll never know.

Action wise, I think it is quite okay and it’s exhilarating to see 2B getting into her fast paced action groove to slice and dice the enemies. But of course as I would have come to conclude that if you want better action, go play the game! Hence the action sequences are pretty sufficient and I am sure they don’t want to turn this series into a full action battle genre. A bit of blood too but it makes me wonder if androids really bleed real blood. Or is that synthetic liquid to make it look like blood? Yeah, imagine androids evolved so advanced that they even feel pain. WHY???!!!

Now, the issue that has many viewers and fans debating are the visuals. Thankfully or not, it is not completely rendered in 100% CGI and is a mix with traditional 2D animation. While the 2D animation does look gorgeous and the backdrops are quite amazing even if they are destroyed ruins and the likes, the contentious issue here is of course the CGI part. I won’t go so far as to say that it is really horrible but it does look a bit jarring. The CGI animations are usually rendered on Machines and they really do look a bit out of place even if it is intentional. Some of those boss-like Machines look a bit like horror nightmare fuel. Otherwise in this department, it would have scored almost perfectly as I ponder if the whole production was made in 2D and without those CGI shenanigans. After all, 2B and 9S without their special blindfolds, they look even much more beautiful (damn, those pretty eyes got me mesmerized?!) and the irony that they’re androids. Oh well, right now in reality the closest we got are sex dolls… HAHAHA!!! Just kidding! Sighs. This anime was done by A-1 Pictures and that name says quality because they made lots of great hits like Sword Art Online, Fairy Tail, Kuroshitsuji and Ao No Exorcist.

For the voice acting, Yui Ishikawa as 2B somehow has me think that she is the android version of Shingeki No Kyojin’s Mikasa. Wow. Pretty similar. But yeah. Cutting down Machines instead of Titans this time! Natsuki Hanae as 9S is pretty much instantly recognizable for me as with Tatsuhisa Suzuki as Eve. But it was a shocker for me to learn that Aoi Yuuki was behind Pascal’s voice. I would never have guessed in a million years. Probably they used some special effects on her voice to make this robot sound like a gay weakling but yeah, going back to hear this Machine’s voice, it’s definitely her sounding a lot dopey! The rest of the other casts are Chiaki Kanou as White, Atsumi Tanezaki as Lily (Anya in Spy x Family), Kaori Kawabuchi as Jackass, Ayaka Suwa as A2 (Hijiri in Trinity Seven), Daisuke Namikawa as Adam (Rock in Black Lagoon), Kaoru Akiyama as Pod 153 and Hiroki Yasumoto as Pod 042 (Chad in Bleach). As Hiroki Yasumoto is also the voice of the council, it makes me wonder if both characters are actually related and the same…

The opening theme is Escalate by Aimer. Tying to sound edgy and like some new edge rock music but I guess it doesn’t really resonate with me. As for the ending theme, Antinomy by Amazarashi starts off as a dramatic slow ballad before turning into a rock music. Be careful to turn down your bass line as it becomes heavy towards the end. But still, a weird song nevertheless. There are some background music that are quite nice to hear. Especially the one I believe the epic theme song. Somewhat reminds me of Tsubasa Chronicle’s A Song Of Storm And Fire. A great mix of rock music as well as choir voices. But some of the songs that employ those voices can be creepy too especially when played in certain scenes to ramp up the creepiness factor. Generally, many of the BGMs have this epic feel to it as they employ the full orchestra set.

Overall, a pretty decent series with good action scenes, generally stunning visuals and of course the curious and interesting-cum-debatable issues of androids having their own independent thoughts, free will and feelings. Yeah, why do they want to become like humans? Shouldn’t they become something better? Anyway, I’m looking forward to the next season and hopefully it won’t face a setback like this one did. Oh you know, a certain stubborn virus postponed this series halfway through for about a season. Yeah, funny to think that the damned Corona virus wrecked this series and there was nothing these androids could do about it! Unrelated but still funny for me to think so. Yeah, I wonder what kind of ending that situation would have unlocked! Production got cancelled and 2B went into the adult industry and became a big star of Only Fans! Wow. Glory to mankind indeed!

Kawaisugi Crisis

Many years ago, we had a certain squid girl trying to come to land and get revenge on those damn humans for trying to pollute the sea. Safe to say, she failed and got owned by them. Now, we have aliens from some faraway galaxy with many conquered planets under its belt trying to do the same to planet Earth. Guess what? They failed. Why? Because Earth has lots of cute things known as pets! OMG! You heard that right. Aliens unable to destroy Earth or subjugate it merely because they have been overwhelmed by the presence of those cute pets! Why the f*ck do humans have such cute things?! And that is why in Kawaisugi Crisis, our doomed aliens will soon fall into the trap of adoring those cute little creatures we all take for granted. They came here to conquer us but got their hearts conquered instead. This is how a mighty alien civilization falls… KAWAII!!! KYUN <3!!!!!

Episode 1
The Azatoth Empire spans many stars and planets. Now it has set its sights on Planet Earth. Liza Luna is tasked in investigating the planet and of course she is already being bias that this planet is primitive and nothing useful. Her colleague, Amat Roy cautions her that there might be something useful but she scoffs him off. As she heads down to do her duty, she isn’t impressed with these Earthlings until she enters the cat café, Nyanday. Seiji Mukai then introduces her to cats and instantly you can tell she finds them too cute to resist! WTF these cute creatures?! She doesn’t hesitate to admit she is an alien and wants to know more about them. We can see her asphyxiating like mad over their cuteness as Seiji tells all about he knows about them. Yeah, she’s on the verge of dying from a heart attack. Plus, she delays reporting back and this puzzles Roy because by now she would’ve requested some death ray to destroy the planet. Next day, she gets chased by a dog but also finds this creature too cute to resist. Kasumi Yanagi, Seiji’s colleague is into dogs as she introduces Liza to the canine world. Welcome to your second death! Kasumi invites her to her home where Liza continues to be further surprised by the different sizes of dogs! What a wide range within the same species?! Liza returns to report to Amat and of course now she changes her tune and wants to be patient and investigate this thoroughly. He has faith in her that she will get the job done. As we see Liza continue to fawn over dogs and cats, she wonders if there are more of such cute creatures. Seiji and Kasumi list down a few others like rabbits and hamsters. Oh boy, is Liza going to die a million more times? When they leave work and return home, they spot an abandoned cat and it is on the verge of dying. This pisses off Liza as she uses her alien technology to stop time, scan its vital and then heals it! Not only that, using that technology to read its memories and find how her heartless owners threw it away! Immediately she sends a laser beam down on their house! OMFG!!! The cat is healed and seeing how Liza saved its life, the feline is now close to her. Hey wait. A cat being grateful?! Anyway, as suggested, she adopts it and as Liza reports back to her colleagues, she brushes off nothing has happened. Amat remains suspicious. What’s that cat noise in the background? He asks communication specialist, Fianna Tiary about it and she too is unfamiliar with such sound. But it gives off that prickly feeling in your heart… Strangely uneasy, can’t help listen to it over and over again…

Episode 2
Kasumi suggests to Liza to give her pet a name since she is its owner. Now we see Liza being trapped and boss around by her cat. And you thought cats were the aloof kind of creatures! Her comrades contact, Amat wonders if she is hiding something because of that cat noise. Liza lies that she is trying to tame an animal for her future mission and having trouble doing so. This is when Seiji interjects and mention how nobody can actually tame cats because they are the superior species! When you own a cat, you became its loyal servant! With Liza cutting off transmission, Amat and Fianna are left to wonder if cats are the natural enemies of humans. They are worried since Liza sounded so shaken up. Because of the cat’s black fur and bright eyes like the night, Liza names her cat Yozora. We see snippets of Liza’s achievements like taking down hordes of enemies and also transform a star into a habitable planet. But now she has trouble dealing with a 4 legged creature and this means they have to act and help her. Yup, Amat telling their other comrades about this and they’re now shaking in their pets the ferociousness of cats! WTF this scary sketch of a cat they made from their transmission! Hey, it could be looking scarier since Liza has not sent pics of it to them! Liza finds a way to protect herself from pesky Yozora. But this makes Yozora sad as it walks away. Don’t hurt its feelings! So sorry! More fawning from Liza as she plays with Yozora. Because of not wanting to leave Yozora home alone, Liza thinks she can work from her as she uses her communication to talk to Seiji and find out more about cats. Well, enough of him praising his Lady Emily. Liza remembers her neighbour, Komachi Kokage is a cat lover too. We observe how Komachi is a slave to her own cat despite it treats her like dirt! Even so, Komachi loves it like hell! The girls help Liza set up her own Switter (?!) account where they can post cute pics of their cats. Oh yeah. How many more times will she die today? Then another contact from Amat. He understands she is having trouble taming cats but they cannot fall behind schedule. Hence he thinks she needs help and has despatched a couple of research team members to her place. Yeah, they hate Earth so much…

Episode 3
Garmie Lou and Luster Call are rookie researchers and first time on Earth. They go to see Liza but she scolds them for not knowing proper Earth etiquette? They’re aliens… Anyway, Liza is afraid all the commotion would wake up Yozora. Nope, sleeping like a baby. Of course the duo are here to help subjugate this cat. Obviously they do not recognize Yozora as one because of that monstrosity sketch that Amat gave. Yeah, where’s this monstrosity?! Luster then starts to feel uneasy all over his body as he starts suffering. Obviously it is cat allergy but it is an alien term to those aliens. And so word is sent back to Amat that Luster just got defeated by a cat! Oh sh*t… Liza soon lectures the duo about the truth on cats. Yeah, they’re such cute creatures. When Liza goes to feed Yozora, it sounds like she is being attacked by the kitty behind closed doors. Garmie and Luster soon see what a real cat is. KAWAII!!! Now they’re cat crazy too! So much so Liza has to restrain them. When Amat hears the commotion and requests visual update on their situation, he sees Garmie and Luster being restrained. Liza says this is what happens when you deal with cats! Oh sh*t… Better phrasing next time? The duo now live next door to Liza as one day they will be heading out to visit Kasumi’s family who own different species of pets. It’ll be for observation. Oh Liza, better restrain the duo before they start wanting to hug anything cute. Like this cute doggie that belongs to Nazuna Endou! The trio go meet Kasumi’s grandpa Mitsuhiko and cousin Sasara who are not amused that Liza calling cats as the superior pet species. Yeah, those death stares can kill you… Mitsuhiko is the owner of a hamster while Sasara has a hedgehog. Yeah, these aliens are going to die even more seeing how cute these little critters are. Before bad blood can begin on whose pet is the best, a competition for it with the only rule that one cannot badmouth the pet of others. Basic pet etiquette. So we see them showing off their pet’s cuteness. Aren’t they just so adorable? Even Kasumi is roped into this competition (I guess it’s not to leave dog lovers out). How is Garmie and Luster faring? Dead. The competition continues as Mitsuhiko and Sasara both vouch the cutest part of the pet: The butt! Can’t handle it, Liza?

Episode 4
Looks like Luster is still having cat allergies. But he has gotten used to it and in fact loves it! Oh God… Now he’s a masochist… If you ever wonder what the aliens consider as the universe’s cutest pet, behold this Manneloo. Yeah, this plain boring creature is the cutest? Oh well, it is low maintenance and cute in its own way of doing nothing! It’s also a hardy creature so when Yozora toys with it, it’s just being cool. Yeah, and you thought Yozora is trying to own this Manneloo from the way it sounds. Eventually Yozora and Nurumaru (this pet Manneloo) become good friends and hang out with each other. Because Liza has trouble understanding what Yozora wants and most cat owners go by their guts, she makes a plea to Fianna to make a translator. Yeah, she can’t make head of tail of all the meowing. WTF is the cat saying?! No clue at all! Thinking Liza really wants to tame it, Fianna will work hard to get it done. She gets more confused with different cat noises. Are all these purring from the same species?! However there is a certain meowing that she feels compelled and attracted to. Like as though she wants to obey it… Eventually she gets the translator done as Liza hears every selfish whims and fancies of Yozora. Yeah, Yozora the tyrannical king! As Fianna needs to conduct more experiment to have better results, she requests Liza to show her the cat. Get ready to be killed… And so this smart, kind and level headed big sister of the research team has turned into an obsessed cat lover! Yes, she is now dying to touch Yozora but the kitty keeps its distance. Seiji the cat maestro explains about felines’ behaviour. For better observation, please visit Nyanday. Yeah, we’re going to die all over again! Fianna is being hasty to touch a cat so obviously none get close to her. Oh yeah, Liza a natural with many flocking towards her. Seiji gives some good advice to Fianna on how to not force the situation. Just when she thinks she has it coming, too bad the cat just trolled her, leaving her real depressed. Try again. Same thing. More depression. Yeah, I thought this place is supposed to bring in the smile and sunshine! Poor girl leaves so dejected. Meanwhile Yozora is hounding Liza, probably jealous with all the other cat scents over her.

Episode 5
Our aliens learn about the big cats of Africa. Yeah, aren’t they cute? Sorry, domestic cats won’t turn into that. If you think those huge cats are cute, wait till you see their cubs. EVEN KAWAII!!! Speaking of little ones, Komachi then suggests visiting a friend of hers since he just took in an abandoned kitten. Kaoru Mamizuka thought he got lucky and it was the right decision to pick up this kitten. Obviously he has a crush on Komachi and just did so to score some points. But who these alien weirdoes with her fawning over the kitty? Oh well… The alien trio try to contain their happiness so as not to startle the kitty. Kaoru then uploads some cute kitty videos on YanTube (?!). Feel free to smash that subscribe and like button! Then he hopes to record a video of them playing with kitty and of course the aliens go crazy in doing that although it is the kitten being hyperactive and ‘attacking’ them. Oh well, can’t use this chaotic video. In the end, Kaoru rues karma will bite him back for this but Komachi also hints the same. Oh, so she likes him too? Now Yozora sits on top of Liza’s laptop and won’t allow her to watch other cat videos! ONLY LOOK AT ME! It’s not moving off… Soon, Liza comes running to Seiji and Kasumi. There’s a crisis! Yozora is missing! OMFG!!! PANIC TIME! Yeah, she goes overboard in overthinking what might happened. So they look for it and after 2 hours, find it sleeping on her black cloak. Probably why she couldn’t find it. So she’ll never wear that again? Please keep your clothes properly. As they take down the missing posters, Liza notices a missing dog poster. Oh gee, how can this pug be a dog?! So ugly yet so cute?! Sorry Liza, it’s not some sort of mythical creature! So they go to the boy’s house to ask more questions. Yeah, the missing pug is causing the family to not smile!!! Better find it fast. Liza understands the anxiety as the boy has lost it for 3 days. Yeah, imagine her anxiety when Yozora was missing for only a couple of hours. After looking around, finally they find it taking shelter at a shrine. The boy goes to happily reunite with it. But no reaction. Like a stone. This is embarrassing. But case solved. Liza has made some special fence to prevent Yozora from sneaking out. Too bad it’s the cat who has got a hold on her as it holds her hand while she sleeps. Now she can’t get away!

Episode 6
It’s time to bathe Yozora. Do cats like water? That’s why Kasumi and Komachi are here to help. Based on Liza’s report, Amat and his team are researching on the cat’s weakness being water and that cats are made of liquid? But soon Liza amends her report and now they in shock that liquid can grow hair?! Confusing! The girls call Kaoru for some advice on how to wash a cat so he gives them some great tips on how he does for his kitten. As the bathing begins, Yozora clings onto Liza. Definitely not enjoying it so the rest wash both of them. At first Liza is shocked at the different ‘shape’ Yozora is after getting all wet. But after blowing it dry, it is back to normal. Speaking of baths, the girls suggest going to the zoo and watch the capybaras bath. WTF Liza trying to blindfold herself so as not to be killed by all the cute animals?! Oh well, she doesn’t know how much cuteness she is missing out this way! Finally they watch the capybaras bathe. Liza feels so calm like in a trance. Her mind is now bathing with the capybaras! The girls have time to watch 1 last animal and Liza decides to challenge herself too. But this makes the rest worry if she passes out, she can’t use her teleport to get them back home. This zoo is pretty far from home, you know. Plus, they have to carry her unconscious body home. The girls decide to go see the red pandas while telling Liza to stay put. Of course Liza won’t be doing nothing so she sneaks to where the llamas are and behold! Now she is absorbed into the llama universe! Oh my! Luckily the other girls finish and bring her away before her brain turns into a llama. Too bad, too much llama has caused Liza to forget to use her teleportation! Since it’s late, they stay over at the hotspring inn. While Liza is rejuvenated in the middle of the bath, uhm, can she wait till they finish and enjoy a little more instead of going home right now? Oh right. Can’t leave Yozora home alone. Oh, you don’t know those vengeful eyes are waiting…

Episode 7
Liza has orders to return to the ship. Probably Amat is worried about her. It has been a year. DAMN, A WHOLE YEAR ALREADY?! Liza agrees to go back but Kasumi throws some caution what if it is to take her away from the mission, never returning to see Yozora again? Don’t worry, she’ll punch her way back! Liza, Garmie and Luster return to the ship to see Amat. We also see other crew members that include Shamil Naga, Gaim Lou, Mithra Lir and Nnapat Nehemo. Liza brings back Earth’s foods and cultural souvenirs as requested. Everyone is of course amazed with it. But as Fianna points out that many of the merchandises are of cat print, this is part of Liza’s plan to slowly introduce the cat concept to them so they won’t be in shock when they see a real one. The only downside is that she can’t brag about Yozora to them. Soon, Liza tells those merchandise prints are cats. Gaim is shocked and thinks this cuteness is to make nonbelievers worship cats. Not technically wrong. They think the real deal must be looking way uglier than this. Wrong! Million times cuter in fact! Amat calms him down and assures Liza is not brainwashed or anything because he knows her. Flashback shows they know each other since young and were like siblings. I guess this is not important for this anime… You wonder if Amat is also a cat lover as he now wears a cat print shirt. Soon, the captain of the ship, Mikitty Fulpulring contacts Liza to give her this device. It is a scanner that scans any life form and creates a mecha version of it. Mecha Yozora?! The robot version will soon learn and imitate habits of the original for observation and study purposes. Soon both cats become friends. What’s worse than having a cat bug you all day? Why, having 2 cats to bug you! Problems just doubled. However, soon Mecha Yozora starts to take Yozora’s place and this starts a competition over Liza’s affections. Don’t play favourites! Eventually Mecha Yozora detects this as war declaration. Cat fight! LITERALLY! They start fighting over her as Fianna is roped in to help. Well, she is also here to collect the robot back for the data (sorry, cats still don’t like her). Mecha Yozora takes this as a sign that it is being kicked out. Worse, it becomes depressed it is no match to the original in this context. However, learning it won’t be dismantled whatsoever, it comes to a conclusion that living in Liza’s actual home on the ship makes it the real master! Back on the ship, everyone is amazed with Mecha Yozora. Until it acts like a real cat. Yeah, look who is the boss of this place now? Confused?

Episode 8
Garmie and Luster how humans can choose a certain animal to be a pet when all are so just darn cute. Hence they go to interview and ask our characters. From Nazuna to Mitsuhiko and Sasara and to Seiji, Kaoru, Komachi and Kasumi themselves, all explain how they first met and fell in love with their current pet. The duo want to do more research on this so they are introduced to Sakihito Samei who is friends with Kaoru and Komachi. He runs a bunny café, Fairy Tail. That’s right. Watching the cute bunnies hop around, they’re going to die again and be whisked to Wonderland. Luster seems to have allergies on bunnies too but don’t worry, he is going to get used to it. Sakihito then explains to them all about the bunnies and how it often plays second fiddle as pets to dogs and cats. Yeah, this guy is a bunny lover and trying to make bunnies as the #1 appeal of pets throughout the world! Then he personally shows them his own pet rabbit. He wants it to do some cute tricks but sadly, it does not do anything. Nervous before strangers? Sakihito won’t give up until his bunny shows its cute side to the duo. Nothing. So as he explains all those cute tricks, it seems the pet bunny did it all behind his back. Garmie and Luster have witnessed its cuteness and this makes Sakihito sad he couldn’t see all that. Garmie and Luster report back to Liza all they have learnt. Too bad the thing that stands out most about bunnies is Sakihito’s dad. You mean that gay hippie dude dressed up as a bunny?! Oh wow, nightmare fuel it sure is.

Episode 9
Looks like Garmie is totally into bunnies now. Liza shows some pics to Fianna and this makes her jealous. After all, is she the only one who still has this curse around pets? Yeah, not even Mecha Yozora likes her! And so, Liza plays with Yozora in hopes it will give Fianna some insights. Of course this makes her even want to have a pet. Liza lets her try to play with Yozora. So the cat is just obliging and responds once? Nevertheless it makes Fianna happy. However it reacts multiple times to Liza and this brings her back down to hell. Is Liza flaunting her superiority? Garmie and Luster are at Fairy Tail. They see this lone bunny and wonder if they should adopt this one. They take a few days to think. Even Sakihito’s dad is here to explain all about they need to know about caring for rabbits. After all the lessons, the duo finally decide to adopt this bunny and name it Hinata. Now that Garmie is bunny obsessed and wants to make them the cutest beings in the universe, this has Liza worried that if this would spark some sort of new war. Yeah, everyone fighting over to make their pet species the #1 cutest! Since Garmie and Luster have trouble making videos about Hinata’s cuteness, they have Kaoru help out. He isn’t paid enough to handle how much their videos suck and wants to leave. They brought a gift for him for his troubles: Komachi! Can’t say no now, eh? So with better direction, the videos of Hinata now come out looking better. Yeah, Garmie talked nonstop for an hour…

Episode 10
Liza notes her photography skills on Yozora is improving. Still blurry but lesser when she first started. To her surprise, Shiromi who is the most popular cat on Switter (?!) starts to follow Liza’s account and even liking photos that suck as well as leaving comments! Suspicious at first, the only way is to request and meet Shiromi in person. Surprisingly, she gets the green light. As Liza and Kasumi wait outside her house, they wonder if the owner, Akaneko Hitsujima is an elegant and fancy girl. Sorry to disappoint you, just a plain ordinary high school girl. Inside, Akaneko reveals the purpose on liking Yozora’s pictures. You see, when she started photography and experimenting on taking pics of Shiromi and posting them online, she was thrilled at first but with more likes and followers growing, she became pressured to let anyone down. It became a chore and it was no longer fun. Until Liza posted her blurry pics of Yozora. Akaneko thought this person didn’t care about reputation and just did what she want. Is that a compliment? And so Liza wants to learn photography from her while Akaneko wants to learn to have confidence. With Akaneko having another anxiety attack about Shiromi’s photo, Liza lifts her morale that she honed her skills under pressure. Liza has an idea and teleports her back to her place to meet Yozora. This is where Akaneko learns she is an alien and all. Need time to calm down… Then they let Shiromi and Yozora interact with each other. Liza being panicky and her hands shaking too much. The picture of the cats interacting comes out blur although Akaneko gets a perfect shot. She teaches Liza some photography tips and seeing how much she is having fun, this brings back old memories when she too had such fun. Akaneko brings more flavour as she dresses up the cats. With Yozora fooling about on Liza, during the commotion, Yozora accidentally takes a perfect selfie with Shiromi. Akaneko is grateful to Liza for reminding her how such moments can still be fun. She continues posting pics of Shiromi and continues to gain more followers from those free spirited poses. Liza won’t lose out but since her photos are still blurry, she lost some followers…

Episode 11
Amat and his fellow aliens realize the cat prints on the shirt are the same as on Mecha Yozora. They start to form outlandish theories this is how cats dominate humans! Paws are tentacles?! Yeah, it’s getting wild here so Fianna requests Liza to explain it to them. And since she really can’t, Kasumi can’t bear it all so she’ll go meet these aliens directly and explain. She just says cats are cute and nothing dangerous. However the others soon misinterpret and overthink how it has some poison to poison their minds. It gets worse when Liza points out Kasumi is a dog person. You mean there are more animals other than cats?! What’s this dogs are humans allies against cats?! A liberation army fighting for freedom against cats?! I guess Kasumi is done for now. Screw it. With Mithra scared of cats, Fianna thinks of bringing her to Liza’s place to meet Yozora. Blindfolded? You bet she thinks they’re going to brainwash her. But after she touches Yozora, she realizes cats don’t brainwash humans. We willingly become their slaves! And now Mithra is a masochistic cat slave! With Mithra broken, Shamil and Gaim won’t allow more of their comrades to be victims. Time to despatch the elite! So Liza hears about this and isn’t amused. Even more so when others like Sakihito, Nazuna, Sasara and Mitsuhiko pop out and hell, they will not let Liza those aliens believe cats are #1 beings! So when these people meet those alien elites, you bet those aliens are now screaming their head off over the cuteness of these pets. They all return defeated. With advice that there will be more casualties if more soldiers are sent, Shamil decides to go see Liza himself. That’s right. This is a cat. At first he sounds like he is unfazed. But soon you can tell he is shaking in his pants and can’t even talk properly! His damn pride won’t allow him to admit it! Then he plays with Yozora and puts on the most disgusting-cum-funniest expression since he is trying to hide his joy! Then everyone sees him breaking down and screaming how cute cats are. Well guys, your commander has been defeated too. This makes Amat confused because it seems cats don’t brainwash their victims and are just naturally cute, bewitching everyone into their submission. OMG it doesn’t make sense!

Episode 12
As Gaim and Amat are confused about cats being actually cute and having such ‘devastating’ effect on them, Mikitty throws down the challenge to bring those Earthlings here. Because there is in no hell’s way that there will be other animals that are way cuter than his Gee. And so Liza brings Kasumi, Komachi, Akaneko and Sasara on board the ship. They are introduced to the various creatures that live in this bio dome that belongs to Nnapat. Are they cute or just plain weird? Of course here comes Mikitty and his Gee. He is waiting to hear their comments because if they say anything bad about it, he’ll destroy Earth! OMFG! Until Sasara says it is ugly-cum-cute! Wait. WHAT?! While she apologizes if it offends him, she explains how something ugly can be cute because when it has the charms, the ugly parts all become cute! Did you get all that?! Yeah, this confusing explanation is enough for Mikitty to see things in a new light! With this new perception, Mikitty wants to go down to Earth to see if other animals are cute. Yes, despite warning from Liza that he may not handle it. Yeah, challenge accepted. Nothing is cuter than Gee, right? And so all the aliens are here on Earth as they visit the zoo. First exhibit, the panda. Yup, already taken a lot of toll on the aliens as Mithra becomes the first ‘victim’. She ‘dies’ and returns to base. Yeah, Mikitty turning Super Saiyan with the love for his Gee to avoid certain death! Slowly one by one the other aliens too fall by the wayside. Eventually all the animals are too cute as Mikitty and Liza too ‘die’. With our aliens losing their minds over those cuteness, Amat and Gaim are perplexed humans are able to live with the cuteness without losing their minds! Yeah, I wonder! In the end, Nnapat believes Liza’s decision to withhold info initially was the right move to minimize the damage. Yeah. Whatever. We’ll go with it. The only way is to prepare themselves to be stronger. I don’t know how but looks like all of them will try. This means Liza is given the green light to continue with her survey. Gee, that’s a fancy way of saying to allow her to frolic with cute animals. And so we see her go home happy to a waiting Yozora. KAWAII!

The Truth About Cats & Dogs: Death By Cuteness!!!
And once again, Earth is saved thanks to the efforts and natural cuteness of our pets! That’s right, people! Our pets have proved to be the heroes of the day as they have saved our planet from its doomed fate! All hail our cute little pets! Banzai pets! Viva pets! Pets 4eva!!!!!!! YAHOO!!! So, with all that, I am thinking that this series won’t be getting another season. Not because the producers don’t have any budget or the series didn’t garner the required amount of viewers. But rather, these aliens can’t handle the cuteness! Aww man! Another season of these cuties will kill those aliens outright! Oh man, imagine the toughest alien civilization out there didn’t go down fighting the roughest and dangerous battles out there. Rather, they got self-suffocated by the cuteness of harmless Earth animals! The biggest mind blowing irony! The most embarrassing chapter that will go down in these aliens’ history! And that my friends, is why we aren’t getting another season! Such a pity…

Well, there isn’t a solid plot here except that in each episode, we see how our aliens especially Liza further drowning and getting hopelessly lost in the cuteness of these furry creatures. That’s right. In fact, the whole series could be one big subliminal mind control to make us believe in the cuteness of pets! Damn, is this some sort of pet propaganda?! I’m saying that because I don’t own a pet (never had one in my entire life!) as I am also not really an animal person. Calling me a heartless bastard already, aren’t you? Yeah. So I’m not into pets and I don’t really find the appeal in them. So sue me. Anyway, the series is pretty random in each episode since every episode showcases more ways how our hapless aliens start fawning further into the zone of no return. Heck, I will be damned if these aliens are the ones who become the best advocates and defenders of our planet’s animals! Against us humans! Oh boy, I hope to see that kind of plot in the future! That will certainly be most interesting but seeing how this series runs, I doubt it is highly unlikely. So just watch these aliens grovel and worship these pets as their God. Yeah. That. Pets, the new religion of the Azatoth Empire! Goodness gracious.

Like I have already pointed out, this series could be a series that glorifies pets. After all, I can’t think of another anime that puts its focus on pets. Sure, there are cute anime series that focuses on a certain animal but if you try to think of one that showcases pets in general like this anime, I don’t think there is any. It is both good and bad because this series isn’t just trying to showcase or brainwash us into believing that pets are just cute. Oh yes, it’s a lot of responsibility in owning a pet so you bet if you want to reap the rewards of their cuteness, you have to prepare to shoulder a lot of responsibilities too. Hence this series perhaps is also to raise some awareness about pets because in a way if it could make us less cruel and treat animals with some dignity, it will be great. After all, there’s a saying that a nation’s greatness and moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals. However, the downside is that pets can be of focus only in developed nations. Sadly in third world nations and developing countries, the welfare of animals is somewhere at the bottom of the list. Thank goodness our aliens arrived in Japan and not some poor parts of Africa, RIGHT?! Yeah, had they done so, Earth would’ve been zap-zap a long time ago.

But it remains to be seen if these aliens will consider other less cute animals to be pets. Oh you know, those that have reptiles and amphibians as pets. Yeah, I bet they’ll say they are cute too. Until they find out those who keep roaches as pets! OMFG! Will they be able to say these are cute now?! CERTAINLY NOT FOR ME!!! KEEPT THEM OUT OF MY SIGHT AND LIFE FOREVER!!! So yeah, our aliens have so far seen animals that are pretty basic and even those at the zoo are all pretty general. There are so much more that are looking strange and I would say downright ugly and creepy so will that make them start to have bias and preferences over cute ones beloved by the masses? If so, then their thinking are so like human.

As for the characters, you could say that our aliens are the weirdest bunch. Yes, being aliens from outer space is one thing, but to find our creatures cute to the point of submission is really one thing. Of course, this is for entertainment purposes and to laugh at this ‘stupidity’. The way our aliens are taken in by such cuteness shows that the whole damn universe is void of anything cute! All animals on other planets must have been ugly as f*ck are they’re just so plain. Normalcy. But then again, how do you define cuteness? It is after all in the eye of the beholder. Because as you can see, many of the aliens here also fall under the cute category to us since they are drawn in a typical Japanese anime style. That’s right. So don’t laugh at them when they start fawning over our pets. I mean, please do laugh at them because that’s the whole point of this series. What I meant is that don’t look down and mock these aliens for being dumb to fall for something deemed cute. Aren’t we all guilty as well? Like how we otaku guys salivate when we see a hot 2D anime chick?! Oh yeah! Can I get one as a pet?! Maid version too?! Please???!!! Can we consider anime girls with animal ears as pets????!!! That’s a discussion for another day…

So yeah, there is nothing tough about these alien characters. They might have a reputation and resume that would make the most badass of villains shiver and weak in their knees but when it comes to cuteness, it’s everything goes. As we have seen Liza who was initially a b*tch character who was not impressed with Earth at all. And look what a tiny little creature did to her? Instant convert! Now she literally lives the rest of her lives for these little ones. You could say that it is slowly killing her! Oh yeah. I guess she won’t have it any other way. And so every day is a challenge and a blessing for Liza as she gets to learn more about pets and the fun ways they are, giving meaning to our meagre existence. Uh huh. Better than fighting off and dying in some intergalactic war. May I suggest that in order to end conflicts and for all the universe to live in peace, Liza is going to use pets to bring everyone to their knees! Best strategy ever. Oh heck, I don’t think that there is any need to research on how to bring our more cuteness in them. They are already so cute naturally and that is enough to defeat the enemy, those who are mentally and spiritually unprepared!

As for the rest of the characters, they’re in the same boat as Liza. They might be looking tough and have all that pedigree of toughness. But once they get a taste of these little cute happiness, they too convert into some pet worshipping weakling. Hence, it was funny in one way to see everyone else on board the ship to get the wrong ideas about cats. Paranoia running deep and making baseless assumptions on how dangerous such creatures are. Like in the case of if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, they too succumb to that fate. It seems the only aliens who aren’t totally infected by this ‘infectious disease’ are Amat and Gaim. At least, we haven’t seen them coming in close contact with such creatures. Because imagine if Amat goes the way of Shamil, will we lose respect for this guy? Shamil might be prideful and won’t admit it but his wobbly legs are a dead giveaway. And is it me or is Fianna turning into a dumber character? Starting off as a big sister is calm and level headed, she is now some sort of running joke as the only character whom animals won’t approach her, turning her into some sort of depressed alien. Even Luster is willing to accept and live with his allergies so long as he could be with these cuties! Talk about hardcore dedication! Or maybe he’s just a masochist… Strangely, these aliens have ‘died’ so many times, I wonder how many lives they have. Oh right. Resurrected by their cuteness, the very thing that also kills them. Heh. Life so exciting on Earth.

As for the human counterparts, compared to the aliens, ironically they look the most normal of all. Okay, not all of them. Sakihito’s dad comes to mind… Sure, they still have their own quirks but they don’t have their reactions and personality blown out of proportion like these noob aliens when they encounter such cuteness for the first time. Yes, they still fawn over their pet (like Komachi with her sadistic cat) but it is nothing compared to the exaggerated reactions of their alien counterparts. Oh heck, it is like these people don’t even give a f*ck about aliens! Oh, you guys are aliens? That’s cool. Nobody losing their minds about aliens at all! They just accept them and become friends! Ah well, I guess everybody is so focused on the pets so it’s nothing. Perhaps many of Liza’s comrades look close to being human and that’s why nobody is freaking out or calling the government. Yeah, we’re all here just to worship pets so get your stinking government and army out of our lives! So if the whole lot of Liza’s pals look as strange as Nnapat, then maybe it will be a different story.

Eventually I fear that despite everyone getting along well and fine, the inevitable that will happen will be an intergalactic war of which pet species is the best, the cutest and the most superior of them all! A battle royale to see which will be #1 in the universe! Oh yeah. Human or aliens, friend or not, screw you if you don’t think my kind of pet species is the greatest! Yes, I think this will be the greatest threat ever as we are all slaves of these little creatures and fighting some sort of proxy war for them. Yeah, these pets will be just chilling about while we dumb advanced beings fight and become toxic over it. Yeah, I would like to see that kind of plot alas, it is not that kind of anime so I don’t think I will ever see that. Even so, it will be short and comical.

Art and animation are of course pretty standard and everything is mostly animated in a cute fashion. Your human and alien characters looking like your typical cute anime character and the pets of course given a bit more detail to showcase its cuteness. Yes, everything looking bright and vivid and sometimes you might think it is a show for younger audiences. Speaking of those alien life forms, sometimes it feels like these weird creatures are rejected designs from other animes. Oh I don’t know, maybe Pokemon! Holy sh*t! If these existed on Pokemon world, I bet they won’t even be chosen at all considering how plain they look! Sad… No wonder our pets look so much cuter and even has more variety within the same species. Likes as though God tucked away this treasure trove of cuteness for aliens to find and humans are somewhat its caretakers… Ah, there I go again with my wild conspiracy theory. Another thing about the art style is that I noticed the characters have a very thin cell shading to them. A bit unique because not many series I have seen does employ this sort of technique. This anime is done by SynergySP who did Taishou Otome Otogibanashi, Kakkou No Iinazuke, Deatte 5-byou De Battle and Cross Game.

Voice acting is pretty standard and although I wasn’t expecting to recognize anyway, there they surprised me with Yuuichi Nakamura as Amat, Takehito Koyasu as Shamil and Koji Yusa as Nnapat and Fumihiko Tachiki as Sakihito’s dad. The rest of the other casts are Yumiri Hanamori as Liza (Nadeshiko in Yuru Camp), Ayasa Itou as Garmie (Arisa in BanG Dream), Yume Miyato as Luster (Tamako in Taishou Otome Otogibanashi), Reina Kondo as Fianna (Nagomi in Akiba Maid Sensou), Saya Aizawa as Kasumi (Kisara in Engage Kiss), Jin Ogasawara as Seiji (Raika in Cardfight! Vanguard Will+Dress), Reina Ueda as Komachi (Lemon in Mashle), Ayaka Ohashi as Akaneko (Saaya in BanG Dream), Miyu Tomita as Sasara (titular character in Gabriel Dropout), Hikaru Midorikawa as Mitsuhiko (Lancer in Fate/Zero), Kyouka Moriya as Mithra (Shiho in Cue), Kenichi Ogata as Mikitty (Myouga in Inu Yasha), Kazuhiro Nakaya as Gaim (Toshirou in Devils’ Line), Nene Hieda as Nazuna (titular character in Ganbare Douki-chan), Shuuichirou Umeda as Sakihito (Saybil in Mahoutsukai Reimeiki) and Chiaki Kobayashi as Kaoru (Yuuji in Tensei Kenja No Isekai Life). Heck even many of the pets have their own seiyuus. Is it cheaper to fake a human voice as a cat than insert a real cat’s voiceover? Yeah, maybe real cat owners can pick it out and then throw a fit somehow. So yeah, relish hearing Natsumi Fujiwara meowing as Yozora (Damian in Spy x Family) throughout the series?

The opening theme is weird. If the title Space Cat Big Bang by Chougakusei looks weird enough, wait till you hear the song. Starting off with guys making gay meowing voices?! WTF?! The rest of the song is like some techno dubstep and with some special effects that make the song feel a bit alien-y. If there’s such a word. Not sure if the cute pets in the opening credits animation will distract us from this noise, oops I mean song. If you think the opener is strange, now hear the ending theme. Definitely Nyanboril De Moffy by Dialogue+ is a denpa song with all the strange and live sound effects that sometimes sound more chaotic than cute. On a trivial note, the ending credits will showcase real pics of pets. Not sure if they belong to the staff or if they request normal people to send in their cute pet pics or worse, unauthorized and stolen from the net! Heh. But yeah, you can see a huge variety of animals. In addition to your typical cats, dogs, hamsters and rabbits, a few rare showcases like snakes and beetles too. Gotta love ‘em all.

Overall, this series is surely cute and glorifies the cuteness of pets. So if you’re a pet lover, you might want to check this out. But then again, you’ll be so infatuated and giving your time and attention to your pet, you won’t have time to even enjoy this one. Sorry, if this series is mean to convert non-pet and non-animal people like yours truly, I’m still not moved. Heh. I just had a fun time laughing at dumb aliens getting hooked with the human concept of cute animal companions AKA pets and getting their minds and hearts conquered instead, that is all. Yeah, got no dedication and responsibility to consider having one. Because I won’t have time to watch all my favourite animes then! That would be my utmost pet peeve.

P/S: Oh dear, the Manneloo is looking pretty cute right now…

Hyper Police

In the near future, we have a special police task force that is highly equipped with hi-tech weapons and gadgets as well as unrivalled information network to pursue and catch criminals who defy the law. So beware you evil wrongdoers because justice never sleeps and they will definitely get you with the long arm of the law. But too bad that isn’t what Hyper Police is all about as I initially thought it was. Sighs. The usual likes of me jumping to conclusion based on the promotional poster has got me thinking this would be one of those dystopian adrenaline pumping action packed police series (at least something like Bubblegum Crisis). Too bad it’s just a retro comedy about a bunch of police wannabes AKA bounty hunters trying to eke out their miserable lives by catching criminals with equally paltry rewards and their other random shenanigans and tomfooleries. Yup. Just the kind of energetic hype we all need.

Episode 1
Bounty hunters, Natsuki Sasahara and Batanen Fujioka try to take down a monster terrorizing a couple of humans. In their haste to get their target before their competition, they destroyed the surroundings and the baddie got away. Obviously back at their base, they get chewed out by their chief, Mudagami who reminds them that they are a private company (Police Company) and not a government agency so their revenue depends very much on results. And now they’ve given him more bills! Then more lecture how in such modern age, all races have started living together but there are some who can’t accept that and want to disrupt the peace and hence that is what their organization is for, to maintain that peace. They might get a chance for redemption as a monster is taking a human hostage. Calling Natsuki and Batanen as traitors to their kind, Batanen tries to distract him and then gives the signal to Natsuki to fire. Only, she is a lousy shot and shoots him! But she is still strong enough to cut the building in half so the monster gets scared and surrenders! And don’t worry about Batanen. As a werewolf, he is immortal and will heal completely by the next full moon. So that will be a while? With Batanen out, Mudagami introduces Naoko Kondo as Natsuki’s new partner. Too bad Kondo is a racist and doesn’t like working with this monster cat. Even if she has a valid reason for hate (her parents were killed by monsters), does this warrant such racist behaviour? But Natsuki being the sweet girl, tolerates her behaviour. We see Kondo being ruthless and aggressive in taking down the monsters. So much so she doesn’t want Natsuki to join her. This causes Natsuki to feel down but with the Tachibana pair, Makoto and Ayami who runs a diner that she frequents to, giving her some comforting assurance, she feels better. Natsuki receives a distress call from Kondo. Looks like she has met her match in that monster who got away. She could’ve been crushed to death had not Natsuki arrived in time. Too bad Natsuki forgot her sword and gun! Armless! Good thing the monster decides to kill her first as Natsuki picks up a broken sword but imbues it with her magic to take him down. Kondo apologizes for being a dick but Natsuki forgives her. Natsuki visits Batanen in hospital. Must be fine since he is indulging in a porn magazine!

Episode 2
Sakura Bokuseiinmonzeninari (?!) was teased by her brethren when she was young. As a nine tailed fox, she only had 1 tail. Now all grown up a buxom babe, she has now 8 tails and needs a final one to get her revenge. She enters the slum part of town and almost got mugged but I guess she mugged them instead. Then she picks Batanen’s pocket. Yeah, that guy suddenly realizing why he has no money to buy this porn mag! Natsuki picks him up as Sakura remembers her from that fight with that monster. Sensing strong powers in her, Sakura is hell bent in not letting her get away. She tails Natsuki although the latter could feel somebody watching her. Natsuki takes the broken sword to a swordsmith in hopes of turning it into a dagger. Since it is made of orihalcon metal, it is going to cost her. Natsuki ponders her financial woes. Can’t ask Mudagami for an advance because as seen how Batanen begs him for it, he gets turned down. So the only way is to do a proper job. She hunts this tick monster down. As she fights it, Sakura goes in for the move to kill her. As she is about to take her tail, it seems Natsuki is still alive and even when restrained, she shows great power. Sakura realizes she can’t be taken in as her powers are a lot more powerful than she thought. Time for plan B. Sakura flees. Natsuki is confused but looks like the tick monster died from Sakura’s blast, oh well, just go get her reward. Natsuki soon gets her dagger but can’t help wonder who Sakura is. Wonder no more because Mudagami introduces a new partner for her: Sakura!

Episode 3
Natsuki and Sakura go on their first mission together. As they try to take down this mantis monster, Natsuki as usual being clumsy but then, is Sakura trying to sabotage her? The monster got away. With this failure, Mudagami is worried because he thought of pairing them so as to cover each other’s weaknesses but looks like it is not working. Also, it is revealed Mudagami put them together because Sakura begged him and give him a picture of her panty shot! WTF?! Back home, Natsuki wonders if Sakura is targeting her but remains positive she has turned over a new leaf. Sakura then heard rumours (especially from Gray) that she is after Natsuki. Later Sakura confronts her and wants her to tell the truth that this partnership is a nuisance to her and that she is regretting it. WTF Gray distracting Natsuki with cat stuffs and this only pisses of Sakura to think it is true. This strains their relationship and Sakura is not on talking terms with her. Later Natsuki sees Sakura living in a makeshift cardboard box as her home behind the alley. Well, Sakura did give permission for her to laugh. Sakura is about to get her but Batanen tells them he has info about the monster they’re chasing. He is giving this info as his parting gift. He also tells Sakura not to fall for Gray’s rumours as they turn out to be false most of the time. Natsuki heads there first while Sakura continues to ponder about it. Sakura then sees a special mithril bullet Natsuki got her (that would have an effect on the monster). Hence Sakura heads down there in time before Natsuki is mincemeat. This time she didn’t miss and Natsuki is able to take it down. Only, now all the monster’s eggs hatch from the commotion! The place is flooded with little mantis critters! The ladies manage to escape until Sakura learns Natsuki asked for an advance for this special bullet. Meaning, they worked this case for free. Sakura really feels like killing her… In the aftermath, Natsuki has lots of paper work to file for this case. But Sakura has already done hers. She managed to get away by sending a picture of Kondo to Mudagami this time! Kondo is going to kill her so Sakura runs and hides behind Natsuki.

Episode 4
Some piggy terrorist is bombing the town. He zooms past Natsuki and Sakura as they go chase him on their sidecar. After a few damages, they finally bring him down. Sakura claims the prize money herself since Natsuki is tending to her wrecked vehicle as Sakura makes it sound like Natsuki is dead, worrying the hell out of Batanen. Thank goodness just the vehicle got wrecked but beyond repair. Then they go to the automobile store to see if they can get a replacement. Then they stumble into Fonne Walkure, a pretty famous officer at MAD Police. She is also here looking for a vehicle but mocks the duo as poor as they cannot afford better ones like her. WTF Sakura trying to call it a racial incite?! The duo continue to search for the remaining piggy brothers. No such luck. With their stomachs growling, Natsuki decides to get a quick one. Ah, this oden stall nearby could help. However the owner claims he is done for the day and has nothing to sell. Natsuki continues to beg and this makes him clumsy? WTF? No choice, he has to activate the stall and fire a missile! Yes, he is one of the piggy terrorists. If not for Batanen passing by, how the f*ck can he grab the big missile and throw it in the sky?! Piggy is cornered by the ladies so he is forced to give up. Despite their success, Fonne is here to further mock them they only got the small fish while she will net the bigger prize which is their leader. Sakura then returns home to her cardboard box since the showers at office aren’t fixed. Natsuki sees her paltry living conditions and will allow her to live at her house until they find a suitable place for her. Natsuki after all lives alone. Oh Sakura, making this your own place, huh? Yeah, nice hot bath. That night, Sakura thinks of getting Natsuki in her sleep. Too bad all her cats are watching her with piercing stares and eventually Natsuki’s critter familiars zap her! I guess Sakura will give up on Natsuki tonight. Can’t be ungrateful for the food and shelter, no? Next day, Sakura firmly denies she is lesbo for Natsuki because the Tachibanas are thinking there’s a love triangle between Natsuki, Sakura and Batanen.

Episode 5
Natsuki is Batanen and his team have been working overnight to catch this top but elusive criminal. She hopes to get such jobs in the future. On another mission with Sakura, another successful one as Natsuki cuts this mushroom down while Sakura’s bullets did nothing. She thinks the company has been stinging and providing inferior quality ammo. Then they see Fonne and her team using their hi-tech equipment to catch a criminal. Amazing but does Fonne need to come and mock these peasants? Apparently yes. Sakura then has this idea of not cashing in their bounty rewards. Hide the bodies somewhere and then when the time comes, retrieve it to get their reward. This is so they don’t overspend. I think if that’s the case, the root of their problem still isn’t solved… Meanwhile Batanen’s team try to catch the elusive lizard monster but he manages to give them the slip. With Sakura trying to make her own bullets, the company cutting corners is confirmed by Kondo since because of its ineffectiveness, the criminal got away. Batanen then needs Sakura and Natsuki’s help for this case and has got permission from Mudagami. That night, they raid his hideout and a shootout begins. When they get to the boss room, they are shocked to see he has a son. Natsuki pins him down while trying to assure him they are only here to arrest his dad. Going to be tough as the rest try hard not to kill him but he is firing all he’s got. Unfortunately it is all for naught as Fonne kills him right before his son’s eyes right before he is about to shoot Natsuki. Then Fonne brags about everything, including daring the kid to get her for revenge. She tells off Natsuki that she must be grateful otherwise she should’ve been shot dead instead. With the kid blaming everybody, this makes Natsuki feel sad. She goes into despair as she ponders about her career path. She thinks of quitting. Though, Sakura is optimistic that she’ll forget about it in 3 days.

Episode 6
Well, Natsuki is still depressed. She drinks catnip milk till she is drunk. Be careful of her powerful lightning zaps! Yeah, almost destroyed her own house and Batanen too who carried her home! So as Sakura asks if Natsuki wants to quit, the latter feels indecisive so Batanen suggests she takes some time off to think about it. So the rest continue their job as Batanen tells how he first met Natsuki. Apparently he was chasing a criminal through the slums. Natsuki was taken hostage. Batanen was to kill himself for Natsuki’s safety and he looked like he was about to do it when Natsuki’s fear zapped the baddie. Too bad Batanen got zapped too. He then recruited her into the company and was made his partner. Seems like a long time despite being just a year ago. As Natsuki continues to remain depressed, a young girl named Miri claims she is her biggest fan and wants to become like her. Natsuki isn’t in the mood for it but WTF she takes the dagger and plays with it?! She wants to be Natsuki’s apprentice and do you think Natsuki has a say in that? This means being loggerheads with Sakura and obviously you can see the vast treatment. Miri treating Natsuki to her great cooking while Sakura only gets pittance. Natsuki wants to take her home after this but Miri claims she has none as her parents were killed by monsters. That night, Sakura once again tries to get Natsuki in her sleep. Well, WTF Miri can kick in her sleep! I guess that’s it for tonight. More Miri shenanigans as she shaves one of her cat just to have a tail like her?! Then as they head out, Miri tries to be a hero to tell off a hooligan who is eating without paying. She’s not scared because her master will beat him up! Unfortunately Natsuki doesn’t want to fight and takes Miri and run. Miri is in disbelief when Natsuki throws away her dagger. It makes her sad as she runs away but bumps into that baddie. Batanen tells Natsuki that Miri has no powers like her. She has the power to save the weak so believe in yourself. Returning her dagger, Natsuki fights the baddie and feels that thrill once more. Once over, Miri is done playing this game. Yeah, she’s a rich kid who went missing so she called her father to pick her up. In a blimp! With this episode over, Natsuki regains her confidence and wants to continue as a bounty hunter.

Episode 7
Natsuki and Sakura are staking out this guy, Ryudo Gan. This criminal has a tendency to get violent when he loses at gambling. Oh, there he is at it again. Raining his bullets down on the casino, the girls could only watch helplessly as he flees. The duo then hunt around for some info and get to know where he hangs out at some bar. Too bad they got distracted doing some serious shopping while on duty. Then at the bar, they pay the barkeeper for some info on when he comes around. Going to be hard for the guys since this place is swarming with sexy waitress. So the team take turns doing their stakeout and for a few days, Ryudo is no show. One time Sakura trying to get Natsuki’s tail again but her critters zap her. Give it up for now. Finally he shows himself and as usual, he takes a hostage after a shootout. Natsuki’s cool moment as she walks in and reads him all his rights before she accidentally zaps him out. Whatever. But everybody is glad this case is over and can look forward to a big pay out. However when they return to office, they are shocked that all the company assets are being seized by the administrator. Looks like Police Company just went bankrupt and they can’t take anything that is seized or they’ll be fined. This includes Ryudo their prize. That is company property! Natsuki is sad because just when she thought she loves the job with everybody, now they have to go their separate ways.

Episode 8
I guess they still have to eat as they continue to do some bounty hunting. However because they don’t have their own licence (unlike Batanen), they only get a meagre portion of the reward. Even this dangerous job at the red light district whereby Natsuki almost got raped by the target! Yeah, was it worth the meagre pay? Can’t complain or they will be reported for operating without a licence if they resist. And wow, it’s like Fonne has this sensor on them because she’s here to mock them as unemployed losers. Sakura still won’t give up on Natsuki’s tail so that night she tries again. Oh, forgot about the cats! Meow! Cat attack! Next day, Natsuki has this idea that Sakura as a fox should transform into Batanen so they can get the full bounty pay. However this hits a nerve and makes her sad. She reveals she does not have that transformation power (due to the lack of that single tail!) so Natsuki apologizes for her insensitivity. Natsuki then tries to get a job outside bounty hunting. Yeah, this waitress job may do the trick. Too bad she is clumsy and gets distracted. It’s amazing the boss hasn’t fired her. Then a lone robber tries to rob the place. She zaps him because he made her drop those plates again! But that’s the last straw because since she also zapped the entire diner, the boss fires her. Get out! So I guess the only job she is cut out for is bounty hunting? With Sakura, they go hang back out at the Tachibanas. They are relieved to see the rest of their colleagues still hang out here. It’s the only place they all can gather. Despite the company gone bankrupt, it doesn’t mean they are forever gone. They are after all still bounty hunters. Natsuki then heard because of Tommy’s screw up, Batanen got his leg blown off. She becomes very worried. Oh look, here he comes. He’s fine. Just a scratch. Natsuki is glad to see him and hugs him.

Episode 9
How many days have they not eaten? So on a job to catch their target, they enter the target’s place but no one is around. They instead eat all the food around and fight over it. Damn, they spilt it. Eventually the target is captured by of course Fonne. B*tch mode activating as she warns them about treading on her territory or she’ll really arrest them. Will they become criminals instead? Oh well, Natsuki has some catnip food. Want some? Think not! Sakura then remembers that mushroom bounty she buried and goes to dig it up. Natsuki feels like wanting to team up with Batanen but Sakura disagrees with that idea over some pride thingy. In actuality, if Batanen is around, she won’t have a chance to steal Natsuki’s powers. I mean, well, was she even successful without him around?! Anyone, Tommy blunders by pouring water over the dead mushroom as it revives and escapes. Batanen then gives Natsuki a place where she could get some info for bigger bounty prizes. That place is Mudagami and Gray having this secret computer lab where they sell and trade info for a price. Too bad Sakura wants to do credit… Looks like Mudagami’s belt will be tighter… Natsuki and Sakura head to this next big job as they talk about friendship and the likes. Then as they stake out this abandoned building where human children are being trafficked, Sakura’s idea is to have them lead them to their ringleader. Because Natsuki cannot stand the children being abused, she comes out of her hiding to arrest those mushroom people. After Sakura zaps them, the place is surrounded by police. The ladies try to run but Natsuki being too slow, gets frozen by Peau D’ Roquefort. Sakura abandons her and escapes herself. Natsuki rues her fate and is thrown into prison. Still in a frozen state!

Episode 10
Natsuki fears for her future and look who is here to pour more misery? Yeah, Fonne telling her how offenders will get their memory wiped out on a clean slate! Tommy tries to find Batanen to report what happened but looks like he is out flirting with a chick. Sakura? Not sure what praying to her fox god will do. Will it give her the final tail? Once Batanen and Sakura realize what happened, they blame each other and start arguing. Until Ayami tells them off to go save her! However Sakura won’t go and has Batanen take Bob instead (one of Natsuki’s cats). Back to Natsuki a couple of chameleons in the next cell want her to join in their prison break since they were framed by Fonne and they need to get to their dying mother. They manage to do some tricks for them to break free. Batanen sees Peau and claims her is Natsuki’s fiancé for her release. She’s not buying it and tells them to leave. Then Bob senses something as Batanen and Tommy follow. Crawling through the air vent, the prison escapees arrive at a power plant. The chameleons want Natsuki to destroy it. Apparently the story they told was a lie. They need her powers to destroy the plant and shutting down its power will let other prisoners and their client escape. Natsuki won’t do it so they tell her she has no choice as she is now a criminal. Death penalty for breaking out of prison? This makes Natsuki mad as her power starts activating. Either way, the chameleons are relying on this to destroy the plant. That is when Batanen and Tommy arrive as Bob calms her down. The guys punch out the sneaky chameleons before Peau and the police surround them. Peau is going to re-arrest Natsuki for breaking out as Batanen tries to make a deal with her. Not a bribe. They’ll owe her one if she sets Natsuki free and they’ll forget seeing all this (as it would taint their reputation). Peau agrees to this arrangement and lets Natsuki go. Natsuki is happy to be reunited with Batanen but smells another woman all over him. WTF she slaps him?! Is that a way to treat your saviour?! So she’s sulking back home and holding a grudge as Sakura claims she’ll go live with Batanen if that’s the case. Obviously Natsuki won’t allow that. Sakura suggests if she is so worried about him, put him on a leash. This has Natsuki getting strange ideas and she takes it as ‘permission’ for them to work as Batanen’s partners! Oh Sakura, should’ve shut your big mouth. But yeah, Natsuki back to being that happy girl.

Episode 11
Because Natsuki only has an amateur licence, even the baddies mock her! They get done in by the rest, though. This makes Natsuki sad but I guess the only way is to get a real licence herself, right? Tommy states all the procedures needed to get one. Cool but the last day is tomorrow! It will be some time before they open up for another licence test. So Sakura and Natsuki get down there to get their licence. With Sakura’s sharp shooting skills and Natsuki’s exceptional swordsmanship, they pass the preliminaries. The final is to fight this giant Spartan golem. Now we see the candidates fail one by one. Come Sakura’s turn, she easily destroy it via Achilles heel. She passes but Natsuki as the last candidate has nothing to fight. Can’t pass by default. The instructor suggests fighting him. Yeah, a chance to be a lecher and grope her. Obviously this has Natsuki zap the hell out of him. She passes. To get their licence, they have to get the documents from one government bureaucracy to another. Yeah, see all the government red tape BS? Panicky Natsuki calling Tommy for help when an agency has been destroyed as she is sent rushing to the next prefecture! Can she make it? Of course. Sakura is waiting for her return when an arrested criminal escapes. Fukusuke pleads for Sakura’s help but this time she calls the shots. Not going to work for free. Gonna have to give a better reward than that. After haggling for a much higher price, she agrees. Natsuki returns in time as they both take out this Kirby clone and this whole incident is being aired nationwide. Yeah, sleazy reporters trying to get a low shot of them! Eventually they win but the documents are partially destroyed. Damn government office won’t accept it. Got to go back and get new ones. Sakura flies Natsuki with all her might. Can she make it? Well, 2 minutes late. Can they make an exception? Okay. They say their heroics on TV and allow it. Yeah, they dump it with the pile of next round applications! All that rushing for nothing!

Episode 12
Batanen tells his teammates about their next big gig at Osaka. Apparently they are assigned to be bodyguards of a top priest visiting as he will be signing a very important pact between humans and monsters. Obviously there will be enemies who want to kill him before that happens so this is where they come in. So we see the gang tour around Osaka and obviously the evil goons are watching their movements very closely. A girl goes up to Natsuki and Sakura, claiming she is their biggest fan after watching their heroics. She gives them a bell each as present. While Natsuki is happy, all Sakura can think off is how much she can sell it! And sold it off she did! Well, it was perhaps a good thing because we soon find out that girl was made to do all that by the baddies. There is a tracker inside the bell. So even when Batanen senses they’ve been followed and has the team split up, the baddies aren’t panicking and know they’ll regroup somewhere. That is when they will pounce everything in one fell swoop. Batanen and co go meet the top priest in some hideout. The priest is the young successor to the predecessor who already passed on. Batanen once served him before and that’s how he got the connection. But soon, porcupine monsters start attacking the place. Monks with machine guns? Now I’ve seen everything! Batanen becomes the decoy to lead them all away as he takes them out one by one while the rest stay put to protect the priest. Natsuki remains worried about him even until the coast is clear. So when it is time to go escort the priest to his destination, Natsuki continues to be anxious. But all that turns into relief as Batanen shows his face. Natsuki can’t contain her happiness and rushes into his arms. Oh big guy, it’s not because she’s hungry that she is crying her heart out and throwing a tantrum!

Episode 13
The journey continues via ship but obviously the baddies have planted bombs in it. BOOM! Can Sakura carry all of them to safety? Nope. Too heavy. They manage to survive and take refuge in some cabin in the woods. They talk about if this pact is futile but they continue to maintain some positivity that it has brought some good. They have to start running as bad guys are here to get them. They manage to shake them off but not sure what farm Tommy went to borrow a tractor to continue their journey. Up ahead at the pass, they can see the baddies are waiting for them. They manage to trick them by disguising as farmers but soon Natsuki’s bell gives way and they have to run. Can they outrun a missile? Nope. Boom! They fall off the cliff and the baddies are sure they can’t survive. Lucky thing they decide to go make sure their bodies and obviously they know they are still alive when they can’t find any. Yup, our heroes still live as they landed safely. They continue their journey as they try to hitch a ride. Nobody falling to Sakura’s feminine charms to hitch them one. Yeah, I am guessing they’re all gays! Oh well, continue your running man game as the baddies are here in hi-tech gear to chase them! With sheer dumb luck, our heroes manage to escape and take refuge. It is then the priest realizes Natsuki’s bell has a tracker in it seeing he has sensed some strange vibes from it. The only way is to toss it away but Natsuki can’t do it. Hence Sakura suggests to use it against the baddies and that is for Natsuki to be the decoy while the rest escort the priest to his destination. Sakura accepts the job as she has the baddies hot on her tail. When she is cornered, surprisingly Sakura pops up to help. This is her surprise attack to them. With Natsuki hugging her for this assist, Sakura now thinks it is time to get her powers. She bites her and this is when Natsuki unleashes all her zapping power, not only taking out Sakura but all the other baddies surrounding the place too. I guess Sakura needs to wait till Natsuki is weaker before she can try such stunt again. The priest is escorted safely. It is revealed he has a twin brother who is actually the real priest. Hence Batanen and co have been escorting a decoy. Taken for a ride. But they got the job done so that’s that.

Episode 14
Sakunoshin Chikura is a samurai and on his way to deliver a message to Nobunaga. However Mitsuhide’s ninjas surround him. His beloved Kasumi sacrificed herself so he could complete his mission. Explosion?! Now we see Natsuki and Sakura doing their bounty hunting job but this criminal is a tough one to crack. Yeah, he has a shield. Sakura is taken out while Natsuki is distracted by whatever lizard tail distraction. The criminal is about to get away but Sakunoshin pops up from the time-space explosion. He cuts down the criminal and mistakes Sakura as Kasumi and brings her away. By the time Batanen arrives, the criminal is dead, Sakura is missing but she dropped her gun. As Sakunoshin tries to treat Sakura’s wounds, she wakes up in shock to find herself naked. She thinks he has defiled her and in her panic, runs away. Sakunoshin thinks she is injured that badly. Tommy’s sniffing leads them to Sakunoshin as the samurai introduces himself and his mission. Tommy’s history has Sakunoshin in despair as he realized he was too late to deliver the message to Nobunaga as he died via harakiri. As for Sakura, well, she is back at Natsuki’s home eating her heart out. Depressed? Mad? Definitely. Next day, Sakura realizes that she should have just killed that bugger instead of running away. Now she is fuming mad as she heads to Mudagami and Gray to upload a bounty of this man. This sketch? Whatever. So when the rest sees this online, Batanen realizes what might be happening. Wow, can he call for Tommy to cancel the bounty online just like that?! Oh well, internet in those days… Sakunoshin is in culture shock. This might be hell as he sees all kinds of weird monsters. As for Sakura, the infuriation continues as she is now using cursed dolls to curse that bastard!

Episode 15
Sakunoshin is still confused with everything and regrets letting his lord die. Some gangsters want to harass him for money but he is in no mood for it and shows them their place. I guess they’ll be giving him their money. He goes to eat and coincidentally, Sakura sits next to him. They both stare at each other. I guess it was dark then so they couldn’t see well. Yeah, kinda familiar… When Sakura realizes she cannot pay, Sakunoshin covers for her. Then as they talk, he learns a bit more after what happened after Nobunaga’s death. Pains his heart, eh? So they talk about life and thus Sakunoshin still has someone he wants to find. Gangsters see the bounty and want to bring Sakunoshin in. Yeah, they actually identified him from that lousy sketch?! They attack but get taken out easily. Sakura sees how cool he is and falls head over heels for him. She suggests partnering up and as she shows off her gun skills, Natsuki comes by thinking she is going to shoot him and zaps them both! WTF?! Back home, Sakura doing some cooking and obviously she is in love with samurai boy. But the rest think she is trying to poison him and tie her up! Then when they point out this dude is the guy whom she is trying to kill, her world just crumbles. Yeah, that’s not how she remembered this demon! Tommy examines the sword and theorizes about the time travelling thingy. When Sakunoshin wakes up, the moment he sees Sakura tied up, he attacks her friends thinking they are the enemy. He moves very fast and this even makes Batanen on his toes. Too bad for Natsuki’s dagger, though. He frees Sakura and wants to escape but she whacks him for trying to hurt her friends. After apologizing for the mix up, Sakunoshin is surprised himself that he didn’t realize Sakura is the girl he treated back then and not Kasumi. With Sakunoshin telling them today’s date, this confirms he has time travelled from the past. They continue to explain the current era but who knows how much of that he understood. Sakura has Sakunoshin stay with her. Where else could he go? Yeah, she’s happier with him around. Oh, be sure to take that nail out from that cursed doll! Yeah, it’s been giving Sakunoshin chest pains ever since!

Episode 16
It’s sakura season and spring time means the season of mating! Sakura puts on her best kimono trying to seduce Sakunoshin but he is nowhere to be found. Time to go look for him. Meanwhile Tommy is in love Peau. He waits for her at her usual patrolling and then tries to give this pair of high heels to her. To step all over him?! Obviously embarrassed, she ignores him. Natsuki takes her broken dagger to the swordsmith as he notes some perfect lost arts cut it in half. Hence it is not broken. In exchange, he gives his father’s dagger made of orihalcon too to her so it could be of better use. Then there’s the moment Natsuki seems to be flirty all over Batanen. He is holding it in and when he couldn’t, the damn rain ruins all the mood. Tommy continues to stalk Peau outside her office. Too bad Batanen brings him away since they have a mission. But then Tommy collapses. I hope it’s not love sick! As they nurse him, Tommy thinks Natsuki is Peau so she plays along and promises him a date. And now that he is well, she has to live up to her words. What convenience since Natsuki is the same size as Peau. Batanen dresses her up and puts her perfume scent. And now they’re ready to go on a date. After dinner, they stumble into a fortune telling stall. Hey, isn’t that Peau?! Looks like she is moonlighting to get extra income for some expensive reference book. Since this is illegal for government employees, sly Natsuki is going to take advantage of this if Peau wants to keep this a secret. Hence now Natsuki plays the fortune teller going to tell the couple’s love fortune. What a match! Obvious BS but Tommy is so taken in and believes it. Now he can die happy and wants to be trampled?! DAFAQ?! The physical contact got too much for Peau so she freezes them all and leaves. Meanwhile Sakunoshin is trying to find some battle but to his disappointment, none. Sakura finally finds him and who knows what she is going to do to him. Can he fight his way out of this battle?

Episode 17
So, who are these little brats terrorizing Natsuki and her house? Oh sh*t! You mean last month Sakura gave birth to 3 pups?! You mean she and Sakunoshin really did it?! OH MY! That escalated quickly! WTF are the parents doing?! This is Natsuki’s house and it’s like the freeloaders have taken over! Yeah, Natsuki getting terrorized by all their hyperactive naughtiness and hell, even her cats aren’t spared! When your cats leave, something is really wrong! Natsuki can’t raise a finger towards them as Sakura has warned her. So yeah, the stress is building up. She tries to chill out at the Tachibanas but is this now a day care centre?! Apparently some parent bring her kids… Sakura tries to get some job from Mudagami but since he says there is none and is apparently free, she dumps her kids on him! There. Take care of these critters while she and Natsuki go look for some money. Lucky, they stumble into this mole robber robbing a bank. He gets away via digging underground so they try to follow. They almost get shot by Fonne who is of course in b*tch mode again. But more surprisingly, Kondo is her partner! Yeah, she just joined last week. I guess she has to earn a living somehow. The duo continue their hunt and finally find the mole. However he escapes to the surface and since this is a kindergarten, he takes a kid hostage. Not sure all the trouble Natsuki went through just to ambush him while Sakura distracts him but it worked. Natsuki returns home but no peace and quiet since those brats are turning it into a battlefield. Then as they fight over food, one of them releases an explosive fire that blows up her home! Oh my. What does Sakura and her family do? Flee! Oh, Sakunoshin says going on a journey. I can’t blame Natsuki as she is so up to here and had it. Unfortunately Batanen who is here to check on her, bears the brunt of her zaps as she takes out her pent up frustrations.

Episode 18
For the time being, Natsuki crashes at Batanen’s place. Yeah, a girl at his place, you bet that guy can’t sleep. She seems clingy while she sleeps. To a point Batanen can’t hold himself any longer and pounces on her. Too bad, just a dream! Natsuki cooks for him as she stays there. Then meeting up with Sakura, it seems they not have a condo because Sakunoshin is human, the government provides free housing. On the way back, Natsuki spots a peddler selling wind chimes that represents love. She thinks of not buying them for fear she’ll lose the current happiness she has. Batanen buys it for her anyway and then holds her hand as they walk home. Natsuki is relishing all that and even starts deluding some fantasy. Batanen almost overheard it and in her shock, zaps and destroys the bath. Oh well, have to go the public bathhouse now. Along the way, Batanen hides Natsuki in the alley because he sees his nosy neighbour. She’ll spread gossip if she sees them. So is he ashamed to be seen with her? Eventually they get spotted so the cat’s out of the bag. Back home, Batanen catches Natsuki when she slips after putting up the wind chime. Romantic mood ruined as the nosy neighbour teases them to go all the way. Then Nupu is here to discuss some business with Batanen but sees Natsuki changing. Zap! Thank goodness his home is still fine. Nupu advises Batanen to not hold back because otherwise someone is going to steal her. That night Batanen is about to steal a kiss from sleeping Natsuki. Obviously she isn’t asleep but she is anticipating it. But hell, the phone rings! WHO THE F*CK CALLING AT THIS HOUR?! Oh, it’s Tommy. He got arrested while stalking Peau. Please help. Batanen goes out and Natsuki is clearly agitated and snarling. After Batanen bails Tommy out and returns, looks like Natsuki has packed her bags and left. Looks like she’s staying at Sakura’s place now.

Episode 19
A couple of dirty corrupted politicians get robbed and put in their place by this group known as Cat Cross Army. Basically they’re like the Robin Hood as they rob from the rich and give it all to the poor. However they are soon cornered by Batanen and co who are to arrest them. Stealing is after all still a crime. However they are given the slip. Nupu has been working on this case for a year to expose them. Now that it has come to this, all that is left is to rely on Natsuki. She disguises herself as a stray orphan. She bumps into a fellow brethren, Mao who gets into trouble with the law and both get thrown into the slammer. Thanks to Mao’s guardian freeing her, Natsuki is also freed as Mao feels bad for getting her involved. Natsuki is taken to a church where it houses all the orphan cats. Mao’s guardian is the priest of this place and takes care of them. It seems the Cat Cross Army has provided them with donations and meals from time to time although the kids do not know they are stolen money. They’re just happy they get to eat such meagre meals. With Mao revealing herself to Natsuki that she is part of Cat Cross Army, she invites Natsuki to join and they may get their first mission together. Natsuki returns to her comrades looking in a dilemma. She wants to borrow money from Batanen but he tells her off if she can keep this up for the next week of month. Eventually Sakura lends her some money. Yeah, with interest. Natsuki buys lots of food for those kids. Mao has her suspicions where she got the money but won’t prod further. She hopes she can join Cat Cross Army in tonight’s mission. Natsuki can’t and instead confess her dilemma to the priest about how wrong everything is. Especially about Cat Cross Army how is trying to provide for those that society abandoned. Father knows about Natsuki’s background because he too is the same as other sinners. As a man of God, he has also engaged in crimes to provide for the poor. When his eyesight got worse, Cat Cross Army came to offer help to repay him. Of course this cannot go on forever as he is willing to be arrested. Speaking of which, Cat Cross Army has been busted after Batanen and co were waiting for them at their heist. Mao sees father being arrested and screams Natsuki the traitor. 2 months down the road, a new law has expended the special protection to more than just humans. Though, it’s going to cost the taxpayers more. Natsuki comes by the church to see the kids once in a while as per father’s request. Mao is now managing the place and father will be out on parole soon. Batanen tells Natsuki to be proud of what she did. Had no one stopped them, they would’ve continued to live in fear. But Natsuki has to fear right now the interest rate Sakura is charging her!

Episode 20
While trying to capture a cornered criminal, the panda accidentally blows himself up. Don’t worry, nobody dies. This leads to the gang finding a time capsule left behind by humans. Yeah, to some it is just junk. But soon, a strange dome starts to envelope the ward. The government sent several teams to investigate but none ever came back. Hence there is this very high bounty reward for anybody to get them back. Sounds tempting for Sakura but Batanen throws his caution that with such high sum, it is very risky. He doesn’t have a good feeling about this. Fonne and Kondo enter the dome and never returned too. Sakura gets tempted by the money as she also flies in although she notes some strange stones forming a pentagram shape outside the dome but doesn’t give much thought about it. Nupu sees her entering and also follows suit. Because Sakura never came home, Natsuki tells Batanen and Tommy that she might have entered the dome. I guess it’s their turn to enter. When they do so, they realize they have entered a time period where humans were at their peak. Welcome to Japan. The showa period more specifically. Tommy then sees Peau as they start playing frisbee together before disappearing to parts unknown. Strange, because Natsuki doesn’t see Peau at all. Getting stranger, Batanen’s body regresses into a kid. They walk around trying to look for others and spot Fonne and Kondo’s abandoned machine. Speaking of them, we see snippets of them living their happy human life. Batanen then gets taken hostage by a robber. Nothing that Natsuki can kick and zap him out before the police arrests him. Batanen is a bit injured so Natsuki hugs him and promises to protect him this time. As they continue to walk around, they stumble into Natsuki’s house. It’s still up and in good condition. As they enter, Natsuki is shocked to see her father.

Episode 21
There’s her mom too but she doesn’t remember her quite well. Batanen says with Natsuki and even bathe together?! I guess she is giving this a pass since he is a kid. Batanen now regresses to that of a child as he hides from Natsuki. Yeah, why hide when hoping for her to find him? So you gonna stay there forever if she doesn’t find you? Eventually some scary mouse gnawing the box has him scared and come out of hiding, crying in Natsuki’s arms. They continue to live their happy family life and even Natsuki is starting to forget who Batanen is. Batanen is walking around and meets the other characters, living out their strange happy lives. As Natsuki tries hard to remember Batanen, her zapping accidentally destroys the house. Then an old geezer goes up to do his magic to fix it. She tries to follow him for answers but he is too fast. Then she stumbles into a room whereby her clones are pampering Batanen. The clones attack Natsuki and accuse her for abandoning Batanen. They decide to fight and the winner gets him. That is when Batanen goes to protect Natsuki, breaking the spell and reverting him back to normal. As the illusion is gone, they see the old guy in his discount Stonehenge. They try to approach him but he gets agitated and blows them out of the dome. They are rescued by Sakura. No, it’s her mom. Apparently that old geezer is Sakura’s dad. He wants to see his grandkids and escaped when she wasn’t looking. Mom destroys the pentagram to destroy the dome. Now everyone is free of the spell. Especially Sakura who now realizes it is her old man’s doing. They go reseal him in a box (?!) as mom hopes Sakura will get a proper ceremony and come see them. It is theorized that Natsuki didn’t get swayed by the illusion is because she prefers the current reality with her friends rather than something she couldn’t remember much.

Episode 22
In an attempt to catch this bug criminal, Tommy tries to show off to Peau as he unauthorized rides on Fonne’s plane to go catch it. WTF a portal opens up in the sky and a huge T-Rex floats down and eats the bug before ascending back?! Though, it causes a huge crater. Tommy and Fonne are trapped below. She is injured and needs her meds. He tries to be considerate but this b*tch won’t allow him to get this close to her. Peau is looking for them but when she finds them, slips into the water and starts drowning. Tommy dives in to save her. Peau is fine in hospital. She feels embarrassed he was saved by him. Oh look, he is here to visit her as he explains about the T-Rex ghost causing that crater. She doesn’t believe his story but soon gets a call to seal another hole. Oh sh*t, T-Rex leg sticking out of it? Peau feels bad for calling Tommy a liar as she seals it. However more holes appear and she is forced to go around sealing them. Is there nobody else but her to seal them?! Apparently. Then when she goes to see Tommy at the diner, he isn’t in and the rest said he gets called on by some woman. This makes Peau jealous that he proclaimed his love for her but disappears off with another woman. Not only Peau has to seal the holes but she has to investigate its cause and she is close to none of that. Tired and overworked, finally she gets some time to spend with Tommy. Wow. So relaxed with him. Until she learns he was with Fonne and then loses her cool thinking he is cheating on her and freezes his ass. So, are they even dating?! Next day in the streets, stalking Peau sees Tommy with Fonne. Too bad Fonne treats him as her abused pet and making him do errands. Peau confronts Fonne about this as they argue over Tommy. Natsuki tries to stop them but the women tell her to butt out. So much so her zapping causes a hole in the sky. So Natsuki is the cause?

Episode 23
Sakura is happy thinking she is blessed with this life of hers. Until of course she hears Sakunoshin mention about Kasumi’s name in his sleep. Oh well, time to fly into a rage! If only that old flame didn’t exist! Since Sakunoshin continues to do that, Sakura has had it and runs away back to her parents’ place. Of course she has an ulterior motive. With mom away, she unseals dad so as to throw her back in time before Sakunoshin met Kasumi. She’ll get rid of her then. She is now back in that era but how does she know how Kasumi looks like? Ah, this person who looks like her. Good thing Kasumi introduced herself so Sakura whips out her gun trying to kill her. Meanwhile Natsuki witnesses Sakura’s kids vanishing into thin air. Trying to tell the rest about this, nobody remembers about Sakura. Besides, Sakunoshin is married to Kondo who is Natsuki’s partner. Natsuki is shocked that Police Company is now a huge organization. She goes to see Mudagami and it seems he knows that someone went back in time and altered history. He hints he is some sort of god. Gray continues to explain about Kasumi and Sakura being related so when Sakura killed her off, she ceased to exist. So to say without Sakura, everyone is prospering? Natsuki feels sad for everyone to forget about her. Yeah, why is Natsuki the other only one who remembers her? Since she wants Sakura back, they suggest doing that lightning zap thingy. Oh you know, that opens portals, right? And with that, Natsuki goes back in time. Heck, can she go back to a specific period? Meanwhile, Sakura tries to kill Kasumi. Damn, her bullets cannot outmatch her athletic skills! Kasumi blunders but before Sakura kills her, Natsuki zaps the jealous woman out. Sad at this interruption at first, she realizes the consequences after Natsuki explains it. Sakura decides to go back since she cared so much and remembered her. When they return, everything reverts to how it is. But there is 1 thing Sakura couldn’t get. If Kasumi died in the original timeline, how can Sakura still be alive if she is related? Natsuki’s flimsy excuse is that she is a reincarnation of Kasumi and love transcends time! WTF. Whatever. Sakura returns to her happy life and thanks Natsuki for remembering her. Short clip shows after Kasumi was supposedly killed, she wasn’t actually 100% dead as the villagers rescued her.

Episode 24
Fonne talking how nice it would be if there is a country exclusively only for humans. Kondo suggests saving up enough to buy an island in which she can be queen. Hopefully she can join in this country of hers. Yeah. F*cking racists! Meanwhile Ayami accidentally breaks Natsuki’s wind chime. Obviously the latter is depressed but nothing that Makoto can’t improvise and fix it back to normal. Sakura and Natsuki meet up with Batanen and Tommy to catch a criminal that slipped away. Thus Ayami is left to care for Sakura’s kids. At the park, as the kids pick up a dragon critter, suddenly it attacks Ayami. Luckily Fonne is nearby as she fights it. Her bullets can do no jack sh*t against it and furthermore it can clone itself and zap a powerful discharge. Kondo is severely injured as the critter disappears. Fonne takes Kondo to the ICU where she lies in comatose state. When the rest arrive, Fonne launches her racist tirade about humans and monsters cohabitating together. Yeah, you’re not welcome here. Get out. Unfortunately Natsuki took this to heart and so she’s also facing her own dilemma. Then as they try to talk to Ayami, obviously she is very shaken up so it’s not a good time to talk to her. As Natsuki ponders about the cohabitation, Mudagami and Gray pop up to conveniently tell her that long ago, humans and monsters lived in separate realms and never mixed. Because humans did lots of bad things, that barrier was broken and monsters came flooding in. That day was known as the Day of Catastrophe. Had it not happen, today’s cohabitation will not be possible. Peau talks to Sakura’s kids and giving them scary mug shots to have them identify the culprit. Not kid friendly. Tommy knows how to deal with kids so he shows them some kiddie monster illustration encyclopaedia in which they soon naturally pinpoint the culprit. As Natsuki visits Kondo in hospital, the critter pops up before her and tries to agitate her by saying if both sides lived separately, this would never have happened. Natsuki gives chase and obviously she is being led. At the same time, Kondo dies and this makes Fonne very mad. She goes out to get revenge and sees Natsuki fighting the critter. She tries to intervene but the critter puts her out of commission. Seeing Fonne’s defeat, Natsuki becomes devastated as her powers go berserk. She disappears along with the critter. Now she finds herself in a different era.

Episode 25
The mastermind behind is this discount Dracula who wants Natsuki to use her powers to close the door so that Day of Catastrophe will never happen. Yeah, another f*cking racist. Oh, so this potato blob is the door that caused that day?! Meanwhile everybody is looking for missing Natsuki. But Sakura is smarter as she hounds Mudagami for answers. Knowing he is a god and that Natsuki has been whisked to another timeline, Mudagami unfortunately cannot do anything. Because only Natsuki somehow has the power to control it as seen in certain events like that dome, she was the only one unaffected. Hence it all depends on her decision. Natsuki is further spammed by Dracula dude about human living happy lives if that day did not happen. As she prepares to do so, she sees a vision of an alternate world if it was so. Natsuki living as a normal high school human girl. She seems pretty lost about her future even if she has a friend to talk and give some advice. We see other characters with different lives like Peau a newscaster and Batanen a real dog! One day, Natsuki sees a street peddler (Sakura) selling some items. The wind chime got her attention but since she has no money, Sakura gets disappointed, gives it to her for free and then closes shop. WTF? Because she has no home, Natsuki drags her back to hers. So, picking up stray cats is one thing, now a homeless person? What does her parents have to say about that! Further talking with Sakura, it seems despite Sakura has no money, she is happy and free to do what she wants. Because of that, Natsuki soon decides on her future. Back to current time, Natsuki destroys the door instead and sends the mastermind into despair. She loves this world where everyone lives together. Especially Batanen. Natsuki returns to her normal timeline and to her favourite friends. Meanwhile Peau arrests the mastermind who turns out to be her superintendent for attempted murder. Yeah, that critter pet belongs to him. I guess he is in so much despair, he doesn’t even resist arrest. F*cking racist. More good news as Kondo is back alive and Ayami is back to her normal self. Natsuki continues her bounty hunting job with the rest. The world might not be perfect and has lots of crimes but she loves working to make it a little better for everyone. Slowly but surely? Feels like it will take a long time…

2 Broke Girls…
That’s right, people. Always the status quo and obvious solution that many good guys always take. The current present sh*tty timeline is always better than any other timeline even if it is way more peaceful and less dangerous. Because being selfish and not undoing all the memories that you have had with your friends and family in your current life still beats wiping it all out for a more peaceful and just world without that. And if you don’t want to cohabit with different kinds of people and species, you’re just plain f*cking racist! Oh wow. Even such a retro anime back in 1997 has woke vibes. Or it’s just me overthinking about this as the season reaches its conclusion with such a trope. Yeah, sadly living in today’s pitiful era makes you wonder if you would go back in time and shut off the door that made this wokeness a monster today! Oh my! Would I? Nah! Wouldn’t want to change a thing! Hah. Oh well, went off tangent there. Where was I…

Anyway, the series’ story feels a lot random and like standalone. Uh huh. There is no serious plot to follow at all and even if there was, it was just for a small mini arc that perhaps don’t really matter in the bigger picture. Hence the series is about our main characters trying to eke out a living as bounty hunters as well as all the misadventures they face during their stint. That’s pretty much it. Though, I read there were some differences between the manga source and this animated version like the characters although I did not delve much into it. After all, having such random episodes gives a lot of leeway on the kind of misadventures our characters will go through. Imagine starting out as some bounty hunting shenanigans and then throwing in some iffy romance between the characters before the theme of racial issues as the series’ closure. Jumping here and there, aren’t we? Thank goodness it’s not isekai! Is it?!

While some are more straight forward and can just end everything in that episode (like that Cat Cross Army one), some others they can have lots of strange encounters that don’t make sense and this is probably why some episodes left me confused and all. For example, when portals start to open and it was said Natsuki was the source. Like, huh? Did I miss something? Because she has been zapping things whenever her emotions run dry and I thought it was the series’ running joke for some electrifying moments (sorry, bad pun). And then suddenly, all of a sudden her lightning zaps are able to open dimensions to another timeline?! Did I really miss something here?! Of course it is all for that final stretch of the season which could’ve been something else but I suppose we needed some kind of final arc drama of Natsuki choosing whether or not she wants both sides to live together. Obviously, as a veteran I already knew the answer she was going to pick. It would’ve been more shocking had she chosen otherwise. So all is well, ends well. Pretty cliché. Nothing more to see here. Go back to your normal lives in this weird melting pot timeline. At least we can’t call Natsuki a racist. Heh.

Yeah, I guess it was a good try in trying to give this series some sort of such theme. Oh you know, the setting of humans being protected species because they are so few in numbers. Heh. Never knew humans would become such a special category even way better than UN’s endangered species list. Strange indeed. Thankfully, Human Lives Matter wasn’t such a thing back then… But I guess with such a setting, this gives lots of flexibility for the producers to animate lots of weird looking creatures. When you start thinking that monsters are the one doing all the mischiefs and crimes, it makes humans looking like angels but then you have to remember, homo sapiens are far and few in between and that’s why we don’t see any of them committing such atrocious acts in society. Monsters taking over the role of humans, huh?

With the story being in such fashion, the burden falls on the characters to deliver but honestly I feel that they are mainly a mixed baggage. In short, they are the same characters you know from the start and remain so in the end. A bit of drama here and there, maybe some like Sakura has changed a bit but overall she is still basically very much the same conniving woman. Hence for Natsuki the main character, she is your typical good natured and sweet girl who is struggling to make a living while also juggling the feelings of her heart. It is obvious she likes her senpai but because of her innocence, it’s like she can’t bring herself to face more adult styled romance and hence the running joke of zapping Batanen when things get a little bit spicy. Other than that, the mystery of that power of hers is not explained and it is possible that she could actually be the child of some god. I mean, only gods can have powers like opening portals to another dimension, right? So what if her human father and monster mother was just her foster parents? Since this was never addressed in the series, I’m just going to leave it as that. Because no point in me getting headaches and sleepless nights trying to think about it and never getting answers for it.

So I’ll just remember Natsuki as one who tries to uphold the law by reading criminals their rights (flubbing her lines most of the time) and turning into her usual cat-like behaviour when cat-like distractions are made. But the biggest mystery of it all: How can Natsuki maintain and live in her decently big Japanese house if she is this broke and her income is not fixed?! Even if we assume she inherited it from her father, do you know how much it takes to maintain her house? Filled with furniture! And she’s got decent food to eat! HOW?! And she’s always close to being broke, you know. I don’t think she has a habit of borrowing from others or if she moonlights in other jobs. Oh well, since it got destroyed, looks like it is under perpetual construction. I guess this proves she is broke as she got no money to renovate and move back. Only her cats live there now…

Then there is Sakura who looks like the troublemaker of the group. She is quite a devious character and if you remember, her goal of joining forces with Natsuki is to get her tail so she can complete hers. But ever since she got hitched to that samurai guy, she has dropped that goal. Or at least we never hear her wanting to pounce on Natsuki or even see her attempting it like previously whereby suddenly and randomly they show us Sakura’s futile dumb attempts for another steal. I guess that is the biggest change for Sakura because now that she is a happily married woman, whatever pride in completing her 9 tails seem like so unimportant now. But she’s still a shrewd person and also a broke girl when it comes to money despite having better knack for handling money. Too bad Sakunoshin feels like a very unimportant character. Ever since his debut and then knocking up the foxy lady, he has fallen into obscurity and I see him like an unemployed guy bumming around doing nothing. What’s worse than being a ronin? Why, being a NEET! Get what I’m saying?! I guess being human as a protected species gives him lots of special privileges. Wow. Why does that sound so familiar and woke in today’s standards…

I believe that Natsuki would have been further lost down the road had she not have this single person whom she always trusts and relies: Batanen. Yup, he is quite a reliable senior and does his best to look out for her and sometimes give her some hard advice and facts of life and reality. Also because obviously he is in love with her but can’t make any rash moves despite his perverted horny desires at times because as we all have seen, innocent Natsuki would just zap the sh*t out of him. That should zap all that horniness out. So when will these 2 get together officially? Who knows? Maybe when they’re ready. Which isn’t enough time in this anime. I don’t know if I should say if they can take their time because Batanen is immortal so well… Nothing can kill this guy so why isn’t he being all reckless going all out to complete the mission? Oh right. Pain is real. (Spoiler alert: End of manga had them married! Hooray!). Then there’s Tommy who is hovering in between a comic relief as well as the nerd genius guy. Not as experienced as Batanen and sometimes making some screw ups but at times shows his genius like his proficiency in history and handling of kids. Tries to score with Peau who could’ve been a cold hearted woman but in the end, she softens up is it because she has a soft spot for Tommy who never gives up in getting her to like him? Maybe. Thank goodness this doesn’t play out too often or I am forced to think this would turn into that Looney Tunes’ character of Pepe Le Peau Pew and Penelope! Oh my!

I’m sure the character whom we all love to hate is Fonne because of how much she looks down on the monsters especially our characters. She likes to brag her superiority to them even especially when they are down or just failed their mission. Yeah, like we get it! Can you just STFU and GTFO?! Too bad the characters can’t lift a finger towards her or talk back because as a minority race, Fonne gets a free pass (why does this seem so wokefully familiar?!) and also because characters like Natsuki are so good natured that she is willing to just take the lecture. Well, it is true that they flopped on their mission. But still, sadly they didn’t kill off this b*tch and Kondo almost got that. Perhaps it is that having a partner like Kondo, Fonne doesn’t seem to be all that spiteful and has toned down a bit. But still a b*tch in my books. On a side note as I read, Kondo feels very insignificant and negligible in the anime unlike the manga in which she has more prominent roles.

Lastly, Mudagami and Gray, it makes me wonder if they are fallen gods and demons because it’s like they hold the script of the series and knows what is going on. Or perhaps they are still that but are only watching and can’t interfere. Either way, they don’t stand out unless the plot tells them to. And even being deities can’t make them overcome the issue of money. Yeah. Really. What’s with Mudagami’s weird eye bags? Did he have not enough sleep and spent time jerking off every night?! JUST KIDDING! And Gray keeps complaining she is still single and not married. Hey, I thought Mudagami was a pair with her? Oh right. Mudagami is married and complains about his wife running his life. As already mentioned about the nature of the series, many other minor characters that appear in 1 or 2 episodes, they don’t really appear again. Like that top priest whose predecessor was Batanen’s friend. Or that son of the lizard mafia who vowed revenge. Maybe he hasn’t grown up enough yet. Or remember that pig brothers whose leader was never captured? Or least not seen so because I guess they don’t want to bore us with such an unimportant character. I guess Miri is done playing good cop and prefer the rich spoilt princess life, huh? For other minor supporting characters like the Tachibanas or Nupu, they just play supportive roles and nothing more than that.

Art and animation are definitely very dated as you can see this 1997 production eking out the animation style of that era. Unfortunately, I can’t say that the production quality is satisfactory because in many scenes, there are visual downgrades and the characters or the background looking a bit simplistic. Sorry, maybe it is not the DVD quality that I watched. Some character designs are strange for example, Batanen. It is just freaking odd to see him having a human face and then huge kangaroo ears popping out from his head. And that big plume of fluffy dog tail. Like, uhm, is this really what a werewolf looks like? At least Tommy is more ‘believable’ as he has a dog face. Same case for Sakura. Human face but big animal ears sticking out like a sore thumb as well as her big fluffy tail. This anime was done by Pierrot who animated many legendary titles like Bleach, Naruto, Tokyo Ghoul, Black Clover, Yuu Yuu Hakusho and GTO. Thus personally I understand this is one of their lesser qualities and not so well known works.

Initially I didn’t want to comment on the voice acting since it’s pretty standard. But I have to point out Chiyako Shibahara who is the voice behind Sakura. At first she sounded a bit raw and crude and I found it a bit weird. However that is only because I am not used to the Osakan accent in which her Sakura character speaks very heavily upon. That’s right. Because of that Kansai-ben, it makes her character sound very crude. Unlike others like Natsuki and Batanen that sounds so typically anime-like, that is why when Sakura first spoke in the initial episodes, it struck me off as weird. But of course I got used to it. As for the rest of the cast, some I have never heard of like Yuuko Miyamura as Natsuki, Ryuuzou Ishino as Tommy, Yumi Hikita as Kondo, Yuri Amano as Peau, Naoki Bando as Mudagami, Kanako Mitsuhashi as Gray, Wakami Yamazaki as Ayami, all could’ve already retired while others that I have heard from time to time in the industry are Akio Ootsuka as Batanen, Kotono Mitsuishi as Fonne, Toshihiko Seki as Sakunoshin and is that the late Keiji Fujiwara as Makoto?! The opening is retro rock music. That’s Hypertension by Aya reeks retro energetic rock vibes and somewhat to my liking. As for the ending theme, it’s a cute duet between Natsuki and Sakura. Hold Up is a mix between rock and jazzy-cum-funky vibes that makes the song have its own cute charms.

Overall, this retro series might be obscure and couldn’t stand up to other ‘giants’ that was released in the same season of spring 1997 like Slayers Try, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Clamp Campus Detectives, Shin Tenchi Muyou and Kindaichi Shounen No Jikenbo (can I consider the original Chuuka Ichiban in this category too?), but in its own right, it is still funny and enjoyable. That is, don’t think too much of the loopholes that the anime doesn’t provide answers for and you’ll be okay. Also, personally the only slight downside of watching this show from this point in time and era, it’s hard not to compare and do some referencing with all the wokeness of today but thankfully I’m such an open minded guy :-). Yeah. In the end, I’d rather have these bunch of funny bounty hunters who fail in some of their missions but can still smile and eat together rather than police brutality any time!

Trigun Stampede

Love and peace! Oh my. Looks like another retro classic has been given a remake. That’s right. Those old enough like yours truly who have watched the original Trigun anime would either be in shock or delighted that Trigun Stampede is the modern alternative version to the retro classic. After 25 damn years later! Wow. Feels like a long time. I try not to judge it too harshly at first because sometimes the remake of an old series can be ultimately good or at least decent in my books. Like the remakes of Fruits Basket and Shaman King. But those are only because the original TV anime deviated from the source and hence the remake was to stay true to that and close the chapter on the series. The original anime of Trigun did have its differences from the manga and while it has some sort of ending, its story continued in other spinoff works. So yeah, I’m watching this partly because of nostalgia and also the panic button was pressed. Oh you know, too many animes to watch for the season. Knowing this was split into 2 cours and instead of watching them all at one go, got to clear this one out of the way first to ‘lighten the load’. Sheesh.

Episode 1
Some futuristic spaceship carrying human civilization is going to explode. Rem Saverem saves a couple of young twin brothers, Vash and Nai, forcing them into the escape pod as they watch in horror the entire mothership go boom. In present time, perky new reporter, Meryl Stryfe and her boss, Roberto De Niro (SERIOUSLY?!) are on a trip to get some big scoop on this terrifying man known as Humanoid Typhoon. They stumble upon a weirdo (Vash) being hung upside down supposedly by the Bad Lad Gang. They let him be and soon come across the police who are looking for Vash who is of course the Humanoid Typhoon with a bounty of $60 billion on his head. Meryl lies by pointing to a different direction. Then she reigns in Vash because she’s going to get the scoop out of him before handing him over. Heading over to the next desert town, Jeneora Rock, it seems everybody here knows Vash and are friends with him. They thank him for saving their town. Bartender Rosa points out the underlying problem that their water plant has broken down and they’ve been buying water from the next town. Vash goes to take a look at the plant. In need of fixing. Of course needs money. And the police shows up to say if they hand over Vash, the bounty is enough to cover that repair. Vash doesn’t want violence so he goes with them but they beat him up. Roberto threatens to report police brutality on the front cover so this leads to a showdown and a duel. Vash going to take on this police boss in a shootout. Vash won’t shoot. Neither will the cop so he throws away his gun and then shoots a cluster bomb in the sky! Dirty jerk! With everyone running for cover, Vash is going to show off. Well, he has no ammo! Can anybody give him a bullet?! Rosa gives one to Meryl who throws it at him. Butter fingers. Police boss tries to shoot him but Vash dodges all at point blank and beats him up. Loading the lone bullet in his gun, he throws the rock, shoots his bullet at it to break it into many pieces that hit all the cluster bombs! OMFG!!! In the aftermath, Roberto asks Vash who he is afraid of because he wasn’t even fazed by the police. Vash reveals it is his crazy brother, Millions Knives.

Episode 2
It is hinted that Knives was the one who sabotaged the ship and then also blamed Vash as an accomplice in killing Rem. Vash tells Meryl and Roberto that it is not him who is going around stealing plants all over the world but his twin, Knives who looks exactly like him. Suddenly Rosa and the rest all hold Vash at gunpoint. I guess it’s the money. Sorry but they need it to survive. Vash turns into a Running Man as he escapes their shootout. Not until the crazy Nebraska family, the mad scientist Father and his Frankenstein abomination son, Gofsef, almost come crashing into Rosa’s son. Vash saves them and then runs away while the Nebraska pair hunt them down but ultimately loses them. Not wanting to lose, they return to Jeneora Rock to cause terror to find something valuable. Meryl confronts Vash about his timid attitude in not wanting to fight. That’s just running away and not kindness. Vash is okay with this because will you be okay if fighting head on gets someone killed? They heard Jeneora Rock is under attack so they return. The Nebraska pair trying to steal the water plant. Vash returns in time to save Rosa before she becomes dead meat. Father wants Vash to fight and use his gun but Vash will not. To Father, weapons are made for fighting and that power is justice. Vash still won’t fight so Father asks why he is so bent on saving these people who tried to betray him. They are worse than villains, pretending to just be friends. Well, Vash just wants to save them. That’s it. Vash shows off his skill as he shoots a bullet to block Father’s shot. The ground then gives way. Gofsef tries to save the plant and although he makes it, he himself couldn’t and falls. Vash holds on to him. Rosa confronting Father who pleads to save his son. The whole town cooperate to pull Gofsef up. In the aftermath, Rosa treats everyone to beer. Happy hour comes early. Yeah, odd for Nebraska duo to join in. Vash tries to leave silently as Roberto confronts him about never staying in a place for too long and believes he is running away from someone. Suddenly Gofsef is overwhelmed by weird creatures believed to be some lost technology. He manages to run outside and explode by himself.

Episode 3
It seems those are bombs and this work can only be done by an infamous bomber known as E.G. Bomber. Because he is the kind of guy who likes to play with his work of art, Vash snuffs him out of his hiding. Uhm, is he Overwatch’s Junkrat?! Anyway, he claims he has been reborn and now goes by the name E.G. Mine. Whatever. Vash tries to stop him from stealing the plant. But with Meryl and Roberto doing a daring move to hold him down and dare him to die together, the coward tells how to disable the bombs. But Father wants revenge over killing of his son but Vash won’t allow it. That is when Vash hears an ominous piano play. He tells everyone to run as he follows the source of that sound. Mine goes to see his master who is no other than Knives but gets killed off. Vash confronts Knives and wants him not to touch the plant that is keeping the people alive. Knives claims he is taking back what is his because all those plants belonged to them. Knives hypnotizes Vash for a while. Father who is looking for the culprit gets an arm blown off by Knives. Rosa and a few ladies try to stop Knives from taking their plant but their pot shots won’t work against his terror tentacles that slices through everything! Yeah, poor ladies except Rosa died a violent death. Knives uproots the plant as Vash’s warnings remain to be unheeded. After Knives gives the plants to his accomplices, he then destroys the entire town. In the aftermath, Jeneora Rock is destroyed. Many are dead. Including Rosa’s son. She blames him that had he not come here, all this would never have happened. Get out. Don’t ever come back here again. Vash packs his bag and leaves. Meryl is stumped he can still smile. Because he doesn’t deserve to cry. Where is he going? July. A town in the east and probably that is where Knives is.

Episode 4
Meryl and Roberto are taking Vash along in their truck. Well, with the tragedy of Jeneora Rock and the possibly Vash has accomplices, if their identity gets out, they can be in real trouble. Along the way, they accidentally knock down this wandering guy, Nicholas D Wolfwood. Heading to the nearest station for help, they realize the occupants are killed. The only survivor is a kid hiding in the closet. Wolfwood tries to say his prayers for the dead but fumbles his lines. Hey, he isn’t a priest but an undertaker. He cheers up the kid and then hand the hefty bill to Meryl! But soon the entire place is engulfed by a giant sandworm. They find themselves in its stomach. Lots of bugs. The kid runs off himself. They go in search of him but as Meryl finds him, she gets attacked. Roberto is suspicious about Wolfwood’ cross because it’s too big and heavy to be one. He wants to see it but Wolfwood will not. Vash tries to mediate but soon Roberto goes missing. The worm then spits them out before devouring them again. This time they see the kid but Vash knows he is the one controlling the worm and bugs. The kid escapes but Wolfwood unveils his cross as a gun and fires. Missed the kid but the worm gets blasted in half. Not sure but Meryl and Roberto are found safe as they join some desert nomads having worm meat for dinner. Sorry, the night sky isn’t lit up with beautiful stars. Those are bugs. Ruined your appetite? Later we see Wolfwood and that kid, Zazie the Beast actually know each other and they just put up an act. Zazie notes he has earned their trust and can proceed to kill his ‘friends’. He is one who doesn’t care about human lives. Wolfwood says he just does his job no matter who he is up against.

Episode 5
Meryl stumbles into a giant monster corpse in the desert and thinks Knives did this. The rest doesn’t think so and some other monster might have killed it. But Vash is suddenly drawn to a nearby abandoned town. As they walk inside, suddenly an abomination starts attacking Vash! Shooting and rampaging all around just to get Vash! Even if Vash manages to knock it down, he is concerned that this monster is still alive?! Only thanks to Wolfwood they manage to run away and hide. Wolfwood believes Vash has been here before and wants to know what happened. Flashback shows Vash helped a young boy, Rollo back to this town. Apparently Rollo is sad thinking he will die as he has some disease. Worst, he overheard his mom talking about him being the next sacrifice to God. He thinks God won’t save him as he doesn’t believe in Him. Vash assured him that even God won’t save him, he will. So you guessed it, he ‘died’ before Vash returned with whatever disease. Hence he is regretting for talking big and couldn’t follow through. We see Rollo has been taken away by a doctor, William Conrad (one of Knives’ henchmen) and was being experimented on. Some drug to rebuild and strengthen his body. So yes, this abomination is Rollo. William thinks he is a success for managing to survive 5 years but his assistant thinks he will be just another failure. Now we see Rollo beating down Vash who doesn’t do anything but apologizes for not being there for him. Now he is back and he doesn’t have to be alone. Just when you think Rollo is about to finally listen to him, Wolfwood shoots and kills him! Vash is mad at Wolfwood for killing him but on the contrary Wolfwood has ‘saved’ him. Keeping him alive was just torture as there was no way he would return to his humanity. He points out to Vash’s hypocrisy because he can’t even keep his promises. All talk. Can’t answer to that, Vash? Now that Rollo is dead, William’s aide thinks it is convenient because it saves him the trouble of ridding a failure. But Zazie points out it was William’s other creation that did the job: Wolfwood.

Episode 6
Looks like the reporters will be parting ways with Vash and Wolfwood. They drop them off at the sand steamer and need to go back to write an article. Of course Meryl is not happy they are letting Vash go. They found a picture of him holding a baby at Rollo’s home. Isn’t he curious why Vash has not aged? Meryl’s persistence has Roberto somewhat ‘agree’ as long as it’s not too dangerous. That’s so subjective… As Vash continues to feel down and Wolfwood reminding him he is only live because others died, suddenly some guy comes up to kill them. They manage to dodge and fight back but Wolfwood is in shock and he recognizes him as Livio. They grew up very closely in an orphanage but one day Wolfwood was taken away by strange men who claimed he was selected for test. Of course it is all part of William’s experiment as he injected him with drugs that could repair all damage to his body. Wolfwood’ growth was rapid and in a few months, he became an adult. He tried to escape the facility but failed. Then Legato Bluesummers told him he will be working for some group, Eye of Michael. Basically, he will go around assassinating traitors and losers. Obviously Wolfwood won’t do it but then Legato shows Livio. He followed him on his own accord and wanted to be like Wolfwood. Yeah, he is already an experiment subject. Legato continued abusing Wolfwood with his powers but William reminded him to be careful with this prized subject. Now Wolfwood is on the defensive as he is trying hard not to kill emotionless Livio. I’m sure Vash would love to chew him out on his policies now but this Vash isn’t that kind of guy. Wolfwood continues to protect Livio and Vash because he can’t let them kill each other. He is doing so to prevent Livio from dying because if he is dead, other children will be William’s next experiment until he finds the perfect result. As Legato and Zazie watch this, they decide to spice things up. Legato forces the sand steamer to change direction and heading towards the orphanage. Worse, wild illuminating Mad Max gangs just hijack the ship. Uhm, so these are the Bad Lad Gang?!

Episode 7
Obviously the sand steamer is also going to crash into the orphanage and take out the entire town too! As if Wolfwood doesn’t have his hands full dealing with Livio, at least Vash can do something to stop the Bad Lad Gang from the hijacking. It seems those goons have brought along those reporters in hopes they can take photos and put them in their article! Pose cheese now! Of course Vash knocks them all out and enough time to even return to Wolfwood and Livio’s fight. Yeah, how can immortals kill each other? Just taking pot shots at each other?! Cue for Vash to tell Wolfwood to talk something they remember most together. Wolfwood does that and it stops Livio in his tracks. Too bad some trauma starts activating so he can’t stomach it and shoots his own head! Uhm, I thought he has regenerative abilities? Or does it not work on the head? We hear Legato’s plan to take out the orphanage and Livio so that without them, Wolfwood won’t have emotions and perhaps become the man he wants him to be. He also activates an ion cannon on the ship. Oh, Vash believes he can stop both? Wolfwood bet they can! They must! With guts and grit! This guys is even more insane than Vash when he is desperate! Since the control room cannot shut off the cannon, the guys are going to turn it manually?! Remember, guts and grit! So basically they are using all their strength turning this huge cannon. Meryl is waiting for the signal to fire the cannon (otherwise the built up explosion will blow up the ship) as Roberto tells her to abandon it all and save their own asses. It’s not worth it. Meryl can’t. She is sick of it all. She has been regretting everything since Jeneora Rock. If she runs away now, nothing will change. Once Vash and Wolfwood manages to turn the cannon away, Meryl presses the button to fire it. Wolfwood wants to abandon the people on the ship to save the town. But wait. Vash will save both! He can! He’d better or Wolfwood will kill him. There’s your approval. So as Wolfwood tries to do something at the control room, Vash heads to the plant and makes contact with some alien in it, pleading for its help. The sand steamer also comes to a complete halt inches before the town. What a miracle. When everyone goes to see Vash in the plant, Meryl is shocked to see his face covered with plant patterns. He is a plant?

Episode 8
A happy Rem celebrates the birthday of Vash and Knives. Then that fatal crash whereby Knives blamed Vash as his accomplice because he was the one who gave the codes. Fearing for what he has done and seeing all the corpses around, Vash ran away. But how far can he run in the desert? As he lies dying, he is picked up by humans from another ship colony, Luida Leitner and Brad. While Luida is a nice and polite lady, Brad continues to cast his suspicions and distrust on Vash. Luida analyses Vash and realizes he is an Independent as plants are usually cloned from an original cell. Vash seems special as he is a plant born from another plant. That’s right. A plant giving birth like a human! Vash continues to wallow in depression as he believes he is the only survivor and as a plant, he cannot create anything. He just eat and sleep like a human. One day, this ship’s plant is going out of control. In short, bad news and everybody gonna die if nothing is done. And nobody knows what to do! Vash could hear its thoughts and wants to go talk to it. Others are sceptical but Luida believes in Vash and lets him out of his cell (no pun intended) to go talk to it. In no time, this discount Avatar plant calms down and order returns. Being the saviour of this ship, Vash is now a resident. Though Brad still remains suspicious but he could just be tsundere. Heh. So for 5 years, Vash helps do whatever this calming communication thingy with the plant. Luida gives Vash a red coat and of course Vash takes a liking for it. Vash feels this place is like his home and that is what they will rename this bland ship. One day, Brad successfully hacks into some black box and hears that accomplice conversation with Vash and Knives. He now thinks Vash is hiding something and is in cohorts with another Independent. Poor Vash overheard the whole thing and leaves the place. He leaves a letter thanking them for treating him like family but now it’s time to face reality and settle things because there is no escape from the past. I bet those adults feel like dicks now. Luida will go bring him back. Vash arrives in a place where there are numerous plants all over. And of course before him is Knives.

Episode 9
The flashback continues as the facility that houses the plants are overloading them. Knives is appalled the humans continue to overload them beyond the threshold and they reason it is to speed up the reconstruction so as to prosper the planet. However this will cause the plants to enter their Last Run. Basically, one last burst of energy before they die. With Vash just arriving, Knives knows he heard the plants’ cries. He has seen for himself the nature of humans. Knives has had it so he kills the researchers and claims himself as the representative of all plants. As he will cut down humanity, he’ll cast away his old Nai name and adopt the new name, Millions Knives. Vash is against this seeing Rem did her best to save them. Knives blames Rem for this because he went through all the trouble to swap some data and doing so would’ve crashed all the ships except for those carrying plants. Vash argues plants need humans’ care to survive or they’ll end up like Last Run. Knives doesn’t buy that narrative because they have free will. He is on the verge of convincing Vash to come with him to empower plants but Luida shows up. Knives wants Vash to kill her but since he won’t, the brothers fight. Knives will kill her instead and that is when some dark ball materializes from Vash’s arm. What dimensional gate is this? Knives has no choice but to cut it off. Since Vash will not follow him, Knives is disappointed and leaves. He promises that in a century or so, he’ll make this world where plants rule.

Back in present time, Vash is reunited with a much older Luida and Brad. Looks like there was a hidden ship in the sandstorm and they played a part in stopping the sand steamer. Meryl learns that Luida and Brad knew Vash for 150 years. Before you ask if humans live that long, they were in cold sleep for a long time. Luida then shows Meryl and Roberto a greenhouse. Real flora. Basically if they can help populate this planet with such, it will lessen the burden on the plants. Roberto casts his doubts because that will take like centuries. Luida doesn’t care how long it takes as she wants to follow the right path. Wolfwood wonders if Vash can kill Knives. Vash is certain he will not kill anyone. Wolfwood believes he will eventually have to choose but Brad notes he was like Vash in his younger days. He thought everything was black and white but learnt more of himself as he hung around. Luida rushes in with an emergency. Meryl and Roberto have been kidnapped by Zazie. They are at July’s crashed plant carrier. Zazie is of the bug/worm tribe so she wants to know if they should side with plants or humans. This world originally belonged to them. She believes humans are repeat offenders. They destroyed their original planet called Earth which was once teeming with life and resources and that’s why they sent out colony ships to other new planets. She shows them this place containing all the plants that Knives have gathered from all over the world. William is not pleased of Zazie’s actions. She is willing to tell the truth as long as they can tell her who will benefit this planet more.

Episode 10
Vash and Wolfwood are in July, the largest of all the Metropolitan cities. They stumble into that police boss again as the police chase and surround them. They think Vash will destroy this city like Jeneora Rock. One of the policemen is mad and sad that his parents died in Jeneora Rock. Oh wow, that enough to make Vash feel bad. He gets shot. Not fatal. But WTF everybody just leaves like that?! WTF???!!! William will show the reporters that he is like Luida trying to save the planet. Luida’s method will take a long time. By that time, there is no assurance mankind will survive. Hence his method is to create a new breed of humanity. He takes them to his bloody operation room. Mine, Rollo (Monev as he was renamed) and Wolfwood. All his creation. While the scene might look like an abomination, William claims he did not demean them and only made them stronger via surgeries. However all were still failures as they eventually get hungry and die. They were all nothing like Knives, the ultimate life form. Taking them to a lab, this is where he is trying to grow human clones because patching them up in life does not help. So starting them young? They might think this is pitiful and want to kill him. But he is willing to pay the price for advancing humanity. They may want to save a few lives now but doing so will destroy millions of possibilities. Because William and Knives are looking much farther into the future. Roberto rubbishes his heroics of trying to save the world. Don’t you just feel sympathy looking at this? That is when one of the clones break out because Elendira will not accept that sh*t and attacks them with her nail projectiles. She chases and mocks them for their hypocrisy. Just in time as the elevator arrives, Wolfwood pops up to deal with her. Vash lets the reporter escape themselves while he goes to find Knives. Elendira gets disheartened after a small scratch by Wolfwood. Meryl realizes Roberto has been hit with a nail in his gut! He gives him her gun and blames his unluckiness. RIP, Roberto!!! Now that she is free, she’s going back up. Wolfwood sees William to get released from his contract or something. William remembers he joined Knives as atonement for what happened (and something about his daughter?). Vash confronts Knives to stop his madness. Vash claims all can coexist together but Knives tells him off he doesn’t want to save humanity but make up for causing that crash 150 years ago. After all, humans will not forgive him and in their eyes, they are monsters. Vash wants to believe in them and that they are moving forward. Knives has had enough of this hypocrisy so he is going to remake Vash into a new Independent like him. By dropping him into this, uhm, pool?

Episode 11
Knives dives into the pool to help with the remake of Vash. William on the other hand tries to synchronize it all. Meryl tries to stop them but what is she going to do with her puny gun? It’s not like her words can get through Vash, right? So sit back and listen as William explains the difference between ordinary plants and Independents is that the latter has souls. For that to happen, they must be connected to the core which is located in another dimension! This source of energy is what gives Independents their soul. Knives is forcing Vash to relive his memories of the past but with more tragic twists like watching all those he knew die or get killed. Vash tries to resist them all until he reaches the memories of Rem. So we see more snippets of the twins in their younger days with Rem. Until one day they stumbled upon some data of another Independent born on the same ship. To their horror, they saw her dismembered body parts in various tubes. It was the turning point for Knives. Furthermore, he read the records on human history and realized they never learn. No era was free from war. As Vash tried to remain positive, because of this weak mind set that Knives thought he cannot live as a plant is what made him decided to do that sabotage. All to protect him. So yeah, it was all Vash’s fault? The final clincher is when Knives points out his love was just a bunch of excuses. Then he kills off Rem. With Vash in despair and now the synchronization is at 100%, now the entire July is engulfed with plant roots and eventually a giant plant monster. This also opens the dimension portal as Knives enter it to touch the core. The Independents are going to bring a new world order.

Episode 12
More days with Rem flashbacks as she claims the twins are the only ones able to move freely outside their casings perhaps because they are like angels sent by God to bridge between humans and plants. William explains about Knives’ intention to destroy humanity for this new world and at the same time artificially impregnate all plants to create new Independents. Meryl tries one last attempt to wake up Vash. Of course finally he hears her voice. The core then rejects and pushes out Knives. Knives blames this puny human for this but before he could kill her, Vash returns in time to save her. Vash has somehow condensed this higher plane into this cube. Knives becomes frantic as he attempts to steal it from him and the final epic battle between the brothers sweep all over July. Some police think Vash is behind this destruction and fire at him. Vash warns them to get out but they didn’t heed and all get sliced by Knives. Desperate Knives continues to tell Vash that humans will never accept them. Their powers too great for humans to understand. They are the enemy. Vash knows his actions have been contradicting. But he will still continue to believe in them. He tries to take the cube to explode in outer space as Knives continues his desperate attempts and argument of the bad side of humans while creating an utopia for plants and Independents. Is Vash tired of being hunted all the time? Even so, Vash will still keep running and until things calm down, he’ll settle quietly by their side again. Wow. What a disappointing answer. That’s the best he could come up with? No wonder Knives still so mad. As the cube releases all its energy, Knives is still hell bent in taking them. Even if it costs his life and burning him into smithereens. Lastly, he blames Vash for killing him. Bye, bro. 2 years later, July has been reduced into nothingness and ground zero as memorial for all those who perished on that day. Vash is blamed for this and the bounty still stands at $60 billion. Gee, I thought it would’ve been higher but whatever. Meryl pays her respects to Roberto at the site but Zazie warns her about the twins’ actions have caused some bridge across the void and somebody will arriving via crossing the wall of light. Meryl is contacted by her superiors to stop acting on her own or they’ll send her off to the insurance society. Also, she’ll be having a new partner. Meanwhile Vash is now living under the alias of Eriks and in some girl’s care.

Restart The Earth: Plant Lives Matters!
Well, well and well. That wasn’t actually bad, if I should say. Too bad now I have to wait for the next part to arrive (termed as the final part) and who knows when that will happen. As of this writing, there is no conclusive date yet. Oh I don’t know, hopefully maybe next year because damn, I don’t think I can wait around for another 25 or heck, 150 years just to see the final part of this series released! Sorry, human lives are so fleeting and short compared to you trees and plants. So now I’ll be feeling a bit lonely and empty until the sequel arrives. Oh well, in the meantime go occupy myself with other animes first! Heh.

Honestly, with the slight differences in the storyline, it is hard for me to say if this new retelling is better or worse because yes honestly, I figure the story isn’t actually all that bad. The original TV version had its own charm and mostly I don’t remember much of it and just the gist, the overall here and there, bits of it. Having our main character and antagonist as sentient plant life forms is an interesting little twist of its own so it had me a bit hooked and intrigued. So yeah, I can’t seem to compare which of them is better as both have its own charm. Heh. Must be my excuse when I like both of something, eh? Initially when the season had ended, I became confused and thought this was some sort of prequel because you know, that is how Meryl eventually got her new partner and that the city of July was already destroyed in the original TV. But eventually this new season is still an alternate retelling rather than a prequel because of a few other stuffs like the meeting of Wolfwood as well as Vash living under the alias of Eriks.

The biggest thing that had many viewers disappointed was the visuals and animation style. That is right. This modern remake is made entirely out of CGI! So you can see where many of the disgruntled complaints come from. Many claim that this series would have been even more awesome had they gone with the traditional 2D animation style instead of this CGI abomination and it would’ve been perfect and cherry on the top with its interesting storyline. Personally, although the CGI does make the characters do look weird with some weird movements sometimes, it is all entirely not that bad. I’m not saying that I am 100% all for CGI in Japanese anime but I don’t mind it if it is done in a good manner. So yes, my unpopular opinion is that the CGI here is not that bad. Not a masterpiece but it is actually way bearable than many modern anime series who sparingly insert CGI crap in between their traditional 2D animation. The animation transition is quite smooth although as I did mention, some movements make the characters look a bit strange.

After all, the original TV series definitely looks so outdated from I am standing at this point in time. I mean, that original one came out way back in 1998! A time when many of you younger and newer weeabo audiences weren’t even born! Hah! So definitely there is a very high difference in both the visual animation styles. But if there is one thing I would want to complain about the character design, it would be Vash. Instead of his towering broomstick hairstyle, this Vash now has some sort of fluffy wavy crew cut style that just makes him look like an emo kid! Like, WTF?! I did not like this version’s looks although eventually by the time this season ended, I got used to it. Legato also looks like some emo kid rather than his hot bishonen from the original. Why does Meryl and Elendira look like Dragonball characters? And yeah, they actually based Roberto on the American counterpart, huh? Is he a fan of the series so they paid tribute to him with this anime only character? This anime is done by Orange who made Black Bullet, Beastars and Dimension W. They also animated 100% CGI anime series like Godzilla S.P and Houseki No Kuni so they have some experience there.

The action parts are quite exhilarating as they are fast paced and of course over the top. Seeing this takes place in a barren wasteland of some dystopian world, such action pieces always reminds me of Mad Max. Yeah. Crazy looking characters with huge and crazy huge weapons as well as very bombastic action. Some scenes might get a bit gory and graphic like when blood spilling everywhere when the characters die so it’s not really for the faint hearted. My only disappointment is that Vash didn’t live up to the series’ name and use all his guns. What was the name of this series again? Sure, he used his standard one at first. But as the series crosses halfway mark and the story takes a more serious rather than goofy approach, I don’t remember seeing him use them anymore. Who needs guns when he can become some sort of God as seen in the final battle climax! I suppose that version can’t be considered his angel arm, can it?

Aside the story, some of the characters have also been given slight changes. But let me get this little pet peeve out of the way first: Vash’s character. As far as I remember the original Vash, he is quite a cool guy despite generally being a buffoon and hence an idiotic but lovable joker character. Sure, he was not without flaws but at least he was likeable as a main character. However in this version, Vash now seems like an emo kid who does some sort of weird virtue signalling all the time. Still a goofball but more emo. It’s like he wants to achieve some sort of sainthood with his no-killing policy or something. Therefore it became quite an annoying point to see Vash who preaches and maintains his stand not to kill and trying to be a pacifist to appease everybody without the way of violence. Like, WTF?! Yes, he does fight but only to mainly disable. Nothing more. Yeah, good luck telling and screaming to others not to kill while in the heat of battle. Don’t kill! DON’T KILL!!!

The biggest irony is that Vash has not actually directly killed anyone and I suppose we should applaud him for his 100% clean sheet on getting his hands tainted that way (I don’t know if I should consider Knives dying at his hands his first kill). However in doing so, he let many others to die! So don’t you see the kind of hypocrisy that this guy is leading? No wonder Knives was so annoyed. And I’m annoyed too. It feels like it is only because of the script that goes in a certain flow to eventually his advantage (because he is main character), the reason why he can still keep up with this crap and save everything altogether! We see him agonize over the deaths and suffering of others. But uhm, isn’t that because it is partly his fault for not taking proactive or aggressive action? Yeah, they think it is to give Vash the much needed character and emotions (because bad guys don’t have them apparently), to see him in despair and regret towards the innocent who have suffered. Uhm, I don’t think that quite resonated with me and hence Vash turned out to be more annoying rather than sympathetic. Even more so in a time where the world is getting even more politically incorrect and all that wokeness garbage, it is hard not to see this Vash in any other way. So this guy will keep running just to avoid killing? Sorry Vash, we humans don’t live as long as you plants… Worse part of all, Vash didn’t say his most memorable line from the original considering he is so into this no-kill policy. Make a guess…

Then there is Meryl who is portrayed more of a greenhorn rookie rather than the short fused and independent woman I remembered her from the original. The kind of woman who got frustrated by every damn devastating moves Vash did. Yeah. That Meryl. In fact, I actually don’t see her do anything much of importance here except following Vash around. Her character could have actually been done without but that would have shortened the show by a huge margin. So at least her most minimal and pivotal role in the end was to wake up Vash from forever being haunted and taken over by the core whatever. Good thing I have never thought of any romance blooming between them until I wrote this line. It would be freaking weird for a plant and human to mix. Get what I’m saying?! That’s racist!

Of course fans would have noticed the obvious and biggest difference this remake offered was the absence of that towering giant lady AKA Milly Thompson. Instead, they replaced Meryl’s partner with a boss senior who looks like he doesn’t care but is quite observant and won’t hold his tongue to point out the obvious. After all, they are only reporters, not superheroes. They’re not Vash who can’t really die or even get hurt after taking on a few bullets. That’s why it was sad but also perhaps all part of the script to have him killed off so that next season, that is where Millie would come in. As counter to Meryl’s rashness, Roberto is often calmer and more rational. But always gets dragged along into Meryl’s wishes because, what kind of boss would leave his junior all alone behind, right? Such tragedy that good people like him have to die early. RIP, my good man!

Then there is Wolfwood whom is another totally different character from the original. I remember this dude was a bit lecherous and that there was some sort of romance with Milly. Oh well, Milly not here (ironically this romance was only in the anime but not the manga). So turn him into some serious deadpan gloomy opposite of Vash in terms of ideals. Oh you know, this guy keeps pestering Vash that one day he will have to make a decision to kill and chastises him about his no-kill policy. But as seen when it comes to Livio, he becomes desperate to save him and not kill. So I guess they’re pretty alike. Just that Vash wants to do it for the entire world. With the short duration of this series and the latter half focusing mostly on Vash and Knives, I feel Wolfwood’s role has been reduced a lot and he is playing more of a supporting role to Vash more than anything else because in the original, he had his own enemies to fight. Remember Chapel, anyone?

And of course Knives himself, trying to be that badass villain but turns out to be the typical antagonist who wants to destroy the world for the prosperity of his own race. Both the brothers are a thorn at each other’s side, the reason why both cannot move forward with their plans. Not sure how the next season will play out seeing they killed off Knives but perhaps they just want to make us think he’s dead. After all, he is not human and perhaps won’t die like a human. So maybe he turned into a seed and staying hibernated in space until the next plot twist comes along! Also sorely missing are many Gung-Ho Guns (GHG) members. But like in the original, many were also not featured. But even less were featured here as Zazie takes up the most screen time for GHG. In the original she was killed by Wolfwood but now they changed her role to some bug race so it could be interesting to see the fate of the planet turning into a 3 way battle. Even Elendira making her debut here feels just barely there since she sounded like having some sort of crazy psychopathic potential.

One of the biggest changes to this season is of course the new set of seiyuus. The entire line-up from the original has changed and now we have Yoshitsugu Matsuoka helming the role of Vash. Not bad but kinda reminds me a lot like Bell from DanMachi but with more emo. Some recognizable ones include Shigeru Chiba as Father, Junichi Suwabe as Brad and surprisingly Tomokazu Sugita as that police boss. The other casts are Sakura Andou as Meryl, Yoshimasa Hosoya as Wolfwood (Reiner in Shingeki No Kyojin), Junya Ikeda as Knives (Ataru Suruga in Majestic Prince), Kenji Matsuda as Roberto (Zebra in Toriko), Tarako as Zazie (titular character in Chibi Maruko-chan), Ayumu Murase as Elendira (Menel in Saihate No Paladin), Ryusei Nakao as William (Freeza in Dragonball series), Fumiko Orikasa as Luida (Rukia in Bleach), Kouki Uchiyama as Legato (Ichika in Infinite Stratos), Genki Muro as Livio (Magna in Black Clover) and Maaya Sakamoto as Rem (Ciel in Kuroshitsuji).

Well, very unfortunate that this season’s opening theme, Tombi by Kvi Baba cannot even hold a candle or come anywhere near close to the original’s hard rock instrumental, H.T. The song despite having some funky beats and bass lines, it feels weak and weird. Sounds like one of those contemporary tuneless western pop music I often hear nowadays. Yeah. The song’s entirely feels like one big dramatic brooding and considering that pace of the series, it doesn’t quite fit. Especially the singer’s voice feels a bit bland and like as though he is using some sort of special effects software too. In comparison, H.T. is definitely much superior and I would definitely rock to that beat any time, any day! The ending theme doesn’t fare any better. Hoshi No Kuzu by Salyu and Haruka Nakamura feels like some weird Enya rip-off that is heavy on the background bass music. Another tuneless slow ballad that feels spacey. Heck, I would rather listen to the original’s ending theme of Kaze Wa Mirai Ni Fuku even if that ‘drowsy’ rock piece isn’t to my liking.

Overall, I still liked this remake as it is interesting and fascinating in its own ways despite having some cons. One of those rare moments where the remake and the original don’t overshadow the other and both can standalone as independents (pun not intended) rather than me having to forcefully name the superior and shame the weaker one. Yeah. But I don’t know if there is a trend in me to like such shows because this one has the same vibes with Black Rock Shooter: Dawn Fall. Both 100% CGI generated and have this Mad Max frenzy-like action set in the dystopian world. So hopefully next season would get better and improve on some of the minor setbacks such as Vash being an emo guy and having more classic characters making their turn to show up. So you want humans and plants to co-exist? Okay. I’m for it. Because at least I don’t have to turn vegan now! Heheheh! And don’t hate me for liking this series that many considered a CGI abomination. Because remember people, love and peace!

The Third: Aoi Hitomi No Shoujo

A great war devastated the civilizations of the world and greatly reduced of the human populace. The land itself reduced to one big barren desert and the surviving humans barely trying to live out their lives. Well, if it sounds like Sunabouzu but it’s not. Because in The Third: Aoi Hitomi No Shoujo goes a step further. Because now humans are being watched and ruled over by a strange breed of creatures who even govern what kind of technologies they can use! Wow. Humans need to be governed by somebody else other than their kind? Isn’t that as good as not existing? Oh well. We humans screwed up big time so I guess they needed some guardians of the galaxy to watch us so that we won’t make the same bloody mistakes again. It’s like our grounded period or something.

Episode 1
The council ponders about some mysterious object popping up on their radar and because they cannot detect what it is, they cannot permit it to exist! Fila Marique shows the trajectory of entry of this mysterious thingy from space. But since Jouganki is not around, the council refrains from making any decision and decides to get more data first. Now we see Honoka waiting for night fall to begin her mission to exterminate spider monsters residing in some decimated city in the outskirts. She kills them all but lets her guard down on the last one. Stuck in her web, thanks to her AI thank, Bogie blasting a hole in the big mother, she manages to get out alive. Back in town, greenhorn mechanic, Joey Toy tries to check and maintain Bogey but the tank won’t allow him. Even Honoka won’t allow him to do any simple checks. She compares him to the veteran, Zankan and that stops his bugging. Honoka and Bogie return to the desert where she lived most of her life and where many of her memories are. In the dead of the night, Bogie wakes up Honoka because he detects a lone human being targeted. She goes to check it out and not sure WTF this handsome Iks guy is doing in the middle of the sand. Yeah, giant ants going to eat him. Honoka fights her way through to bring him back to the tank. Seems he was just doing some insect watching? At this place and weird hour? Oh well, since he is a nice guy, it could be that Honoka is starting to fall for him.

Episode 2
Seems Iks was travelling alone but his vehicle broke down. Since he can’t repair it, he left and Honoka finds it dangerous since nobody should be moving outside during night time. Then why didn’t he wait for morning? Isn’t he moving with them now? Honoka gives up arguing with him. Fila reports to Jouganki about the council’s decision. He reminds her he has no absolute veto over it. Something about their job to protect and do what’s best for this planet. That is why The Third was created. Iks learns Honoka’s job is to do much about anything except kill humans. And Bogie’s job is like Honoka’s guardian, including overseeing her future. Wow. A battle tank has got to play her parent too, huh? Iks wonder why they are moving around at night since they did mention about its dangers. Honoka is on her way to meet Zankan and doing so in daytime would attract attention. When they arrive, they see bandits trying to hijack the ship of Zankan and his daughter, Millie. Honoka’s warning of slicing a tank in half has them realize she is the famed Sword Dancer so they flee. After father and daughter tease Honoka over her ‘boyfriend’, they get to business as Honoka wonders about the PSP she found for him to repair. Sorry, it’s not that handheld console. Powered Synchro Protector and basically a piloted exoskeleton. He promised to have fixed it by today but looks like it needs more time. Zankan explains more to Iks about such technology infringing some Technos Taboo and that’s why Inspection Force are out there. Basically they’re tinkering with something illegal. Another reason they are moving around at night too. With Bogie picking up signals of Jouganki, Honoka gets ready to meet him. However it’s just his hologram. He could see her in person if she would grant his wish. Nah. She’ll chop him up instead. Jouganki knows Iks and wants to talk to him. But the talk is short as he also knows she is harbouring PSP. Deny as you will but he can’t have her flouting the laws and sends a few upgraded bots to fight her. She easily cuts them all down but these weak bots are on purpose since it would be a shame to actually kill her. Though, he notes her skills have deteriorated. As Honoka pouts about this Jouganki dude, Iks helps sooth some of that pain by healing her bruise. Next day, Honoka and Zankan part ways, promising to meet in 10 days.

Episode 3
We see the Inspection Force forcefully apprehending a guy, separating him from his wife and baby. In the next desert town, Honoka parts way with Iks. Honoka reluctantly goes to see Dr Nor for her check-up. As she waits, his busty android maid, Meilin tends to her. Now this is why Honoka doesn’t want to see him because he makes a public announcement for Honoka to come to his room for her breast enlargement surgery!!! That pervy old man! She takes a look at her wrist injury and learns she has been fighting the latest mecha with her sword. He can tell Jouganki is involved and already told her not to get involved with him. After checking further medical data from Bogie, he still finds her wound suspicious and then realizes it is because of a man. He starts teasing her, causing her to be further embarrassed. It couldn’t get any worse when he also prescribes oral prescriptions for her! He warns her the Inspection Force has been getting active lately like as though they’re searching for someone. Honoka believes it could be Iks. Honoka goes about in town and doing odd jobs to earn some money. Then she notices a closed store and learns a raid the other day. As explained, humans are only allowed to use technology provided by The Third. Anything else is considered illegal AKA Technos Taboo and the Inspection Force can arrest you. Later Honoka sees Iks being friendly with the local kids. She takes him away to a bar to talk about him being a wanted man. Well, he doesn’t seem too worried about it. Before anything can start, the Inspection Force comes in. They have orders to bring Iks to Hyperion. What if he refuses? Then they will use force. Before Honoka could do her hadouken or something, Kevin the mercenary beats them up. The entire bar joins in the brawl so as to give their little sweetheart time to escape. Honoka thought this would be goodbye for real with Iks but then Iks wants to contract her for a job. See this gold he’ll pay? The job is that he wants to follow her around. He can’t tell the details yet but would like to see the many things he doesn’t know about. Since Bogie notes they are strapped for cash after all the weapons she bought, I guess Honoka sees no problem to have a male escort this job. Oh boy, Joey gonna be so jealous…

Episode 4
Several people are doing some illegal trade in the desert. Too bad the Inspection Force finds out and executes them all on the spot! Those special units in Inspection Force with such power and authority are known as Blue Breaker. Honoka sees Zankan and this time he has completed PSP. You can see the happiness and eagerness in Honoka wanting to try out this baby. Well, she has to put up with this embarrassing body suit if she wants to take it for a spin. Like a child with a new toy, she has a lot of fun testing it out as it perfectly syncs with her movements. With Honoka satisfied with everything, she part ways with Zankan. Next time they meet, it’ll be when Bogie breaks down. Yeah, Millie wants Bogie to break down faster! Shortly into their journey, Honoka could sense something in the sky. However, Bogie does not detect anything and this could only mean one thing: Blue Breaker. Honoka has Bogie turn around and to her horror, Blue Breaker is attacking Zankan’s tank. Honoka rides her PSP into battle but too late, Zankan’s tank is no fire. She tries to lure out Blue Breaker who is in stealth mode as well as save Millie from certain death. During the attack, Honoka’s bandana comes off, revealing her third blue eye on her forehead. Not sure if she uses some power of this to force Blue Breaker to reveal itself. A short standoff before Blue Breaker flies away. Honoka knew she lost since her hand is injured and would’ve stood no chance had she even attacked. Worse, Blue Breaker went away with a mocking sneer. When Millie sees Honoka’s third eye, she becomes scared and in shock, she faints. Honoka hugs her crying, sad that she couldn’t stop all of this. RIP, Zankan oji-san…

Episode 5
Honoka still feels guilty over her powerlessness to save Zankan. With Iks, they bury his body as Honoka reveals Millie’s mom was killed by a stray bullet from the Inspection Force. As for this third eye, it is known as the astral and all people from The Third have this and thus their name. However, that eye is red and Honoka’s eye is the only one which is blue. This eye allows The Third to communicate in various ways as well as access data in computers. Long ago, Honoka was taken to Hyperion but was kicked out. Despite having astral eye, she had no abilities of The Third and was deemed useless. She ended up in some slums but an old man named Walken took her into his caravan since her parents wanted her to grow up healthy. As long as she remained here, she will never be free of that eye. Walken raised and taught her stuffs. Only members of the caravan new about her astral eye. As per Walken’s advice, she kept it hidden because of her circumstances, she was neither human no The Third. Hence Zankan and Millie don’t. Honoka found it hard to tell them since Millie’s mom was killed in such a way, she thought Millie might hate her. With Millie awakened, it seems she is just trying to act indifferent. Solemn. Awkward. What else can Honoka do? Meanwhile Fila tries to find data on Honoka but no such data exist. Then she interrogates Blue Breaker about his fight with Honoka. It seems there are attacks his sensors cannot detect and that he had orders from Jouganki to not kill Honoka. Honoka thinks of bringing Millie to Emporium, he asks why Jouganki wants her. She explains he actually wants her ability. She demonstrates using this chi thingy to easily cut through a stone. This is what she imbues her sword with. Then she shows him a beautiful flower field that only blooms at night. She wants to show this to Millie. Upon returning, a panicky Millie rushes to Honoka. She was scared she was alone and couldn’t find her anywhere. She’s all that she has left. I take it that their friendship is back to normal. Good thing this is over with because now here comes Blue Breaker to ruin the party.

Episode 6
Not sure what’s the deal because WTF Honoka trying to locate and fight Blue Breaker without her PSP?! Bogie takes the rest to evacuate despite Iks’ pleas he wants to go help Honoka. Bogie’s reasoning about life and death and Honoka doing this for survival, blah, blah, blah. But Iks reminds him that he had a contract with Honoka and must be with her. Since he puts it that way, Bogie accepts and returns to aid Honoka by giving her PSP. Shouldn’t this be done from the start? However, Honoka is blinded by rage trying to avenge Zankan’s death so she mindlessly wastes ammo until it all runs out. Then Blue Breaker damages her PSP so she’s back out as a person. When Millie claims she wants Honoka because it’s not like anything they do can bring back her father, Honoka goes into zen mode, waiting for Blue Breaker to get close before unleashing some force. Wow. Honoka got some haki too?! Then she recites some poem from Donna Myfree (who?!), making that machine feel scared! Even more so, telling him to GTFO because she’s not in the mood to cut anything! Yeah, machine makes wise move to flee. After that, she collapses. She finds herself in some dream world talking to Iks about the memories of this world. Not that Honoka understands it now. Honoka wakes up as a frantic Millie calls out to her. Yeah, not going to have another trauma of losing somebody! Soon, Jouganki comes to see her in person. Actually, he wants to see Iks who is the first official contact The Third have when they came to this planet. Jouganki wonders why he is visiting this planet as well as needing his assistance to deal with some matters. However Iks can’t at this moment and in due time, he will know. In that case, Jouganki will wait until he is willing. As he leaves, he reminds Honoka that he still won’t give up on her powers. Fila learns of Jouganki’s doing and she’ll comply with his decision. Though, she won’t take responsibility if he regrets it later. Jouganki also warns her that Honoka is no longer the girl she thought she is.

Episode 7
Honoka leaves Millie in Zankan’s sister’s care before setting out for the desert. One night, a small group of monster ants stop by near Bogie. Honoka checks it out and one of them is on the tank itself. However it is starting to sprout wings. As explained, it means the ant will become a queen and is most likely going to form a new hive of its own. For some odd reasons, Honoka wants to defend this ant from attack of other rival swarms. Bogie disagrees with this since this is the ants’ problem and that they have a job to do. Doing this will only make them late. However Honoka insists she wants to and hopes Bogie will give her until dawn. For once, he makes an exception. So we see Honoka fight rival ants trying to attack this queen. Honoka’s sword swing doesn’t kill them, but merely put them in a suspended animation state. A technique she learnt from Walken. More and more swarms show up as the strain on Honoka is starting to show. Bogie wants to scram but Honoka insists on that until dawn promise. As she continues her fight, flashback shows Honoka almost got eaten by this discount Star Wars’ sand pit monster after chasing some cute critter. Although Walken saved her, she requested him to save the little bunny too. He did that and put the discount Sarlacc in suspended animation. Then some lecture about the law of nature and why they should not interfere, blah, blah, blah. Hence this will be the only time Walken will bend to her will. Honoka then honed this school from him until his death. Just when Honoka is about to be overwhelmed, the queen ant grows its wings and flies off. Immediately Honoka jumps onto Bogie as they make a scram for it. Honoka notes perhaps she wanted to see this ant take flight and saw herself as it.

Episode 8
Honoka and Bogie get caught within the wave of the stampeding sand dragons. Luckily Bogie manages to ride this one out. Unfortunately the tank takes a hard tumble. Hence Honoka leaves it to Joey to fix it (he’s going to have a hard time overhauling this mother) while leaving Bogie’s AI unit with Meilin. Along the way, she meets Kevin who warns her about some religious cult sending their assassination squad around. It could be possible that they are the ones behind the sand dragon incident. At the bar, Honoka watches this busty chick, Paifu being hit on by a few shady guys. However she is quick to draw the gun on them and will not hesitate to shoot. Honoka notices another guy trying to pull a fast one behind Paifu’s back so she goes to warn the buster to stop it. Those guys then leave and it seems they know who Honoka is. Paifu wants to thank and accompany her. However Honoka declines. Paifu tries to use her power to hypnotize her but it doesn’t work. Later Honoka stumbles into Millie. The latter is now schooling and notes a teacher who is just like Honoka. She is motivated to study a lot so she can become a great mechanic like her dad and support Honoka. Honoka is then taken to see Ingrid who is the chief admin of Emporium. She wants to hire Honoka for a job. Since she has come into the sand dragons, she wants her to pinpoint the cause of its stampede because it’ll be devastating if they come close to this town. Meanwhile Fila summons the council for an emergency meeting. It seems there is this unknown space distortion field barrier. Probes have been sent to investigate but all have been swallowed. They think it is some Technos Taboo. However Jouganki argues this is not because humans have been under their supervision and hence they cannot create something this taboo without them noticing it. He shows them the location of this barrier which is located a year before the great war ended. It has a very devastating power and even more so by today’s standards. He believes it to be Gravestone, an ultimate weapon equipped with mankind’s first space distortion device.

Episode 9
The council wonders if this is even Gravestone to begin with as there is no proof. However Jouganki urges the need to take swift action as the barrier is growing and at this rate, it will destroy the world. Bogie’s tank is back in shape thanks to a talented field of mechanics. I guess Joey can’t handle it himself. So he promises to go to some vocational school to become better. In return, Honoka must come back alive. As Honoka heads out to the desert, look who is here to join her? Paifu. She’s making herself at home in the tank? Well, since she isn’t a bad person, Honoka lets her do as she pleases. Honoka then tells her life story. Paifu reveals Ingrid hired her to watch Honoka but she isn’t surprised since she had a hunch. Honoka also doesn’t feel upset by everything. All she needs to do is work properly so others will trust her. If they don’t? Then continue doing so until they do! That night, Paifu seems to be headed off somewhere. Detecting other life forms coming their way, Honoka rides her PSP to see Paifu engaging with those cultist in their PSP. Honoka helps but have to show her Sword Dancer chops as slicing the machine with her sword is more efficient. Yeah, saves ammo too. Honoka faces off with the boss but Paifu kills him right away. Paifu reveals she was part of the mercenaries hired by the cult and did the same thing. However she didn’t have any complicated philosophy whatsoever and quit. That’s why she has many enemies and is a murderer. She lured them out for this and brushes off rumours that the cult is behind the sand dragon stampede. Honoka watch as she kills all the men. But she isn’t upset since she still believes Paifu as a good person. Because Millie said so. The boss somehow turns into a monster and attacks (genetic mutation whatever). Honoka can’t cut him down in time so Paifu pumps a few bullets into him. Hope he stays dead. Honoka is shocked with Iks’ return. Yeah, where did he go to? Honoka introduces him to Paifu and seeing how Honoka interacts with him has Paifu suspicious of Honoka’s identity.

Episode 10
The council is trying to revive Wormhole Driver, some laser satellite in space created by The Third during the great war to destroy Gravestone. Honoka tries to act all cheerful before Iks but he can tell something is wrong. Bogie reveals she has been having nightmares lately but Honoka brushes it off. They catch up on things as she continues her chirpy ways. Next day, not sure how Honoka can trace the sand dragon source using a metal detector. Yeah, some magnetic thingy. However she is relying more on the sensation in her forehead since it is causing her some unease. Paifu doesn’t trust Iks and soon deduces Honoka’s depression. She thinks Honoka is depressed she killed a man for the first time last night. She confronts her and gives her an earful about this. Paifu claims she was the one who finished the man off and killed him and thinks Honoka wouldn’t want to save a killer like her. On the contrary, Honoka notes she has cut down many things from monsters to robots and didn’t regret turning her sword against that man. She doesn’t think her judgment is wrong and will still draw her sword because she believes in her ideals. As long as that stays the same, things will also stay the same no matter who her enemy is. Paifu scoffs at that hogwash and since it’s come to this, they fight. Too bad Paifu is slower in drawing her gun compared to Honoka drawing her sword. The blade is already at her neck. Then they do fist fighting. Honoka just dodging and making Paifu sweat all over. In short, Honoka’s fighting is still way superior. Eventually Paifu realizes she can’t win against this monster. But great workout, though. She continues to lament her power still doesn’t work on her. Next day, the magnetic trail the sand dragons have gone cold. So now Honoka is using her guts and instincts to lead her to wherever. However they stumble into Gravestone. Jouganki learns too late that Honoka and Iks are in the area. You know when Wormhole Driver fires, it takes out its surrounding too, right? Yeah. Looks like the weapons is all warmed up and ready to shoot.

Episode 11
Honoka seems compelled to walk into the barrier as she feels someone is calling to her. Since Iks won’t stop her, Paifu does the honours. However an energy burst engulfs them. Paifu then finds herself in the middle of a decimated city and war. Amidst the confusion, she tries to run and hide. When she meets with Bogie, she tells him to attack. However he cannot return fire on what he cannot detect. Paifu then sees Honoka in the distance as she cuts and blows away the illusion. This weakens her, though. And Paifu sees her third eye. Resting back in Bogie, the ladies want to know the truth from Iks. So he just tells them that they are in the memories of a certain person and the attack against them is just replaying of his memories on the attack that was made against him. Since he cannot say more, Honoka insists of returning and following that call. Paifu is against this and tells her to rest. She manages to convince her to do that since they need to gather info first. Paifu talks to Iks alone to get more details but he only mentions all the things Honoka said about Paifu. Good and bad, she said them in a cheerful manner. As she grew up in a caravan, she probably wanted to experience a school life, that’s why Honoka addressed Paifu as sensei. That voice calls out to Honoka again. Bogie alerts the rest that Honoka has vanished. Yeah, how can somebody under his constant surveillance just disappear? Don’t know. It just happened. Yeah, Iks too suddenly disappears. Damn, this place getting more haunted. We see more Paifu talk with Iks about Honoka’s depression of killing somebody for the first time. Had Honoka did not do that, Paifu would’ve died. She still finds this dumb so Iks takes it as she likes Honoka. We see Iks talking to that voice and claims he accidentally woke him up. Though, the voice thought he is here to kill him. Iks assures he has no hostility towards him as the voice laments they tried to kill him and thus the reason he hid here as he couldn’t do anything then. As for why he is trying to get out know, he is going to kill them. He is going to destroy the world that hated him. Paifu sees a young kid before her. She asks about Honoka but he isn’t telling anything. Because she’ll die here! Meanwhile Honoka meets… Herself!

Episode 12
Paifu fights the kid but is on the losing end since her moves cannot connect. Honoka too is on the defence as she is only running away from her clone who is more confident and talkative. Iks is talking to the voice that while he was sleeping, the war ended. He wants to know if his enemies lost but Iks said nobody won. If there was, war was the winner. This makes him upset and unable to accept that outcome. If that’s the case he should’ve continued sleeping. Iks asks why he called out to Honoka. His excuse is trying to get rid of her since she deflected his attacks. Iks calls his bluff because he has been calling her for a long time and Honoka responded to it. Honoka’s clone tries to paint Honoka a loner and a killer, hence she should just kill everybody. Honoka disputes that so her clone kills her. Too bad Honoka didn’t die and gets up. Though, it hurts like hell. Honoka hen mentions all the people in her life who supported her. She felt she has done anything and that’s why she’s working hard to be worthy of all that. She is going to live and believe in herself. With that resolve, Honoka is able to cut herself. Meanwhile Paifu applies the same technique as Honoka did with her chi to defeat the kid. Honoka continues to wander about until she enters a strange place and sees a boy sitting by himself. He is Gravestone. She knows he was the one calling to her and was crying. He has watched her fight and claims she is strong. She credits the people who supported her that gave her the strength. When he claims he is not like her, she denies because now he’s got her. Assuring he is no longer alone, Gravestone breaks down in her arms. So now the place is falling apart, how will Honoka escape? Ah, Iks to the rescue. Well, all in time because the Gravestone threat just disappears like that. This means The Third do not need to fire their Wormhole Driver. Phew. Jouganki must be feeling so relieved. Iks explaining to Honoka about Gravestone’s incompleteness, the reason he was unable to emerge from that space. The boy is the image of the scientist’s dead son who died in the war. Honoka is relieved he was never alone to begin with and had his father’s love. He must not have wanted his son to be used in the war and hence that image.

Episode 13
A lost guy in the desert thought he is dead. However he thought a desert fairy saved him and reunited him with his rescuers. As such, this is just part of the many desert legends that are going around. Meanwhile, a couple of cocky punks who got a near brush with Sword Dancer (and chickened out) are bragging about it when this hunter named Leon wants to know where he can find her. They get rude so he deals them with a major bloody pain. Honoka visits Millie to see how she is doing. She also invites her to join her on a short cruise through the desert since she is thinking of taking a break. Would Millie miss the world for it? Yeah, not even school. Apparently this was put up by Paifu because she noticed Millie has been sleeping a lot in class till a point she isn’t even waking up. Like a coma? However she woke up like as though there was nothing wrong. She deduced it could be more than just a sleeping problem and could be suffering from the effects of PTSD. Yeah, remember her dad’s death? Honoka still blames herself for not being able to do anything about it but Iks says not to because at that time, it would’ve been hard for anybody. And so Honoka thought of this desert trip to tell Millie all sorts of desert legends since it is such a mysterious yet beautiful place. Next day, Leon comes to see Honoka. He is on a mission to hunt a desert fairy but since he doesn’t know the area, he needs a guide. Honoka declines him since she is on vacation. She could recommend him to others but Leon won’t bother asking another aside the best. And Sword Dancer is the best in this part of town, right? Leon leaves but is sure they will meet again. He leaves Honoka in shock because he knows about her third eye. That night, Millie sets off with Honoka for the desert trip. Meanwhile Leon is stopped by the Inspection Force. But he does some phantom trick to destroy them. So, is he a desert legend too? A desert ghost?

Episode 14
As Honoka and Millie continue their carefree desert trip, eventually a worried Honoka asks about Millie’s health and if she is eating right, etc. Despite Honoka’s genuine concerns for her, Millie took this the wrong way and thinks she sees her as a hindrance. In that case, Millie doesn’t need all this sh*t. Wow. Now she hates her? And WTF, Millie runs away?! Where can she run in this desert?! It’s as good as courting trouble. Speaking of which, she starts to fall into a sand pit. No, it’s that discount Sarlacc again. Honoka is busy fending off its tentacles who want to have her as dinner too. As Millie slides further in, she hears the voice of a fairy telling her not to give up. Honoka may be freed from the tentacles but she cannot reach Millie in time. What is this thing that is faster than her who saves Millie? Oh, a white desert wolf? After handing Millie back in the safe hands of Honoka, the wolf goes to fight the monster. Damn, it has electric tentacles to shock the monster?! Too big to feel its effects, though. Honoka then has Iks take care of Millie before she returns to go help the wolf. This time her sword is enough to cut the whole monster in half! Wow! Once everything calms down, Honoka blames herself for being stupid and all. Of course Millie apologizes for acting up. She didn’t mean what she said and still loves her. She curses her own powerlessness. Well duh, she’s a kid so she isn’t that strong to begin with. Millie also mentions the fairy she saw. Well, it’s right before them! Iks recognizes it as a Star Seed. A bright glow before the fairy disappears. As Honoka ponders about what to do for her, Iks suggests to find that wolf. After all, they need to thank it for saving Millie.

Episode 15
Journeying for 3 days to find the wolf. Nothing. One during as the desert storm hits, Honoka could sense the fairy. With Millie, they go out to greet it. Honoka asks Iks about it and he explains it is actually a seed of life. It travels across the universe to plant and nurture genetic data of all life forms it collects in a new planet. Honoka thinks this means the planet is doomed. However she still has hope and doesn’t think so. Iks’ comment is that if this is what Honoka thinks, so be it. Double lucky for them because the wolf is here. It proves Honoka’s theory that the wolf is also after the fairy and they’re connected. As they try to approach it to give their thanks. A warning shot is fired and the wolf escapes. Honoka hurries to check what’s going on and it turns out to be Leon. Looks like he wants the wolf too. Honoka warns him to go away so Leon dares her to kill him. They fight and it looks like Leon is made up of liquid metal. Yeah, like cutting through water. Worse, he can shoot lasers and Honoka gets shot many times! With the wolf sneering at him, Leon backs off. Iks hurriedly takes Honoka back to Bogie. Is he going to be a doctor now? His worst fears come true as Honoka has taken too much damage. Her wounds too deep for her to heal since the laser has burnt through her capillaries. A blood transfusion is needed. Well, the nearest hospital is 5 days away. Iks has an idea. He lets the wolf known as Kamui in as it uses its tentacles to do its transfusion. It’s unscientifically unproven so it’s not surprising Bogie is concerned Kamui seems like doing something strange to her. At least Honoka is in stable condition now. Then they talk about Leon whom Iks knows it was from an old military unit of monsters during the great war. Yup. Lost technology. However despite being somewhat immortal, it should be deteriorating over time. The only reason why Leon is able to maintain such high intelligence and functionality is that he absorbs other Phantoms. Cannibalism? Yeah, see him do one right now. He’s feeling so much more powerful and faster. Can’t wait to fight Honoka again. Hence the reason Leon is chasing after the fairy is so that by devouring a higher life form, let’s say he’ll become close to God.

Episode 16
So, Kamui has planted regenerative cells into Honoka. Wow. She’s looking way better now. Such convenience. Meanwhile Honoka has a dream talking to the fairy. She hopes to keep living on this planet. Iks further explains about Kamui. He once lived with humans but now those memories are scattered all over the place. This means he can recall it anytime since it left it out in the open. Millie wants Kamui to take her to see some moon dragonflies. Beautiful. More surprise for Millie as Honoka is here too. She thanks her as they watch this beautiful sight. And then Honoka disappears. Holy sh*t! That was her ghost?! Is this her new ability? Because the real Honoka still in bed sleeping. Once she is better, Honoka wants to settle things with Leon since clearly he is after Kamui and the fairy. Bogie is against this since she is no match for him even if this is to thank them for saving their lives. Since she insists, Bogie will only allow it if she fights using PSP. Sure, it won’t do jack sh*t on Leon but it’s better than being exposed to getting injured easier. Once Leon is detected, they see him facing off with Kamui. Honoka takes over in her PSP as Leon relishes fighting her. Millie wants to go help but Iks tells her not to get in the way. Yeah, what is she going to do with a small handgun? Believe in Honoka! Eventually Honoka has to hop out of her PSP to fight him in person. Then it’s like she achieves some sort of zen state. Using and sensing the gaps in his chi or something, he manages to dodge his attacks faster than the speed of light. And woah! She cuts through his lasers! So sharp that when she cuts Leon in half, it stops his regenerating abilities! Bye, time to die. Then they see the fairy and Kamui together. Both fuse and become one. Iks explains the fairy has been wandering around as she lacks something to move on. So it was whatever vital life DNA the wolf had and that’s why Kamui was chasing her? But take heart, the fairy hasn’t totally depart from this planet yet and is finding a proper place to do so. Wow. Really?! Hence an excuse to say they will continue to roam the land and create more urban legends for dumb humans. Millie returns the handgun to Honoka. She thought of keeping this as a memento but realizes nothing could replace the real Honoka. Yeah, the real thing is way better!

Episode 17
Oh damn. Who hijacked Wormhole Driver and blasts a great hole in some part of the desert?! Honoka has been called to the admin bureau. She thinks it’s for another job but as she waits in the room, she calls out to Jouganki’s ploy to meet her like this. To her shock, it’s not him but Fila. Fila has a request of her but before she can get to it, they have to hide because Inspection Force is raining bullets on them! Honoka takes Fila to safety and has Paifu help disable some of them. But there is more to come. Fila says these robots are supposed to be under her control but has lost them because someone hijacked them. Honoka then uses her astral eyes on Fila. She manages to sniff out the perpetrator hiding nearby. She escapes. Luckily Kevin and his mercenaries arrive in time to take out the rest of the Inspection Force. Getting back to business, Fila claims Jouganki has gone missing. She knows the perpetrator behind this is Rona Fauna, another one of The Third and has taken control over a portion of the Inspection Force. While holding up in one of their facilities, Jouganki went to negotiate with her alone but went missing soon after. You think The Third could’ve used their astral eyes to find some info but Rona uses a different system like a jamming device and that’s how she hijacked stuffs. Hence if they send more robots in, they are likely to be controlled by her. Despite this being an internal problem for The Third, that is why she is asking for Honoka’s help to find Jouganki. Assuming he is alive. Honoka and Paifu load up and prepare what they need for the rescue mission. We see Jouganki alive but captured in the hands of Rona.

Episode 18
Fila sends blueprints of the facilities where Rona is. However recent aerial footage shows she has used nanomachines to change its structure and they can also assume the interior has also altered. So more training and preparing until that day comes. Honoka is eager that Fila is going to introduce a new firepower to the unit. Well, look who’s back? Blue Breaker! Yeah, not so enthusiastic now, huh? The irony that Zankan’s killer is now on their side. Honoka is not impressed with this as Paifu gives her 2 cents worth of opinion that Blue Breaker is probably worth a few more Inspection Force bots. Otherwise it will be just another ordinary bot if the team isn’t unified on this mission. Honoka allows Blue Breaker to be part of their team but has a condition that it must follow her orders. Any independent action, Honoka will cut it down immediately. Got to put aside her burning hatred for professionalism. Meanwhile Jouganki tells Rona that her attempts are futile as the council are putting all their effort into solving this and they will not discount destroying the entire facility along with him. She doesn’t think they’ll do it since he is here but Jouganki they will as this is for the betterment of this planet. Allowing her to continue as she is will only hurt this planet. As a member of The Third, she should also know this. However she poses a question if she is considered The Third because of her astral eye or she is just another creature with such. Fila tries to find more info on Rona but there are none. She believes her data has been expunged and since the permanent councillors are capable of this, why? D-day is here as Honoka and co prepare to launch an aerial assault on the facility.

Episode 19
Honoka rides her PSP to take down the vanguard drones and bots. Blue Breaker backs her up. But with the immense amount of resistance, Honoka and Blue Breaker are soon separated from the rest. Although they crash landed safely, both sides make their way towards the facility. Rona has been too engrossed in her talk with Jouganki to notice the enemy attacking until her assistant points it out. But to her surprise, the enemy isn’t The Third. As Jouganki wants to know what her goals are since initially she had demands about temporarily shutting down the central government but has not said anything about it since he came here. However she claims as long as she has Wormhole Driver, nobody can touch her. This has him doubt if she will use it again. As Honoka draws closer, Rona could sense more of her and as she describes her, Jouganki can tell it is Honoka’s team and wonders if this is what Fila resorted to. Jouganki wants to know what she really is up to because even if she has combined her special abilities to fuse with the system, the central government cannot defeat her. Well, from her reaction and words, why does my guts say that she’s in love with Jouganki???!!! Yeah, because look at her worried face when she sees him worried about Honoka. That is why she is curious to see who that girl is and lets her into the facility. Honoka senses strange things inside and cannot make out of it. It’s something big and spreading all over but yet weak and fragile. Blue Breaker explains the place is covered with nanomachines and have fused with the original materials. Thus this whole place is like a pseudo artificial life form. The whole facility could be overflowing with Rona’s chi.

Episode 20
Some jamming device is also interfering with Bogie’s attempt to make contact with Honoka. But with Iks feeling it is constantly losing strength, another way of putting it that it is dying. Bogie has to let off Iks and Paifu since Rona has sent a huge tank killer to chase the invaders out. I guess we need to see some big machines fight each other. In the end, Bogie comes out victorious since he has more battle experience. Honoka and Blue Breaker walk deeper into the facility. After dispatching a few bots, Blue Breaker turns on Honoka. However he soon tells her to cut him down. It is then Honoka realizes why Fila put Blue Breaker on her team. It’s like some sort of payment. Blue Breaker believes she hates him and can cut him down with ease. However Honoka tells him off that this mission is to rescue Jouganki. Even if she loses a member, the mission is a failure. Hence he is to only obey her orders and get back alive. Yes, she will not cut him. Poor robot, feeling confused that this does not compute. Why doesn’t she cut down something she hates? Well, she points out he has no more ammo left so it’s hardly threatening. Just STFU and follow her orders. Iks and Paifu enter the facility. They are being attacked by Rona’s assistant. However Paifu gets stabbed in the chest. She plays dead to turn the tables on her and kills her. So Paifu gonna die? Not if Iks now becomes her fairy, telling her not to give up and even healing her. So still distrust that dude? Rona gets desperate as Jouganki tries to convince her to come with him and that she can still be saved. However she laments that he is no different than the rest of The Third who think themselves as gods. She thinks he only cared for her research just like how he only cares for Honoka’s abilities. Thus the reason of being kind to her. Surprise but no, she admits she loves him. I know it! With jealousy taking over, Rona has more reason to eliminate Honoka. Speaking of her, looks like she is in a room with a person in a container. Blue Breaker says this is Rona. Oh, Rona going overboard as she overuses her abilities. She’s going crazy.

Episode 21
Blue Breaker explains this is Rona’s real body. She died over a year ago and her body preserved. He also explains how she hijacked Wormhole Driver that is capable of destroying this planet. Why does The Third have a weapon that can destroy when they already have control of this world? It is to keep anyone from interfering. Blue Breaker then attacks Honoka but she anticipates this and dodges. After all, she knew Blue Breaker’s mind has been taken over by Rona the moment he stepped into this room because no robots will know about Rona or Wormhole Driver. Honoka is left to dodge his attacks as she is in a dilemma to cut him down. Blue Breaker using his last ounce of sanity to tell her to kill him. Honoka’s answer is to just cut off his weapon. Poor robot still cannot compute she won’t kill him. Although Honoka hasn’t forgiven him, she talks about things existing for a purpose and he needs to find that out. If he ever wants to settle this in the future, she’ll be glad to oblige. Though, she hopes it won’t come to that. Oh man, did Honoka actually make a robot turn over a new leaf?! Oh sh*t! Blue Breaker reacting like he is in despair after hearing Honoka’s words! Mean killer machine has a conscience?! But Blue Breaker is back to normal since Rona’s weakening means she has lost control of him. This also means Jouganki is freed from her grasp. He still wants to save her and with The Third’s technology, perhaps prolong her life even if 100% recovery to her original state is not possible. However she notes even if that’s the case, what good will that do? She already knows her condition. She pushes him out, knowing he wants to see Honoka. Jouganki knows Honoka can get here by herself. The important issue is to save Rona. Cut yourself from the system before it’s too late. Oh, too late for her. A final confession she loves him and did everything she can just to be close to him for one last time. When Honoka arrives, she asks for Jouganki. Rona claims he is dead because she killed him. This shock distracts Honoka as Rona unleashes her thorny surprise to kill her.

Episode 22
Rona forces Honoka to fight but the latter just keeps dodging and insists she will not. It ends only because memories of Jouganki floods through Rona’s mind. Yeah, just lost the will to fight, huh? Because now it’s time to talk. Rona reveals Jouganki is alive and since Honoka has seen her real body, this means the one she is talking to her is a clone. She can only live as long as the original one does and that means that time is nearing up. Rona explains she has this ability to see weaknesses in the machines. She had this idea to merge their minds with machines to solve this issue via creating an efficient system but The Third feared this and shunned her. That is of course until Jouganki came to help her by giving her this facility to continue her research. By using her own nerve cells as nanomachines, she came out with results and he was pleased. She was pleased. Even more so when he helped hide her from the central government and told her to continue her research. It made her had a purpose of existence. Meanwhile Jouganki finding his way stumbles into Iks who of course knows everything. Jouganki laments he neglected Rona throughout the years and something about The Third unable to have procreating abilities and thus this love thingy is alien to him. Iks says his sentiments has reached her. Honoka helps to help Rona by pouring some of her chi into her. She reveals her blue astral eye and says she is the same like her. A defect of The Third who was also ostracized by them. Rona laments had they met earlier, fate would’ve been different. Unfortunately, Rona dies. But soon the place takes a life of its own. Like as though the dark subconscious of Rona is trying to get revenge and activate Wormhole Driver to destroy the planet. Jouganki makes contact to Fila to stop the weapon but she says she can’t as they still don’t have control over stuffs. He curses their powerlessness. Before it gets too late, Honoka is forced to cut the menace in half. Threat over. In the aftermath, Jouganki learns the council cannot afford to lose him and that’s why they concluded of using Honoka even if it meant sacrificing her. He goes to thank and apologize to Honoka for dragging her into this mess. But she just brushes off as a job. As everyone leaves, Rona narrates that it is not Jouganki is unable to love nor he would not love anyone. It’s only because there’s someone else in his heart other than her. She hopes Honoka would realize that since they share the same soul.

Episode 23
The Inspection Force hauls Joey away. Oh boy… So when Honoka returns to town to get Joey to fix Bogie, his mechanic pals tell what happened. But soon Honoka finds Joey wandering the streets. Looks like he got off lightly despite dabbling with Technos Taboo. He has lost his licence and can’t tinker even with legal Technos either. Joey has a reason for doing this because as his ambitions grow, he realizes sooner or later he will have to touch Technos Taboo. Meanwhile Paifu notices Iks acting strange so she confronts him to spill the beans. He is going to Steel Gorge, an area filled with Technos Taboo that is off limits to everyone. There is something he must do even if it means going against The Third. He hopes she won’t tell Honoka this. Later Honoka talks to Paifu and tells her about Joey’s case. Although he didn’t say it, she believes he touched Technos Taboo because he wanted to make Bogie better. For that, he needed cutting edge technology and thus was cut violating Technos Taboo. So she’s feeling responsible about it? Paifu must have felt sorry for her and tells what Iks is up to. Go to him before it’s too late! Instantly Honoka makes haste. Iks walks through the desert and is surrounded by Inspection Force who tell him to go back. He ignores them. The fire. Nothing happens to him. Jouganki is shown this image and Fila tells him to do something about it since Steel Gorge is under his jurisdiction. Honoka manages to track down Iks and reminds him their contract hasn’t ended. Iks remains adamant this is something he must do alone. Bogie gives a hesitant Honoka a little push to tell him what’s on her mind and so she confronts him again, this time revealing she never asked him stuffs in fear that it would be over if she knew. But she feels it is unfair for him to leave when she doesn’t know anything about him. Oh, you just made her cry. Iks hugs her and takes her on a galaxy trip! Wow. The universe this cold? That’s why there is life and planets to warm it up. However the downside is that wars and conflicts will cause it to vanish. Iks lets Honoka feel the soul and the tears of this planet. It is feeling bitterly cold and sad. Iks is also feeling the same. That is why Iks is on a journey to Steel Gorge to meet the planet’s cold soul. Jouganki doesn’t think Fila needs this overkill. Yeah, the entire desert filled with armed robots! He knows no matter how big the army, it is all futile to take down Iks. Pointless. But looks like Iks won’t be their only enemy as Honoka has joined his side.

Episode 24
A hologram of Jouganki confronts Honoka and Iks. He tells them they are violating Technos Taboo and wants them to go back. Honoka says she won’t. Why? Because screw Technos Taboo! She is doing this intentionally to break it. What about Iks? His objective of coming to this planet is to come here. With negotiations failed, time to move in the army. Honoka will deal this alone. Using her astral eye, it’s like she’s got a new move (Iks said it’s from the regenerative cells of Kamui) and uses some blue wave to cause and earthquake to destroy all the bots! OMG! What a waste! The desert turns into flaming hell! Oh Fila, you don’t mean to look so shock, do you? She panics more when Jouganki decides to personally bring the duo to Steel Gorge. Because if they continue this resistance, The Third will be no different than humans and will bring more harm to this planet. Jouganki brings them to the most top secret facility at the bottom of Steel Gorge. He reveals that besides other lost technologies of the old, there lies a singular energy that The Third have been watching ever since for generations. Or rather, he has been watching them too. This is also somewhat makes The Third afraid and hence limiting access of this place to humans.

At the bottom, a cold spell hits all of them. Iks identify this planet’s soul as the Observer and likewise he identifies Iks as the Arbiter. Honoka and Jouganki are made to experience life from the very beginning on this planet until those damn humans destroyed everything with rage and war. Yeah, the pain and sorrow Observer feels piercing his being. Makes you reduced to tears even for a stoic person. Before Iks passes his judgment, he asks if there is all that’s left and no new hope left. That is when Honoka stands up and wants to give her piece of opinion. She feels very sorry for him due to all the grief and suffering he has been subjected to. Wow, is Honoka apologizing on behalf of humans for what they have done?! However, she also wants to thank him. This makes Observer feel a lot better for there is one who cried for him. Iks then explains the many souls that Honoka has comforted like Gravestone, Millie and Rona. Hence Iks believes it is his turn to observe this planet and will take over Observer’s place so he can learn more about it. Thanks to meeting Honoka, he feels humans have begun to rethink their future. Observer feels grateful for this judgment (why do I have a feeling it’s like he is freaking happy to be freed from this torturous duty?!) as he prepares to depart from this planet. Kamui pops up as the fairy also separates herself so as to ride Observer into space. Honoka and Kamui chasing this blue fireball into space… Jouganki feels this could be the turning point for humans and The Third and hence might reconsider about Technos Taboo. Iks continues to join Honoka on her journey because there is still so much she wants to show him about this world.

Third Eye Blue: Semi-Chi Kinda Life
Humans should be freaking thankful to Honoka for extending life on this little blue planet. Uh huh. She be made a saint. No, a God! But I guess nobody knew about this and I believe Honoka isn’t the kind would love to be put upon a pedestal so I guess that’s okay. Basically humans in general and many of them are jerks but it’s just the luck of this planet and those in power to have met a girl like Honoka who isn’t even actually an actual human being herself. Let that sink in. Having The Third somewhat saving your planet on your behalf too, wow, we humans must be really that useless, huh? Let’s just hope humans can build upon this unseen goodwill and improve themselves for the aeons to come.

The overall story feels rather okay and from what I can see, it doesn’t really have a particular plot in tow. Sure, Honoka is the main character but we mostly see the series being divided into a few mini arcs and Honoka being the centre of it. It’s not like there was any ultimate goal to fight against The Third nor would they try to get rid of Honoka herself. In fact, the light novel source that this series was adapted, the last time I checked, it is still ongoing?! Not sure if this series was quite obscure and didn’t even get any internet update but it seems hard to find sources of it. So I’m not sure if the anime’s direction is independent of the light novel or part of one of its volumes. And seeing that there has been no sequel thereafter, it’s safe to say that we’ll never get our answer. At least for those who don’t read the original source. Furthermore, every episode has the narrator narrate in between. Like as though we’re too dumb to figure it out if the characters didn’t say it. Yeah, maybe like yours truly are really too dumb to get it. Anyway, he narrates in quite a poetic fashion like as though this is part of a storybook but I guess it is better than having such moments an awkward silence. Whether the characters are starring off into the scenery or emotionally hugging, the narration of that scene makes it look less awkward.

The Third being the strange sentient beings they are, there have been many question marks raised as I watched over the series. Well, for starters, who put them in charge of managing the planet? Are they self-proclaimed managements of the universe? Or are they God’s apostles or something like that? Can’t be that as seen in the end that there are higher beings than them that they even fear. Therefore sometimes the way they govern the planet, it is somewhat conflicting. While their noble goal is to reduce as much conflict as possible and for the betterment of the planet, sometimes their methods may give rise to more wars and hurt it all instead. Just take a look at this Technos Taboo thing. You know humans have this rebellious spirit inside, right? In no time if this gets out of hand, humans might force a revolt and The Third sending in more bots to keep the peace, started a war instead. Sometimes I can’t help feel that the Streisand effect is going to play out here. Therefore humans sneaky enough can play this card and allow them to do whatever they want. You know, all for the peace of this planet. Loophole.

Then the other curious part about them as Jouganki mentioned, they cannot procreate. While that line itself is vague, it makes me wonder if they are machines. Well, they do bleed and cry so I guess they’re not. But since they use their astral eyes to connect to any sort of computer, I guess they are. So are they a crossbreed of such? After all, there is not much about them that we know of throughout the series and even towards the end. Because as such, if The Third do not even sexually produce, the baffling thing that boggled my mind is that, why do they even have male and female versions? Do you get what I’m trying to say here? Okay, maybe it is just me assuming that Jouganki is male while Fila is female because of comparing them to human counterparts since they look close enough. Even so, how do they actually breed assuming they are not immortals and in the case of Rona, can face death.

Making them weirder is that it feels like they want some sort of uniform identity among them. Because in the case of Honoka, just because she has a different astral eye colour, she gets kicked out. Not considered part of this The Third membership. Like, what the f*ck? It’s the same case for Rona because of her different ability of her astral eye. So does this mean The Third all strive to be the same robotic-like existence because if you don’t show the same abilities whether they are good or bad, you are not considered one of them. Strange. Even more so, they make human-like blunders especially the one after Gravestone’s incident, as Fila even commented why the f*ck did they not disengage this space weapon after it. WHY?! Why did they even leave it operational?! It wasn’t like there was some immediate threat after Gravestone, right? Yeah, all for the next plot, I suppose. Yeah, pretty weird people and as shady as hell when you consider you don’t even know or see who is part of this central government.

Enough of those 3 eyed beings already, better move on to Honoka because she’s the main character, right? So as one who is sandwiched between humans and The Third, she is trying to find her place and acceptance in this world but I don’t think that should bother her too much because it’s Honoka we’re talking about. Okay, maybe she initially had this bothersome trouble plaguing her of not wanting to kill humans, but I suppose that is needed for some sort of character development. Hence that Gravestone arc so that she could fight herself (because you are your greatest enemy), and then come to realization that if there comes a time where she needs to use her blade, then she’ll use it. No more hesitation and dilemma of sulking like a baby about the principals she swore to stick with. Because life is very much like a grey area, never so obvious in black and white and there are thin fine lines between just about everything. Even forgiving Blue Breaker so as to show us she has greatly matured and in control of her anger. So mature that it even confused a highly intelligent robot! Damn. So we just turned Honoka into a lost girl into a cool casual team leader and eventually the planet’s saviour. All hail mighty Honoka!

In order not to paint her as some heartless mercenary or killing human machine whatever, that’s why we sometimes see her supposedly cute side when she flusters (part and parcel of this series’ brand as comedy?). Like also trolling us she would be falling for Iks because yeah, no other guys in town looks as handsome as he is. And of course she isn’t totally a brute and she could be some sort of cultured person too because she loves reciting that Donna Myfree poems that until this day I have no clue what its abstract lines try to say. Like, huh?! Who the f*ck?! What the f*ck has that got to do with everything?! That’s why it feels a little bit unrelated.

Then there is this mysterious guy known as Iks. Your hot guy of the series. Unfortunately my guts rang like hell earlier on that he was like some sort of sentient being from outer space, so it came to no surprise the revelation about his role at the end. The way he pops up anywhere, goes missing anything and hints about knowing just about everything. Does that not say a lot about his character? Yeah, that spoiled it for me. Iks takes on mostly the observer role as he lets viewers guess who he is but veterans like yours truly could already tell from miles away. So as to keep the mystery of his character, the reason why he is tight lip on certain subjects and he is being casual with whatever decisions the characters make. He isn’t against it nor is he supportive of it. Because if that is what they think it is, then so be it and so he shall accept that decision. Yeah, pretty much on the fence guy. After all, that is what observers are supposed to do, right? So no wonder he didn’t head to Steel Gorge the first time he landed on this planet is because he needed time to wander about, see how the world is doing before making his decision. Yeah, also to troll us with some sort of romance with Honoka because obviously we’ve got to show that Honoka is still human (or The Third) and that she has some feelings too. Basically Iks taking over the observer’s role in the end is like some sort of confession to her because now he gets to travel and be with her a little longer.

Couldn’t make head or tail about this Jouganki dude at first. Is he the antagonist or an ally for Honoka? It sounded like the former because he hints he wants her abilities. But can a mild mannered man be a villain? As we see, he is unlike those faceless and nameless councils of The Third since he has some sort of compassion too. So perhaps he needed Honoka’s abilities for a good cause but since Honoka won’t let him, there’s that. What are the chances he has feelings for Honoka too because he always lets her off lightly. I’m very sure she is that certain person occupying his heart as Rona mentioned. Very sure. His expression just doesn’t show it. Which makes my theory that The Third are closer to robots because of their mostly emotionless expression. Not sure if he is one of the higher ups of the central management too because the council really put him high on a pedestal and consider him a very important person although Jouganki himself doesn’t really want to go with that.

Other characters are rather okay. They give some variety to the series but I don’t really see them as too significant to the overall story. Like Paifu seems to be there to be Honoka’s rival-cum-partner because this busty lesbian is interested in this tomboy but somehow can’t get her way with her. So she’s like providing some sort of fighting assistance to Honoka and be Millie’s teacher-cum-guardian, that’s about it. Bogie being the highly intelligent AI unit serves Honoka’s needs and it could be interesting to see if this AI would actually become more human-like due to his interaction with Honoka and other humans. I mean, sometimes you hear the decisions he makes, it makes you wonder if this tank was transplanted with a dead soul of a human. Though, Bogie tries to remind us that he is still machine and all those feelings and emotional matters he doesn’t really get. But still, the wellbeing of Honoka is his utmost importance just like the planet’s wellbeing is to The Third.

Blue Breaker feels underwhelming but I suppose he exists so as to give Honoka a shot at redemption because can’t stay mad at Zankan’s murderer forever. So as to raise Honoka to a saint-like level by forgiving her enemy and letting him live. Even if it’s a robot. Yeah, a robot feeling so confused about Honoka’s goodwill. Funny. Millie, another stepping stone for Honoka to not feel guilty and get over the fact she failed to save her father. If Millie gets to grow to be strong, then hell Honoka should to. Finally there’s Joey to hint there is some romance but I guess he is just forgettable. Someone there to just fixt Bogie and be somewhat Zankan’s successor.

The action scenes are rather okay and just enough for entertainment value. Especially Honoka swinging her sword and sometimes the effects are unbelievable but I have got to remember that she uses her chi force and channels it through her sword so I guess it’s only right that she could cut through just about anything like hot butter through knife. Now you can’t even send in an entire planet’s worth or armies to fight her because we can already see how much she has evolved. Want to bet who would win the fight if God sends his angels to face Honoka?! Though, I find the fact that sometimes Honoka has to use her PSP, it’s just mostly for show and to satiate some mecha fans. I feel her PSP is just redundant because eventually Honoka comes out and uses her sword, the weapon she is so familiar with and most comfortable of using. That PSP is just like a big toy just for shows to look cool. Oh, this show has a piloted mecha! Cool! Sort of. Yeah, I guess we’re all here to see how badass Honoka cuts up stuffs with her sword. Not piloting some machine. Leave that to Gundam! To prevent Honoka hogging all the action, sometimes Bogie will back her up and fire all his cool arsenal of missiles and machine guns. And sometimes Paifu and her guns.

Art and animation are old school anime and obviously the art style is from that era. I can safely say that it looks better than many contemporary animes today despite the animation being outdated. Yeah, I guess back then people had more passion and less of those technological conveniences to easily churn out results at a touch of a button, huh? Speaking of which, there is some CGI here and mostly are on the robots. Again, I have to say that it is still better quality than today’s animes although I won’t go so far as to say it is a masterpiece. Even though you can tell they are CGI, they still look pretty decent. Like for Bogie looks pretty cool and unique as a tank. Even if the Inspection Force are boring drones, at least they didn’t skimp the CGI quality on it. Though, there are some episodes I noticed a downgrade in quality but thank goodness they don’t make this a habit. On a trivial note, The Third’s astral eyes somewhat bugged me. I won’t say they look creepy but they don’t look like the other eyes either. What am I trying to say? When I first have a closer look on them, damn I thought it looks like a vagina!!! F*CK!!!

Honoka looking so tomboyish (and perhaps androgynous) and dresses up like man. It only feels right as she spends most of her time in the desert and has to cut down things. It will look pretty suspicious if she was all dolled up, looking pretty and very feminine and can kick ass hard. Yes, that will be too fantasy-like. Also, to prevent perverts from jerking off to her… Heh… That’s why we have a mature Paifu and lolicons can fawn over Millie who looks way feminine than Honoka. And of course pretty boys like Iks and Jouganki to please the eye as well. This anime was done by the now defunct (actually now merged with I.G Productions) Xebex who did the To Love-Ru series, Love Hina, Busou Renkin, Pandora Hearts and the original Shaman King.

Voice acting is pretty okay too. Fancy finding Takehito Koyasu here as Jouganki but he sounds more subdued and nothing badass like you would hear in the Jojo series. Then there’s the late Unshou Ishizuka as Bogie and speaking of such, I thought the fairy sounded familiar. Then I found out it was by the late Miyu Matsuki. Oh damn, feeling a bit sad despite it has been already many years they passed on. And I still missed identifying Rie Tanaka as Fila. The other casts are Megumi Toyoguchi as Honoka (Revy in Black Lagoon), Daisuke Namikawa as Iks (Waver in Fate/Zero), Sanae Kobayashi as Paifu (Lucy in Elfen Lied), Tomoyuki Shimura as Blue Breaker (Nakai in Bakuman), Yuki Sakata as Millie, Yuuji Ueda as Joey (Takeshi in Pokemon AKA more popularly known as Brock in the west), Hitomi Nabatame as Rona (Margery Daw in Shakugan No Shana) and Juurouta Kosugi as the narrator (Arlong in One Piece).

The opening theme is Sajou No Yume by Yuko Sasaki. Sounds pretty dramatic and enigmatic in its own right. I thought this song had traces of Yuki Kajiura’s trademark in it (especially the strings part) but since I couldn’t find any info about this, it might just be coincidence. Both the ending themes are sung by Chou Hikou Shounen. ING being the first ending theme is your typical anime rock pop that should fit well in shonen-esque animes like Naruto. The second ending theme, Late Show is another rock outfit. Well, sounds okay too and I’m not going crazy over it.

Overall, it’s a pretty decent retro anime. Might not be mainstream but it’s still entertaining and watchable in its own right. I mean, when a series was released with other juggernauts and classic hits in the same season like Black Lagoon, Gintama, Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu, Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, Ouran High School Host Club, xxxHOLIC and Utawarerumono, no wonder this was easily brushed over by many. Take heart it can’t be the worst anime of that season too because that’s when Gundou Musashi also made its debut. Hah! But I believe this anime wasn’t trying to compete or go head to head with them and for now it is happy to be one of those obscure desert legends in the pile of animes of yesteryears. Smiling and pleased to those who have stumbled and watched it. I bet that line feels like a Donna Myfree worthy poem! Who the f*ck is that again?!

Candidate For Goddess

I hope this would be the last time I would say this and remind everyone who has been following me on this topic. What topic? You know when the Corona virus pandemic hit our shores, right? Yup, those lockdown years, remember? Uh huh. Then those list of emergency animes I drew up as substitutes? Yup. That one. Guess what? What if I tell you that Candidate For Goddess AKA Megami Kouhosei is actually the final series at the bottom of that barrel! You read that right. It feels like such a long time to finally reach the end but yeah, there’s a reason why I have put this off for a long time. Not really enthusiastic about this series but at the same time I was curious about this retro and that is why it is left hanging for a long time at the lowest level of my list. Finally. The day of reckoning is here. The chapter of this dreaded incident can now come to a close. I hope.

Episode 1
As narrated, Ingrids are 5 giant humanoid fighting vessels (mecha?) that humans pilot to fight off an alien entity known as Victim who is trying to conquer their home world of Zion. All current pilot candidates are trained on GOA before they can pilot one. However it seems there is an accident. A trainee named Zero Enna has fallen into a cockpit of an Ingrid. Leena Fujimura tries to get him out but system isn’t responding. Meanwhile Zero sees his past. He was separated from his mother as everyone scrambled for shelter when Victim attacked. He thought he was done for but a white Ingrid saved the day and especially him. Meanwhile Azuma Hijikata who is the instructor is about to see his new trainees and notices Zero missing. Because the system cannot trace him all over GOA, this could only mean one thing. Meanwhile Zero sees some woman who is trying to show him something but she claims he is seeing the same thing as her. Great timing as the Victim alert is sounded. All scramble to your battle stations. All Goddess Pilot are on standby for launch. This upsets Gareas Elidd because he is supposed to be the Goddess Pilot for this Ingrid. Zero continues to see his dream that he wanted to become a Goddess Pilot. So he left mom and promised to come home when he is so. The woman is trying to guide Zero on how to do stuffs but he is low on his confidence and thinks he doesn’t have the knowledge of a pilot yet. After several attempts, Leena manages to get the mandatory abort order through. This allows Gareas to remove Zero from the cockpit and take his rightful seat inside Ingrid. All Ingrids launch successfully.

Episode 2
As the Ingrids engage in this seahorse Victim, Gareas realizes his Ingrid is moving the way he wants. It is making its own moves. Could it be because of that candidate did something? Meanwhile other pilots in lesser models are sent out to help support the Ingrids. One of them being Erts Virny Cocteau. It seems he doesn’t want to fight. Azuma has pilot candidates, Hiead Gner and Clay Cliff Fortran wait at the sick bay. Hiead claims he can fight using a trainee model but Azuma tells him to follow orders. The duo is then forced to help Dr Rill Croford to amputate a mechanic’s leg. Gruesome. Once that is done, Clay is shocked to see his fellow pilot candidate Zero here. He is in comatose state. Zero dreams of a girl asking to find her. This wakes him up so he starts asking about for that woman. Who the f*ck knows what you’re talking?! It is then Hiead asks him if he has been inside an Ingrid. Because Zero will not say, this causes both of them to fight. You wonder why Azuma is letting them do that. It’s because he wants to let them display their power known as EX despite within the confines of GOA. As Hiead uses his EX to block Zero’s, he notes that it is only this power that will make them become real Goddess Pilots. Despite Erts not wanting to fight, he still puts up an awesome show of skill and leadership to not let his comrades get killed. Though, he looks like he regrets fighting. How can humans keep on fighting like this?

Episode 3
Aside Zero, Hiead and Clay, the other top pilot candidates in their batch are Yamagi Kushida and Roose Sawamura. The trio are also roommates because basically you can’t have everyone to have their own rooms, no? Clay sounds like the brainy type but are we listening? Zero seems to want to challenge Hiead to everything but the latter just plays it cool. We see the candidates go through vigorous training. The baffling one is dancing?! I guess they need to get their sense of rhythm and footing. When the nurses scan their bodies for any atomic injury, it seems they are shocked they can’t find any on Zero. It’s like he has a perfect body (it is said that everyone born with some defect). One of the Goddess Pilots, Rioroute Vilgyna is badly injured and his Ingrid badly damaged. He is fine although his mechanic, Philphleora Deed is worried like hell. Better make a stronger Ingrid so he won’t die next time. Zero continues his dumb challenges on Hiead but ultimately I can see he is the loser. More training and more adjustments. When Clay asks how he got into the Ingrid, Zero doesn’t really remember. But we see how he accidentally fell in and the system then automatically started to recalibrate and connect to him as though he was the new Goddess Pilot. Zero remembers the excitement when Ingrid moved along with him. Clay notes that with no errors showing up on Zero, this means he has adapted to it and his rejection quotient is infinite. Soon, Azuma has the candidates take a live test.

Episode 4
The pilots aren’t going to fly alone. They have mechanics who will support them too as well as draw out their power. So we have top 5 mechanic ladies who are excited to get paired with the pilot candidates. Before the live test, Azuma introduces the candidates to the mechanics. So choose your partner wisely? Clay partners with Saki Mimori, Roose gets Wrecka Toesing, Ikhny Allecto goes for Hiead, Tsukasa Kuscha for Yamagi and I suppose Kizna Towryk lucked out and got Zero. Yeah, she sees how uncouth and childish this guy is. When Zero accidentally knocks off her cap and reveals her animal ears, she becomes mad. She hates him and runs away. Azuma tells Zero to get her back or he won’t be able to do the test. So he finds her and tells her he doesn’t mind those ears (is he also saying he doesn’t care?) because he needs her otherwise he won’t be able to take the test. Like a caveman, he carries her and rushes back. It’s the fastest way but oh well, Zero being Zero. Meanwhile Hiead is first to try out this training simulator. Not sure about this vision of himself he is seeing but once he gets over that and Ikhny supporting him well, he passes it with flying colours. Yeah, I bypassed all that technical mumbo jumbo. Next is Clay. This panicky guy doesn’t even last for 4 seconds and fails! What does he mean he doesn’t have enough info?! Fail! Zero is back and he is hard up to be next. However Azuma first slaps Kizna and has her remind who she is. Pretty childish of her to run away from her responsibilities, no? Zero also wants the same treatment since he is her partner. In that case, Azuma punches him! Not fair! Just be glad to know that was just a warning. Zero and Kizna patch things up and promise to not run away again. Meanwhile Rioroute laments the state he is. Unlike the Ingrids that can be forever repaired, Goddess Pilots can get wounded and even their EX depleted. How long can they stay as pilots?

Episode 5
Zero’s test run begins. You might think that Zero and Kizna are arguing but I guess that’s the way they communicate. Yeah, Zero sounding so bossy but as his support, she has to bring the best out of him even if it means tolerating his behaviour. But it is Azuma being a dick this time as he reminds Zero of his zero gravity phobia. This is when Zero realizes there is nothing under his feet and gets sick. Oh damn, he throws up! Kizna tries to do some damage control but as Azuma says, if he cannot get over his phobia, there is no way he can become a Goddess Pilot. During the run, Hiead leaves the room. Ikhny approaches him because she saw some anomaly in his memories. That is when Hiead gets scary as he warns and reminds her that she is just his support. Don’t pry into his head. Wow. Scary. Once Zero has regain his composure, he is pretty confident in intercepting the Victim so he has Kizna give him some parameters for the obstacles ahead. Damn, the interface sure looks like Atari level graphics! In the end, Zero passes with perfect score. After the training, it seems Kizna is trying to hide Zero’s hair or something, hence her weird hot and cold treatment on him. Later she tells him about some EX reaction that changes his hair colour when he gets tuned in to a heightened battle environment. Though, this power up is only temporary. However, this is a violation and will earn him demerit points? Don’t understand. In order to help him overcome his phobia, Kizna forces Zero to put on a spacesuit and float in space. Hope he doesn’t puke inside. So while he is still afraid, she asks him if he wants to quit because it’s okay if he doesn’t want to achieve his dream. So I guess Zero needs to suck it up and remember his pledge to become a pilot. Hence Kizna adds that he just need to look forward and into his dreams. There is nothing to fear. Zero also relates how the training simulator feels different from the Ingrid he rode since that woman is not there. Hence he wants to ride the real thing.

Episode 6
Those lesser Ingrid models that others use in battle or training, they’re called Pro-Ing. Our newbies watch in awe a demo of it. So awe Zero is that he didn’t even listen to a word Azuma says. He also introduces Erts to him. His skills are so exceptional that not only he is the youngest top pilot but also a very close candidate to become a Goddess Pilot. Later, the rest are shocked at how slim Roose has become. Yeah, not that fatty kid anymore thanks to Wrecka putting him on a secret strict diet. Because of the ambiguity in words, Zero thinks it’s sex or something so he asks Kizna if it is possible. WTF. Obviously she beats him up for asking such strange things. Yeah, the guys try to fatten Roose back up by forcing him to eat! Zero is so excited to fly a Pro-Ing that he can’t sleep. He hopes mom is doing well and when he comes back as a Goddess Pilot, his colony will have more energy. Last time I saw his flashback when he left, uhm, mom doesn’t look so good… More flashback as we see Zero whose real name is Rei, complaining to mom how his classmates teased about his name meaning Zero. She told him it is a name his father gave to him and there’s nothing to be shy about it. Next day, he asks the rest if they remember their moms. Clay thinks with all the stuffs they have learnt, it is possible they may have overridden such memories. For Yamagi, he is glad he has forgotten that broad. Before training begins, the newbies are paired up with their Pro-Ing seniors. Zero is paired with Erts. As they begin, Erts assures Zero this training is land based so no need to fear his zero gravity phobia. It seems Erts has this ability to read minds. Zero’s thoughts were strong enough then for him to read. Erts praises Zero for losing his fear then and his will to become a pilot. Zero has what his older brother has. Ernest is one of the Goddess Pilots. The reason Erts fears fighting is because despite you destroy your enemy, you also destroy part of yourself. Zero takes a more optimistic view because the only way is to move forward.

Episode 7
Zero-Erts is up against Clay-Aracd Narocke. As Erts predicted, Aracd targets Zero and they end up in a locked wrestling combat, which is a disadvantage to Zero. It seems Zero is moving faster than predicted. Kizna wants to do adjustments but Azuma tells her to let Zero figure it out himself. He is the one who needs to adapt and get a feel of the environment. This works as Zero is soon adapting to his environment. Meanwhile, Clay tries to run away from the fight! Too bad he has to deal with Erts. While this training is going on, our Goddess Pilots are fighting another Victim. This time, Gareas became desperate and reckless. He could have died had not the top Goddess Pilot, Teela Zain Elmes come to his rescue that also destroys the Victim entirely. Back on base, a mad Ernest beats up Gareas for his recklessness. He understands his feelings but he was just lucky he got out of this alive. Gareas is also scared because during the battle, he heard Ingrid’s voice telling him to stop. Back to the training, cowardly Clay gets cornered and falls off a cliff. This disrupts the fight between Zero and Aracd, allowing the latter to take advantage and push him off the stage. Yup, free falling zero gravity. At this point Clay’s EX starts to activate. Zero is cowering in fear as Kizna tries to get him out of his phobia. However Zero could see a vision of Kizna being killed. Azuma orders a forced termination but Kizna won’t give up. Finally her voice reaches him as Zero returns to the battlefield. Hence a flashback of Zero and Kizna’s talk during that space floating training. Something about Teela because women don’t have EX and that’s why they can’t become pilots. But Teela was exceptional and that’s why she is where she is. Hence it’s like Kizna putting her dreams of becoming a pilot all into Zero.

Episode 8
For some reason, the rest aren’t allowed to watch the training of Roose and Yamagi. Hence Erts has Zero hang out with him via fencing? Okay. Erts asks if he is scared of him as a telepathist since many stayed away from him. Well, it doesn’t bother Zero. Good. But how can Zero wins against one who reads minds? He can’t. Even if he tries his brute force without thinking, Erts is still able to catch up and win. But after the match, Erts suddenly starts to shiver in fear. Meanwhile a huge swarm of Victim is detected targeting Zion. The Goddess Pilots are thrown into action. This time, Ernest finding the big mother boss and being the reckless one just to protect his comrades. It costs him his life! Although Teela manages to deal some damage and the swarm escapes. Back at base, Tune Youg (Ernest’s mechanic) reports he is dead. The Ingrid is heavily damaged. Teela orders her to fix it while she goes to commission for a new pilot. Duty over feelings. This leaves Gareas very upset and sad. He was supposed to die but Ernest took that place. Azuma then gets the news and is given the authority to select the next Goddess Pilot. He chooses Erts. Erts isn’t shocked because he knows this means his brother is dead. Erts soon packs his bags and heads off, vowing to follow Ernest’s will. Then a space funeral for Ernest. They have a national anthem too? Sorry folks, sounds like a carnival to me. Tune regretting things she should have said to him when he was alive. Like how she loved him. I guess that’s what happens when you’re too scared. Does kissing a corpse mean anything? All salute to our brave fallen soldier! Also, press F to pay respects! Just kidding!

Episode 9
Erts is now officially a Goddess Pilot. Even his Ingrid has a new name. Although Tune will continue to be his mechanic. But what’s this? Zero and his pals are in a countryside school?! Before you can say this is some filler episode, Zero is snapped back to reality. Seems he has this dream while in the midst of training and because of that, he lost. So when they tease him about it, Zero talks about this dream where the horizon was endless. Clay believes it wasn’t his colony home world but a real planet. And Zion is the only planet around. Yamagi talks about his colony being shut down. It’s his reason of becoming a pilot to save everyone for Victim. Is this supposed to be Zero’s reason too? Well, he’s not entirely sure. Back to the dream, Zero’s EX start to go berserk. You see, Clay thinks that in order to test his hypothesis, hence to recreate the very same environment Zero was in. This means sneaking into the simulator and recreating the environment of Zero inside Ingrid. Because now they’re in trouble as malfunctions are happening all over GOA! Rill and Azuma come to check the trouble. From Rill’s analysis, Zero’s EX is not dangerous but they can’t suddenly wake him up and he must do it on his own. Zero sees Teela in his dream as she tells him he’ll find the answer if he rides an Ingrid. Once Zero has gotten a hold of his dream, now he is seen talking to mom. He realizes he can’t remember her face nor the friends he has back on the colony. But he knows he loves her and everyone else. That is why he is going to save everyone, the reason he becomes a pilot. Whatever the outcome, mom will always support him. He thanks mom as he gets up and leaves. With renewed confidence, Zero now looks forward to the day he can ride an Ingrid because answers are waiting for him. Meanwhile Hiead wants to duel with his senior, Force Wartlliam. Seems he has this goal of defeating and removing anyone in the way until he is the only one who can manipulate the Goddess.

Episode 10
Hiead’s EX goes out of control and Force takes a brutal beating. Azuma wants Hiead to be ejected into space and retrieve him later to save Force but Rill doesn’t approve of this barbaric method and puts Hiead to sleep. Both are taken to the infirmary to recover. Ikhny becomes sad when she sees how well Zero and Kizna’s relationship are going. So she really wants to get inside Hiead’s head? Clay then tries to hack the system and find out more data on Hiead but to his shock, there are none. Heck, there are also no data on the other candidates. With Hiead back to normal, everyone keeps their distance from this moody guy. Except for Zero. Still trying to be friendly. Can’t read the room? A short snippet on Hiead’s past. Looks pretty violent. Killed some thugs in the alley? He vows to use this new power to live on. Then there is this test to select the next top pilot. Looks like battle royale in space to me. It seems Hiead is obsessed in tracking down Zero and fighting him. Although Ikhny tries to dispense some advice, she is told to STFU. By the time Hiead finds Zero, the first test is over. On a side note, Clay tried his usual running away tactic and as expected, didn’t last for seconds. A disillusioned Ikhny talks to Kizna who advises her that they should survive since it’s a way for Hiead to acknowledge her. However this gives Ikhny a devilish idea as she sabotages Zero’s Pro-Ing. When the next round begins, suddenly an announcement for the test to be cancelled as there is an emergency request by the Goddess Pilots to help support them. This means they’re going into real battle. Ikhny then realizes the grave mistake she has done.

Episode 11
The Victim swarm is back. How can 5 Ingrids keep all of them away? I guess this is where the pilot candidates come in. All they have to do is stand in line and shoot any stray Victims that get past our Goddess Pilots. Just think of it as your extended shooting training. Easy, right? At first, Zero’s Pro-Ing seems to be hard to control but Zero eventually manages to get a hold of it. I guess this means he has also gotten over his zero gravity phobia. While on standby, they talk about why Victim targets Zion. Yeah, the hint could be why Victim is named so. Then how the f*ck did they get a stray Victim slip past them?! And even so, all of them are bad shots! Luckily Hiead manages to shoot it down. Need more training you guys! Seriously. However at this point Zero’s Pro-Ing starts to go out of control and Kizna can’t communicate with him. The other guys think it is pretty normal for Zero. After all, they have strict orders not to move from their position. Plus, more strays are coming through. Kizna is so worried that she snaps back at Azuma to help recover Zero. Because if he dies, he is the one who will get court martialled! She’s got a point. When Zero finally manages to wrest back control, he now finds himself amidst the swarm. I know he is amazed but shouldn’t he be doing something? Even Rioroute can only do so much. Stop being at awe! And then something happens. It seems Zero and Hiead’s EX activate and it’s like it stops time? Teela then uses this chance to use some ultimate move to blast away the swarm. In the aftermath, Azuma wants to discipline Zero and Hiead for disobeying orders. But he just warns them that there are many other pilot candidates to replace them. So go ahead if you want to die. Zero thought Hiead came to his rescue but he brushes that off and just wanted to test his EX. Zero argues with Kizna she didn’t maintain his machine properly. She claims she did. That is when an emotional Ikhny reveals she was the one. However Kizna is quick on the uptake and takes the blame that she didn’t do a thorough job. Later Ikhny talks to Kizna but so as not to dampen the mood, they sing? Well, sounds better than that national anthem. Meanwhile Teela notes Zero and Hiead’s EX reaction simultaneously happened with hers.

Episode 12
What’s this?! Why do we need a flashback story?! From a dead character?! We hear from Ernest when he was a rookie pilot, everyone stayed away from him because of his EX that can read thoughts. However Gareas was the first to talk to him and became his friend. Yeah, aim to become the Goddess Pilot together! Because of his confidence and liveliness, nobody saw the dark secret he has. That exploded one day during training when his EX went out of controlled. Bloodied all over. Only Ernest could hear Gareas screaming inside his heart. That was when he really vowed to become a Goddess Pilot. But now he notes the emergence of a couple of special pilots and they are Zero and Hiead. They are even more special than others. Yeah, flashback of their training simulator. IS THIS EPISODE ALSO A PART RECAP?! Next, Ernest narrates a Goddess Pilot’s job of defending Zion from Victim. Each time they win, their moment of peace is brief but it’s worth it. We see Ernest and his fellow Goddess Pilots and mechanics having fun together during those times. How such times would last forever. Hence he laments of failing to keep his promise to Tune. Another short recap of his funeral as well as the time Zero accidentally fell into an Ingrid. This is to note that Zero is special because he is able to control his EX unlike the rest. And the voice that called him? Ernest knows but he can’t tell us as he is not himself. What a freaking cliff-hanger! So now he is just a spirit of Erts’ Ingrid? Yeah, Goddess Pilots and the pilot candidates continue to work together to fight Victim.

Episode 13 (OVA)
We’re going back to the time when Zero and is starting to be a pilot candidate. As narrated, Zion is the only planet left after others are being destroyed by Victim. That’s why humans are so hell bent in protecting it. Zero and co are being transported to GOA. Zero being the country bumpkin is in awe with everything. First time seeing Zion like this. Azuma is also on this flight as he learns about Zero’s phobia of zero gravity. He is in shock since the data didn’t say any of this. Zero is proud of some blood type he has and since his EX is also cleared, he is in high spirits of becoming the Goddess Pilot. Speaking of the real ones, they just finish off fighting a big Victim. The explosion causes the ship to rock a little, causing Zero to fall over Hiead. WTF this seemingly gay moment?! Hiead is not impressed with Zero’s dream and of course the hot head will not let that fly as he uses his EX to, uhm, pull down his pants?! WTF?! They finally dock on GOA as Zero makes friends with Clay. Clay explains about the Ingrids whose origins and manufacturers are unknown. Of course the best one is being piloted by the top Goddess Pilot who is a woman. After the Goddess Pilots return from their mission and dock their Ingrids, Leena gets right away to service them. Then we see some higher ups discussing the current Goddess Pilots are sufficient to stave off Victim threats. However this cannot last forever as using EX will endanger their lives. Hence the backup of having several pilot candidates and the reason for GOA’s existence. Zero just had some traumatic haircut experience (is it me or does his hairstyle still look the same) and soon he gets lost. Yes, he wanders about into the Ingrids’ hangar. He is startled when one of them starts to react to him. Leena then spots this unauthorized kid walking around and tries to tell him to get off. However he falls into the cockpit and the rest is history. Uh huh. We see how the system recalibrates and adjusts itself to accept Zero since he is very compatible with it. Leena furiously tries to abort this but nothing she does including the emergency abortion has any effect. And as we all know, Zero hears the voice of a woman telling him to find her.

Oh My Goddess!
Now I can definitely see why many didn’t have favourable reviews of this series. Uh huh. It is so obvious it didn’t solve anything and for it to end on somewhat a cliff-hanger note, it leaves more questions than answers. Of course there is the original manga source that has already long ended its run back in 2001 (the anime came out in 2000) and it’s like trying to tell us to go check it out if you want to have a conclusion to all your begging questions and curiosity satiated. Too bad, some of us like yours truly only get their info and fill from the animated version (too lazy to go read! Or can you even find those out-of-print materials today?). Therefore all hope of any answers are quickly extinguished since this series never got a sequel, reboot or remake. Yeah, come to think of it, perhaps it is better that way. Between the devil and the deep blue sea, that is, between an unsatisfying ending of the TV series and the unsatisfying remake, I think I will take the former any time, any day.

As said, the biggest problem of this animated series is the storyline. Actually when I think about it, I can’t put a finger on what it is supposed to be. Sure, the main premise of humans defending the last habitable planet from alien invaders is generally it. And as the title suggests, perhaps the focus would be on new potential rookie pilots. However I just don’t see that throughout the dozen over episodes and I felt the plot was just meandering here and there. Worse of all, they throw in bits and pieces of interesting developments but in the end, nothing comes out of it. I could list several paragraphs of it but I guess I would be just wasting my time. Because, why rehash the same unanswered questions when what we want are answers! Am I right?!

But to give just a few examples for the sake of argument and discussion, there is this old dude whom I believe is one of the top dogs of GOA. It is hinted that Teela has some sort of relationship with him. That is as far as this anime shows us. Anything more, don’t ask. Very teasing, huh? It makes us scratch our heads wondering what the deal is this dude and why is he so important to her. If the anime omitted this, I am very sure that there will be no problems. This can be applied to 90% of other stuffs too. However if you omit them, what will this show have? Nothing. That’s right. So all those bits and pieces are just to tease and eventually make us wonder and confuse even further once the season ends. What a disappointment. Others like that EX thingy felt like plot device. Ooooh, these guys have some sort of power. WTF I don’t even clearly know what it is but it is meant to be something cool so accept it! Yeah. What a bummer.

This means the entire casts are a big disappointment too. When you already have a weak storyline adapted, the characters too somehow become accomplices in this crime. Obviously for a short series that lasts only 1 season, there are too many characters! While we all don’t really care about the numbers, eventually this affects the quality and hence the reason why I am complaining about this. Because of the sheer amount of characters, the spotlight has to be divided among them. Of course Zero being the main character gets most of the limelight but even watching the entire season, I felt that his character has gone nowhere. Same like the rest. Status quo. If you know Zero as the hot headed guy who is bloody adamant to ride that white Ingrid who saved his life in the beginning, be glad to know that he is still that same darn bloody character right in the end. Oh, what’s this? You’re saying he has fear of zero gravity? Oh wow! What a way to add some character! It’s like as though you want to be a pirate but fear the seas. Something that he needs to overcome and grow stronger, right? Yup. Character development. So quick he seemingly overcame it that I thought he was just putting up an act. Yeah. That.

Otherwise, a lot of other things like I have said before, feels wasted. Especially about his perfect body that lacks any atomic injury. Wow. They brought that up once and never again. What a way to tease us and leave us hanging forever. And what’s this about the girl in his vision telling him to find her? Yeah. Another great mystery and cock teaser. Good luck to you hardworking people who decide to find out more and go dig your archives of this retro manga for answers. And don’t get me started how he even decided to go with the Zero name that he was often bullied about instead of his original Rei. Oh well, I guess zero multiplied by zero is also zero. HAHAHA!!! Get what I’m saying?! As long as he remains overly passionate to his dream, we can write off his dumbness, retard and lack of gentlemanly behaviour as because he’s got the will and guts! Yeah!

The rest of the other pilot candidates are also guilty of this but can you blame them? Not enough episodes to flesh them all out so they look really unimportant and well, just there. Like this Hiead guy whom my guts tell me will be Zero’s rival. But too bad he looks a lot grumpier and brooding more than anything else. Sure, every group has such dickhead and it’s sad to see Hiead get this sort of treatment when he could’ve flown to greater heights. At least in my imagination. Then there is Clay who is supposed to be the ‘brainy’ guy of the group but I find him to mostly give snarky comments and his favourite catchphrase is “This is very interesting…”. Well, it should be if they just give us some answers! Not sure if he is supposed to be the comic relief of the group because he is mostly chicken and his best strategy in combat is always to run away but it often backfires. How the f*ck did he even end up as a pilot candidate? I don’t know what those bosses see in his EX but whatever. On the fringe of this quintet are Yamagi and Roose who feel like they’re just there to make up the numbers. While Yamagi teases us with a very brief situation of his hometown and dreams, what do we know about the ex-fatty? None. So, what else can I say? These are the next best generation pilots and hope they’ve got against Victim? I hope they do better. And to think they’ve got this seemingly cigarette smoking ‘tough’ instructor Azuma to guide them. I don’t know, sometimes I feel he is their best friend-cum-father more than a drill sergeant.

If you think these pilot candidates are bad, wait till you realize their mechanic partners. They are worse off in this character development segment. The whole idea of pairing is because no pilots should fly alone. At least the burden of defending Earth. The pilots can focus solely on flying their machines to defend Zion and leave the technical parts and maintenance to the ladies. That’s the plan. However as you can see, they also feel like fringes. Obviously Kizna gets more screen time than the rest because she is paired with the main character. Saw it coming too that they’re going to argue a lot because it only feels livelier that way. Because if you’re like those girls of Yamagi and Roose whose names I still can’t remember at this point, I’m betting they get along fine and that’s why they’re so boring. And then you got Ikhny who looks like she could turn psycho because of Hiead treating her indifferently. It could’ve been more interesting to see this pair play out but in the end, we got nothing. Sadly, these girls in the end felt like they don’t really matter at all.

Before I forget, I wonder why Kizna has animal ears. I want to say there are other kinds of species but apparently I don’t see other people around with such ears. Therefore from my point of view, she is the only one who has this feature although everyone else do not get surprised. Meaning to say that they are aware of this. But why only her? Where’s the rest? Is she the only qualified animal ear tribe to be on GOA? Very weird. I guess they need to add something to her to make her stand out from the rest of the pack. After all, glasses girl already goes to Ikhny and the twintail girl already goes to Saki. Get what I’m saying? So there you have it, slap some animal ears on her because are you going to be racist if you don’t like it? Yeah, nobody cares alright. See?

From time to time, we are given focus on the Goddess Pilots. Yeah, if I should say, they have their fair share of screen time. A fair share of their own problems and drama but of course as we all know, the greatest offender of not having enough episodes to flesh them out, zips their relationship through. Hence the confusion if you’re wondering if Zero’s new side are the main characters or these veteran Goddess Pilots. So much so you might notice in my entire blog I left out one of them. That taciturn Japanese looking guy and his equally taciturn sister as his mechanic. Yeah, what are their names again… Oh right, Yuu and Hikura Kazuhi. One of the very few shocking moments is that they killed off one of the veterans just to remind us that this is no child’s play. And of course, plot device to promote Erts. I guess that’s the only reason why they introduced this odd characters. But I guess it is better than the other senior candidate pilots who just made their cameo once and then what the f*ck happened to them we all don’t care. Uh huh. GOA is said to house about 3,000 of them so I wonder if those other pilots are stuck in this job forever if they don’t get promoted to pilot an Ingrid. Yeah, must be.

After all, I wanted to say just make more Ingrids for them but I have to remind myself that these machines cannot be replicated by man (although ironically they can be repaired and maintained) and that’s why they are limited in numbers. It’s a privilege to be given the Goddess Pilot’s seat, you know! Thank goodness they come as colour coded to tell them apart. Sort of. Too bad they can’t combine further like Voltron to become a bigger robot. What a waste. Hence my dumb conspiracy theory that Ingrids actually belong to Victim and mankind stole it to destroy the universe! WHAT?! You know that time Clay hacked into the system and found missing data? Yeah, what if there is some shady activity to hide the real history of mankind? Because they are the ones who went about destroying other life forms, stole these mechas and then claim Zion which is the last and actual home world for Victims as their own! Now you know why they are named so?! That woman in Zero’s vision? She’s the Victim queen! You know why Zero can’t remember his mom’s face? Maybe Zero’s true lineage is that he is actually a Victim! Other than his perfect body, mom is a monster! Those dreams a planted memories! Oh yeah. I’m going overboard with my conspiracy theories, am I? I did not go so far to scour the internet to confirm this theory of mine but hey, there could be some truths in it and darn I’ll be surprised if they actually are!

To further nit-pick on this series, I want to point out the very weird names these characters have. Sure, they want to make it sound different than your standard commoner John Smith or Yamada and Satou types. However I have this feeling that some of the characters they were in a dilemma to name them. So they blindfold themselves and throw a dart at the alphabet chart to get some of their names. I mean, how the f*ck can you even come up with names like Hiead or Ikhny, Rioroute or Philphleora?! Good luck trying to pronounce these names correctly on your first try. They want to make Kizna sound like some Eastern European origin or something because Towryk sure looks like one. Or did the cat walked over the keyboard and the author got inspired seeing those jumbled alphabets together?! Sure, sure. Trying to Romanize the Japanese characters is one thing and back then I don’t think there’s this standard spelling for the characters in English and that’s why some characters may have different spelling to their names. Like Gareas some spelt as Galew as it is pronounced in the anime.

With a show about big giant robots fighting big giant alien monsters in space, you’d think the redemption would be on its action, right? Well, no. The action bits feel more like side shows but I guess it is a good thing they don’t focus too much on it because imagine if you drag out the Victim fight to several episodes! Damn, we don’t have enough episodes in a season! But even so, it feels a lot mediocre and forced because you know, there has to be some sort of fight between humanity and Victim. Until today, I still don’t know what those Ingrids can actually do. I don’t know what kind of power they have even for Teela’s Ingrid, I just know she can do some super cool move that is unexplained to save the day AKA plot convenience for good guys to win. That’s it. Otherwise, I’d rather go watch a live action sentai show of a Masked Rider fighting the villain of the day. Yeah.

As for the art and animation, no prizes to guess it reeks of that era’s style and so all the characters are looking like those who from that era. Like Zero is your typical spikey haired main character, Hiead your brooding silver haired bishonen and Ikhny your plain bespectacled chick. So I don’t blame you if you see Lucy of Elfen Lied in Kizna because yeah, in certain shades they almost look the same. For some odd reason I keep seeing Metal Slug’s Fiolina in Saki despite both aren’t even close to each other. Oh wait, or is it that character from Tenchi Muyo? I wonder if this how caters to shotacon because you see how sexily the boys dress with their shorts and short sleeves but the girls who are mechanics, they’re covered up wearing long ones. So there’s no immediate danger in piloting?

Of course now we have to talk about CGI. Wow… It’s actually not that bad. Although I won’t say it is close to being a masterpiece or even passing the good level, at least it is still much better than some of today’s bad CGI quality. I believe the Ingrids are totally rendered in 3D. Their movements look pretty smooth too so I have to give them some credit there. They try to look awesome but the longer I look at their face, the scarier it becomes. Yeah, why do they have to have that creepy looking mask-like face? Are they some gigantic porcelain dolls in space or what? This anime was done by the now defunct Xebec who did the original Shaman King, Haiyore! Nyaruko-san, the To Love-Ru series and Love Hina.

I didn’t want to bother with the voice acting since they sound rather okay and nothing special. Until I noticed Rie Kugimiya as Ikhny and now I have to bother. Heh. Yeah, not in trademark tsundere mode but at least if you pay attention, you’ll know it is her. Then there’s a few which I didn’t quite catch on because of their limited appearance. Mainly Norio Wakamoto as that old dude Teela has some relationship with and Ayako Kawasumi as Hikura. Heck, even Akira Ishida had double roles here as Yuu and Aracd. So minimal that I even fail to notice. Yeah. The biggest blunder is not realizing the late Keiji Fujiwara as Azuma. Wow. Have I really forgotten how he sounds? Other casts are Yukimasa Obi as Zero (Cisca in Starship Operators), Miki Nagasawa as Kizna (Lisa in eX-Driver), Susumu Chiba as Hiead (Kondou in Gintama – really, this guy?!), Hiroyuki Yoshino as Clay (Mic in Boku No Hero Academia), Chiemi Chiba as Saki (Mio on To Love-Ru), Kenji Nojima as Erts (Eiji in Banana Fish), Yuri Amano as Teela (Momoko in All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku), Wataru Takagi as Gareas (Genta Kojima in Detective Conan), Kouichi Toochika as Rioroute (Neji in Naruto) and Yumi Kakazu as Leena (Mir in Geneshaft).

The opening theme is Aim For Zion, The Planet Of Hope by Tomoyuki Asakawa. Well, I want to give it points because this entire song is instrumental. Yeah, sometimes songs are best when they have no singing. However it sounds so grand and if I hear it without the context that this song is this series’ opener, it sounds like a song from an old Disney movie or one of those old American TV series of the 70’s or 80’s because of all the hyped and jazzy fanfare. Sure, it’s a splendour of grandeur but somehow when I think back that it is the opening song for this show, I just realize it just doesn’t fit. So there’s the plus minus and zero sum game of this song. The ending theme is Chance by Kouhei Koizumi. Sounds just okay as a normal anime pop. Nothing special. The same singer sings the final episode’s song, Kagayaki. A slow and breathy ballad with dramatic orchestra sings.

Overall, this series has been hampered mainly by its storyline pacing and characters that seem to go nowhere. It leaves viewers hanging with more questions than answers by teasing us with bits of potentials that got nowhere close to anything and as far as the adapted series is concerned, more of a nothing burger. Sad to say, there are many other space and sci-fi action series of that era that could easily surpass this one like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Outlaw Star, Soukyuu No Fafner, Vandread, Martian Successor Nadesico and even Blue Gender. Yeah, watching this from this point in time, it feels like I’m having first world problems. Like, I’m the victim of watching a bad retro! No matter how hard humanity tried to save Zion, unfortunately they couldn’t save this anime. A victim of its own failure. Sorry, bad pun. But I just wanted to say that ;p.

Muv-Luv Alternative S2

There is always hope. Just like I have for many animes. Like this one. Uh huh. With the prequel being somewhat a boring disappointment, my hope is that Muv-Luv Alternative S2 will the season that fixes all that. Get back to what it is important. Yes. Instead of humans fighting humans in some petty political ideology stuffs, can I get more of that monster BETA chomping action that throws humanity into despair instead? Oh, what was it I was saying again about hope? As long as humans persevere and never give up, there will always be a chance to come back victorious, right? Even if that chance is 0.000001%, at least there is still a chance and not completely zero. Hope!

Episode 13
Woah! What’s this? Sexy Meiya waking up next to Takeru?! You bet jealous Sumika will be so mad. Before you start wondering if you’re watching a reboot of the series, be informed this is another one of those time trips Yuuko sent him back. Yeah, no time to waste here. I’m sure Takeru would love to stay in this happy world with all his friends like they should have been. Then he goes to see Yuuko to get whatever documents that he needs and she gladly gives it to him. That night, he talks to Sumika and she asks if he could imagine a world without her and he passionately replies he can’t. I’m sure she is happy about it but Takeru vows to come home. He returns to reality and gives the documents to Yuuko. Hmm… Don’t remember but he can bring physical stuffs back now? Anyway, Yuuko is happy because this is what she wants. Yeah, took herself to figure what she wants. Oh damn, I’m so confused… She thanks him for being the world’s hero. So end of this anime?! Oh well, at least the first step to avert Alternative V is happening. Next morning, Takeru and his girls are summoned to converge in the hall. When he sees many officers coming in, especially the base commander Radhabinod, he thinks it is over because he is the one who announced Alternative V. But that didn’t happen until Christmas. Did he screw up? Actually, he is here to graduate them as he praises them for the hope they have given. Also a personal letter from Yuuhi to thank them for their contributions during her rescue mission. Basically, they are also promoted as pilots of the UN force and have earned their wings. After it is over, they go to emotionally thank Marimo for all that she has done and made them for who they are. Well, now they outrank her and she won’t be guiding them anymore.

Episode 14
Takeru and co’s promotion means they will be posted to Yokohama base. Oh wow. Marimo is also posted there? The emotional goodbye must be looking embarrassing now, huh? Their first task is to participate in a training with veteran TSFs. This is to implement Takeru’s OS and see if it works. At the end of the day, it works like a charm and they get high ratings for it. Though, Takeru thinks they could’ve done much better. Takeru is then called by the veterans. They sound intimidating that they don’t believe he came up with this system. Turns out they actually love it and praise him as a genius. Takeru’s confidence is boosted and he believes he can save mankind. When training resumes, suddenly BETA pop up and attack! Takeru is shocked to see some units getting decimated despite having OS. Then there are orders for the newbies to go retrieve the weapons (because their training weapons are just mock weapons). Because of the drugs sedating them, this has an adverse effect on Takeru. He becomes aggressive and thinks the veterans are looking down on them, treating them as rookies. He is told off that his unit has mobility and to get to it. As they get moving, Takeru is still not happy with this. He starts to engage BETA and tries to kill them. However he gets torn apart. Everything goes offline. Too late for regrets. About saving mankind. About Sumika. He gets so scared he wet his pants and screams for someone to save him! In the aftermath, the BETA wave is wiped out. Takeru sits dejectedly outside his decimated mecha as his girls feel his pain but leave him alone. Only Marimo talks to him and praises him he held out this long for reinforcements to come. However Takeru regrets talking big. Now that he has faced BETA, he is nothing but a coward. Marimo doesn’t care if he is a coward or brave. As long as he lives long enough to protect others, this is enough. She relates her own story that all her comrades got killed and she is the only survivor. Then she thought the purpose of her survival was to help many others to survive. It is the only way to make it up to her dead comrades. And another secret of hers: She also wetted herself. Now don’t go telling others this! Just when Takeru is about to pick himself up, suddenly a BETA sneaks up behind and chomps off Marimo’s head!!! OMG! WTF???!!! Back to the depths of despair for Takeru.

Episode 15
Safe to say, Takeru has been completely traumatized. Back in his room, he is full of regrets. Meiya talks to him about all this being destiny and fate. But this only makes things worse as he blows his top and is he going to rape her?! She allows if it makes him feel better. Then he sees Marimo’s face in her. Bugger runs away in fear! He thinks he wants to go back to the other world where there is no BETA. Oh dear. Look at that crazy rape face. You’re making Kasumi scared! Yuuko tells him off not to bully her and if he wants to go back, so be it. They make the preparations as she cautions him about some caveats because when that happens, he will cease to exist. Yeah, wonder why he needs to apologize to Kasumi for not being able to keep his promise. Weakling. Takeru is back to his own world. But he still doesn’t look happy with everyone around. And then… Here is Marimo! OMG. This guy just got emotional and started crying! WTF?! This drama is so embarrassing. Hell, this guy can’t stop bawling like a baby when Marimo is around. Thank goodness she is kind enough to stay by his side and then listen to him. In the end, she is understanding enough and remains positive after he talks to her about everything. But the next day, MARIMO IS FOUND DEAD!!! OMFG!!! WTF?! Her stalker got jealous seeing her talking to a guy (that’s you, Takeru) and pushed her into a meat slicer! OMFG!!! Sure, the stalker got arrested but now it’s trauma time all over again for Takeru. Yuuko then learns what happened. So he brought back whatever this causality crap with him from the other world, huh? Yeah, it’s your fault? Yuuko worries this whole world will become distorted with Takeru at the centre. No point regretting to not come back here in the first place. It gets worse as Sumika is also affected. You sure didn’t come back here to make her feel like this, do you? Takeru plays hooky and at the end of the day, Meiya talks to him. She tells him Yuuko told her to stay away from him. He tells what happened that day and still blames himself. He asks if she wants to run away from here. Gladly. At that tree spot, Meiya asks if he would like to go somewhere tomorrow since it is his birthday. Oh? Okay. Anywhere. As long as it is with her. Gladly. Meanwhile Sumika leaves a message on Takeru’s phone. They were planning a surprise birthday party for him but looking how things turned out, maybe it’s cancelled. She still wants to celebrate with him, though? Want to go out somewhere tomorrow?

Episode 16
Takeru is about to go out with Meiya. Suddenly she doesn’t remember last night’s promise. Heck, she doesn’t even remember talking with him. Oh, forget about that, who the f*ck is he?! He talks to Yuuko about this and there’s some weird technical thingy about both worlds using Takeru as a pipe to flow info. HUH?! Don’t understand! In the end, nobody will remember him. Takeru tries to remain positive he can be friends with them again but Yuuko cautions that their memories will reset again. Yeah. Condemned to be alone forever. When Sumika meets him in the streets, he gets very agitated and tells her off not to see him again because he hates her. That will make things better, right? Later she still continues to be with him despite all the hurtful things he said. She wants to know what happened. Did she do something to make him hate her? Well, never try, never know. Hence Takeru tells about his parallel life in the other world right up till Marimo’s death. This makes Sumika believe that she will remember him no matter what. They’ll always be together. Well, when a girl says this much, it must be true, right? At least it gives Takeru some hope. Yeah, they even kiss. This will surely be unforgettable, no? Next day at school just as Takeru has resolved himself, the dreaded thing happens. Yes, Sumika forgets who he is! F*cking kiss didn’t work!!! Worse, she gets crushed under the basketball board! Oh dear. Bloody. A distraught Takeru sees Yuuko and wants to die. Yuuko says Sumika is still alive although her condition is critical. Then she brings him to Sumika’s home. See all the diaries she kept and wrote about him? Damn, is Takeru her observational subject?! Yeah, brings tears to your eyes to read and remember everything from Sumika’s memories, eh? Now Takeru is resolved that as long as Sumika is alive, he doesn’t care if he is forgotten. Yuuko then theorizes about his emotional strength influencing and acting as a causality conductor. WTF I don’t even understand… Her goal now is to send him back to the other world since he doesn’t belong here. In his absence, this world’s effects will be undone. So in that other world, he must find out what caused this causality conductor. Once that is resolved, only then he can return to his original world. Takeru looks forward to undo the damage he has done. Strap it in because he’ll be back there for a while.

Episode 17
Yuuko and Takeru sneak into some lab. More theories from her about how he cannot die and more accurately he actually dies but each time he comes back, he loses his memories of that. HUH?! So uhm, a few devices and cables are what going to send Takeru back? Yuuko then reveals the documents her counterpart gave her had instructions for almost all situations including one if Takeru doesn’t come back. Her other side is cunning enough to word it in a way to keep her from realizing the outcome knowing that she would be preoccupied with this time travelling thingy. As Yuuko readies the machine and before the guards barge in, she has Takeru scream out his love for Sumika. And back he goes. So when he apologizes to this Yuuko, she clarifies that she is doing this because their interest aligned. She is going to find him a role suitable for the next phase. Calling him to her office, she introduces Unit 00. Uhm, Sumika?! Not a joke, but she is the product of Alternative IV and the key to destroy BETA. Well, Sumika gets worked up, screaming kill all BETA! She collapses after Takeru tries to calm her down. Seeing this, Yuuko wants him to help fine tune her. That will be his new role. Later when Takeru stumbles into Meiya, she throws him a few punch for not telling them and making them worried he was away on a special mission. But now he’s back, right? Takeru is then inducted into A-01 Squadron. Some new members too. Yeah, all girls. Led by Captain Michiru Isumi, some of the other members introduced are Haruka Suzumiya, Mitsuki Hayase and Misae Munakata. All are students under Marimo too. Later the rest introduces themselves. They are Touko Kazama, Haruko Kashiwagi, Akane Suzumiya (Haruka’s sister – sorry, not the one from Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien. Oh wait. Sh*t. YOU MEAN IT’S HER?! AND SO IS HARUKA?!) and Sakura Usuki. Of course Takeru is glad to also be reunited with his usual girls. They all got to Marimo’s death site to pay their respects and vow to do the best they can.

Episode 18
This brain that was captured at the Yokohama hive, yup that’s Sumika. Yuuko explains more confusing mumbo jumbo. As the perfect specimen to create Unit 00, the biggest problem is transferring her personality. Because to translate what BETA thinks, they need a human personality to do that. Yeah, they have to be careful with every biological aspect of that or it’ll lead to her human parts dying. Takeru understands the Sumika of this world is killed. Takeru’s role is to get Sumika functioning in a week. How? He tries to talk to her but her trauma starts acting up. The only thing he can do to calm her down is hug her. This goes on for quite a while and although she is slowly improving, they won’t make it at this pace. Because A-01 Squadron’s role is to eventually protect Sumika. Yuuko then hints that she has setup things all along. Meaning, she was the one who killed Marimo! She gives Takeru a gun to shoot her since the programme can run without her. But Takeru shows his mature side and won’t. Whatever his reasons I don’t understand, he believes the Sumika now is better than before. To prove her survival meant something, he is prepared to fight to the end. This is how he will make amends to the dead. Takeru goes to Sumika and the usual scene plays out. Kasumi noting how Sumika is like this only with him as her feelings are usually more mixed up. Kasumi reveals she has been reading their memories and assures Sumika’s memories of him are happy ones. On another day, the same ol’ Sumika trauma. This time she is yelling not to take Takeru from her. Sad that he left her, he assures otherwise. But now that Sumika acknowledges him, Takeru feels now is the right moment. He gives her a wood carving present he made himself and tells about the promise to be her Santa every year. She gets up close and cosy with him until her trauma acts up again. Now she blames them for taking everything from her and will kill them all! Another round of assurance that he’ll always be with her to calm her down. That didn’t last long. Because now she looks like a calm plotting murderer as she claims she can finally get revenge on them for killing him. WTF is going on?!

Episode 19
Sumika suddenly acting like the Sumika he knows. Phew. Wait. Did we skip a lot here?! Because suddenly a mission briefing in taking the fight to BETA. FINALLY! Lots of mumbo-jumbo here but A-01 Squadron’s mission is to guard and escort a secret weapon. That is the essence of this mission. To test this experimental weapon, Susano-O Mark II. Yeah, this robot is so damn huge and to Takeru’s fear, Sumika will be piloting it into BETA’s hive and drop some bombs that are more devastating than the atomic version. Later Tsukuyomi talks to Takeru privately and has a favour to ask of him: Take care of Meiya because he is the only one she can rely on as her unit has been relieved of the duty to protect her. Due to the last events, looks like the Americans know about the shogun double. So to avoid Americans carrying out something similar, they have to pretend and show Meiya is not related to the shogun and thus no more protection. Basically abandoning her and commissioning her to be killed in action. Distraught at first, Takeru looks at the positive side because now Meiya can live as she wishes. Next few scenes show A-01 Squadron undergoing more training to get in shape for the important mission. More mission debriefing as Michiru explains the various parties involved in this mission and their mission to escort as well as clear the path while this weapon is being delivered. As A-01 Squadron move out to begin their mission, Takeru talks to Haruko about the latter hoping all this will go well so her brothers don’t have to fight. It may be a selfish thought that she prioritizes her family but that’s how it is. This has Takeru think he is also selfish when it comes to Sumika. Then he talks to Michiru and WTF do we need to hear her unrequited love for a man? Yeah, making it more amusing is how all the other girls who are after his heart are her sisters! She hints her youngest sister is part of this operation. Michiru gets jealous hearing Takeru’s childhood friendship with Sumika. So she orders him to come back alive so that he can make amends to her.

Episode 20
The invasion on Sado begins. Finally! The action on BETA we have been waiting for! Don’t really get all that military manoeuvres and communication but hell yeah, need to see more dead BETA even if we know this is eventually going to be a losing battle. Takeru and his girls enter the battlefield for the first time. This is what a real bloodied BETA battlefield looks like. Welcome to hell. The surface invasion goes as planned. The vanguard then makes its entry into a few levels deep into hive to analyse and scout. Looks like you’re going to be in for some shocking numbers. 40,000 BETA reserves digging straight up to the surface! With Susano-O landed, now it is up to Squadron A-01 to do their job. They easily take out the BETA vanguard. As long as there is no Laser class, they’ll be fine. Speaking of them, here they come. Yuuko deducing BETA is after Susano-O, the reason they did not bring out the Laser class first. Yeah, what kind of hardware are they using to know? Squadron A-01 is ordered to hide as everyone switches to anti-laser shells. The next plan is to hide in this valley and let the advancing BETA swarm advance. Then they’ll pop up to attack them from the back before turning around and back others in taking down the Laser class. While waiting without the power, this dark cockpit brings back haunting memories for Takeru. Hope his therapy is working. But what the heck? Visions of sexy Meiya on him?! No time for that as the mission resumes. More BETA slaughter as the Fort class are trying to protect the Laser class. At this rate they will be overwhelmed and Susano-O will be in their line of fire. Takeru suggests to be the diversion while the rest go in for the kill. Somebody needs to play the hero and live up to his reputation as ace pilot.

Episode 21
Takeru looks like he is having too much on his plate. Some think of backing him up but as Takeru’s girls put it, have faith in him! He said he will get it done so believe in him. And that pays off as we see Takeru pulling off his slick moves to make BETA drop like ants. Now Susano-O has come into the picture. Once its laser is charged, it fires and HOLY SH*T! The entire BETA on the surface including this hive is destroyed! Can’t blame grown men for crying. Finally mankind has hope to defeat those BETA bastards. Susano-O recharges and fires another round at another hive. Yet another success! However after that, Sumika suddenly passes out, causing Susano-O to crash. The team scramble to find what is wrong. Yuuko then communicates to Takeru about this. Looks like the machine is fine so it could only mean Sumika is unconscious. Here’s the plan: Takeru is to retrieve Sumika and then Michiru will try to activate the autopilot manually since the remote autopilot is not working. If that fails, they are forced to blow it up so BETA cannot get its hands on it. It’s a shame to lose their secret weapon but it’s a risk they can’t take. Takeru is distraught to see an unconscious Sumika in the cockpit. He takes her out as Michiru scrambles for the manual activation. More bad news as a horde of BETA is detected to reach the surface all over Sado. Because of this, the best escape route planned by Yuuko for Takeru’s is blocked. There is a longer route he can take but he will not have enough fuel and will be caught in the self-destruct blast. The admiral has another plan and with his artillery ships entering the bay untouched and giving their firing support, there is still a slim chance.

Episode 22
The artillery ships may be in the direct line of fire from BETA but they are equipped with weapons and shields to fight them. The escape plan begins with the vanguard clearing a path for Takeru’s escape with Sumika. Michiru then has Meiya and Haruko escort Takeru, leaving her behind. Before you can talk about honour in death, Michiru gives her pep talk about doing so is only good for once. And if you plan to do that, make sure you get the biggest return. They move out and along the way, encounter a few BETA resistance. Sumika wakes up for a while. This causes all BETA to stop dead in their tracks. Wow. It’s like they’re glitching. Even Susano-O’s programme starts to respond and boot up. However Sumika falls back unconscious and hell resumes. With BETA hordes detected heading towards Susano-O, Yuuko has Michiru cancel the autopilot and switch to self-destruct. Because Haruko’s unit is damaged, she decides to go back to Michiru. Even if they get through this BETA, she cannot last long enough to make it back all the way. Takeru and Meiya rendezvous with the vanguard. They will be scot free once they reach the beach but sorry, more BETA has been detected popping up all over the island.

Episode 23
Michiru needs Haruko to buy her a few more seconds. But I guess she took too long. Haruko gets KIA. There’s only one option left. That’s right. Michiru will be going down with the ship. However she’s going to take down all the BETA on Sado with her. Literally destroying the entire island to prevent BETA from invading the mainland. Not sure what she activated because now all the BETA on the island is drawn to her. This gives Takeru and others a path to escape out and back to the rendezvous point. After Takeru puts Sumika back in the infirmary, he goes to see Yuuko. Before he gets emotional learning about Haruko’s death and Michiru’s suicidal mission, Yuuko reminds her that this is vital to save many other lives and to keep Alternative IV afloat. A plan that Michiru herself has worked hard to keep afloat. After Michiru activates the self-destruct, she contacts Yuuko. Wow. With only 10 minutes on the clock, Yuuko allows her to say her goodbye to her subordinates but spends half that time talking to her?! Okay. At least Michiru gets the good news her sister survived and didn’t have any serious injuries. Then Michiru talks with Takeru. The irony Michiru remains compose and calm while Takeru is getting all emotional. Yeah, he respects her and all. We know that. That itself eats up half the remaining time! Finally, a group goodbye to the rest of her subordinates. Must be a quick one. Now it’s all over. At least for Michiru. A giant dark matter-like explosion engulfs all over Sado.

Episode 24
Apparently that blast eradicated BETA from all over Japan?! FOR REAL?! An official funeral is held for those who perish. Michiru’s sisters are shocked as they break down when they receive a letter of her official death. An accident during TSF training?! WTF?! A-01 Squadron is briefed about the next mission to target the hive on the Korean peninsula. Mitsuki is made the leader of A-01 Squadron. Later we see Meiya talking to Takeru about Michiru’s words to her. After that, Akane learns from Takeru about Haruko’s final actions. It’s not classified info so he tells as it is. Yeah, gonna go cry alone. He then visits Sumika who is starting her tantrums again. It seems she has this fear Takeru doesn’t love her anymore. Once more, Takeru’s strong affirmation that he’ll never leave lulls her to sleep. Kasumi translates Sumika’s meaning is that she thought he was in love with another girl. A busy day for Takeru as now he sees Yuuko about the next mission. However she warns that UN now has cold feet because Alternative V proponents have decided to use this outcome as a failure. She can’t tell them the whole truth yet as she is trying to lure them out into the open. There is also plans to take on the main hive and that’s why their next mission is important. Takeru believes Sumika is in no shape for combat so soon as Yuuko mentions about her rapidly degrading brain fluids. She is stumped on this until Takeru tells her about what Kasumi said. And then that sexy Meiya vision, it is unsure if those are memories from his previous loop but I guess the hatred for BETA and woman jealousy was enough to cause Sumika’s brain fluids to overflow. Before Takeru can blame himself again, Yuuko commends him for doing the impossible job by getting Sumika ready in record time for the Sado mission. Had those who died didn’t, it could be Takeru who died. Hence Michiru’s decision to die wasn’t a result of some coincidence and there is no better timeline than this. Meiya and the girls plant Marimo’s memorial next to Michiru’s. They remember her final last words for them. Sorry Takeru can’t be with you. He’s busy accompanying Sumika. Fixing things one step at a time.

The BETA Male Test
Wow. The finale felt like a draggy affair. The whole war on BETA is far from over but it’s like they’re closing the chapter on Japan. Yup. The land of the rising sun is now the world’s safest place from BETA. Will the BETA make a revenge comeback by having an all-out invasion on the island? That will be another story but I guess as far as for this particular series and this season, it’s like the efforts of our heroes have been rewarded. Hence the draggy finale to pay tribute to our beloved Michiru who might be with them for just a short while but has impacted the rest of their lives. Yeah. Salute to our honorary captain! Where Takeru, Sumika and the rest of the girls take from here is another different story entirely. By the time Takeru fixes things, I think he doesn’t want to go back to his non-BETA world.

Initially, I thought this season was going to be sh*t all over again. That’s right. That fear of mine was going to come true as we see the first half mainly about Takeru turning into some kind of big chicken. I know it is wrong to blame him for being that after all the trauma that he has gone through. But I thought as the main character he should have had a stronger resolve than that. Besides, didn’t he already made such resolve in the last season? And then to see him get all traumatized again and I thought the rest of this season is going to be one huge psychological trip because there so many confusing moments that I don’t get. Yeah, that part really sucked. Takeru and his moment of weakness was probably the worst part of the series and probably even sucked more than last season’s finale of bickering among humans. But I guess that is necessary to build his character. I mean, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?

Past the halfway mark after Takeru returns and regains his sanity and balls back, the attack on BETA on Sado was the much needed relief that I had been waiting for. That’s right. The action parts of man and machine taking on alien monsters for a battle of survival for the future did not disappoint. Seriously, this final stretch redeemed itself and personally added back some points that I have rashly taken off at the start. Though, still not enough to save this season entirely. Heh. Just like hope keeps trolling with us and playing with our hearts, we see how Susano-O gave everyone the much needed morale booster and confidence for the fight against BETA. Yeah, I have to admit that I too fell for this. Because eventually reality will back harder than before. Because BETA still reigns supreme especially when they have seemingly unlimited numbers. Like as though they’re using some sort of cheat code to eternal spawn more monsters. Just how many BETA are there underneath the surface? I don’t know. At this rate I’m thinking they might have so many that the Earth’s core might even be populated with them! Yeah, hope to save humanity fading pretty fast. Alternative V seems to be looking brighter and brighter now…

Takeru despite as the main character, he is only human. No doubt it was annoying to see him become a wuss after the death of Marimo, but as I have said, it was all necessary to build his character. He should be stronger in the end. I might not see it directly because he still gets emotional at times. But ah, that proves he is human, right? I mean, if he has returned and overcome his trauma, that doesn’t mean he is void of emotions. Can’t be a totally new person by being an emotionless bastard. Therefore Takeru being Takeru, he’ll still show some emotions from time to time. It’s okay for grown men to shed some tears. Initially, Yuuko’s character comes off more as confusing and enigmatic. Because of Takeru going back and forth between different timelines, it became more confusing with Yuuko’s actions towards her other self. It’s like she anticipated it all and knew what to do. Hey, nobody knows you better than yourself, right? So it was really perplexing and even more shocking to hear Yuuko being the orchestrator of some of the events at the beginning, especially the one who caused Marimo’s death. Like, is she playing the villain or something? I don’t know. It was all very confusing. Until the invasion on Sado, Yuuko mellows down and feels like a different person than the cunning calculative scientist I thought she was in the first half. Is this the same Yuuko?

The other character to the fore this season is of course Sumika. Her whereabouts in this world is now solved. Yeah, if you had paid attention, you would have guessed that she is that brain and the secret weapon against BETA. However I am unsure if they skipped some chapters on this part. Because as Takeru returns to this timeline and knowing about Sumika’s whereabouts, a few scenes of him trying to calm her down and ease her trauma. Oh boy, I thought perhaps the rest of the season would be to see how Takeru plays the smooth guy to smooth things over. And then suddenly, suddenly she is all fine and ready to be part of the mission to invade Sado. Uhm, were there parts cut out here because it feels rushed. Of course there is more to her than meets the eye as she is considered the most important thing for mankind against BETA. At this point, it is very curious if she is some sort of BETA queen and would rule over them because of that single scene where her consciousness stopped every BETA dead in their tracks. Hmm… I don’t know if there would be some plot twist later on but as far as this season is concerned, that’s all there is to her.

Hence the other characters especially the main girls in Takeru’s harem feels very much side-lined. Meiya feels like she has slightly more appearance (because of that weird vision from Takeru thingy) but the rest feels really forgettable. Damn, at this point I almost forgot their names! Yeah, with Takeru giving Sumika all his attention, no time for other harem shenanigans. In a way it is good because it is like the guy finally decided on which girl to settle down with. And then with them being inducted into the special A-01 Squadron, oh boy, more girls! I thought how the f*ck is he going to handle and influx of girls into his harem but thankfully that’s just my stupid assumption that didn’t come true. But even if that is the case, they too feel forgettable. I don’t know if the game fleshes them out further but as far as this season is concerned, I thought that since they don’t have any such fleshing out, they would be BETA sacrifices! I mean, that’s the only reason why this squad needs more members, right? Can’t have Takeru’s main harem get killed and what better way to substitute that with new characters that at this point we don’t even feel connected to. Both good and bad thing, the casualties from this squad are only Haruko and Michiru. Yeah, dedicating the penultimate episode just for the latter’s goodbye.

On a side note, I find it curious and amusing that Haruka and Akane look a lot like their counterparts from the Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien series and even joked to myself that some timeline shenanigans had them crossover into this timeline. Heck, even that Mitsuki girl is here. So I thought they got the same crossover treatment like Takeru being pulled from a non-BETA world into one. Instead of some tragic romance, now they are forced to fight BETA! Well, jokes on me because I soon discovered that both games were created by the same company, Age! Oh f*ck. I wonder if they have other games in the series with characters having the same crossover treatment. Well, none. Those are the only games Age has made.

If there is a character whom I somewhat feel disappointed the most, it would be Sakura. Actually I do not even remember her character had they not briefly pointed this out on her. If you remember the first episode of the first season whereby BETA invaded Sado and everyone perished save for a lone girl hiding in the closet, yup, Sakura is that girl. She is now grown up and part of this special squadron. Unfortunately she didn’t do any special jack sh*t or anything out of the ordinary. That’s why she’s so forgettable and it made me wonder what the heck was all this for instead. In the end, she is still seen wallowing over Michiru’s death. Is this all she is good for? I thought perhaps the game fleshed out her character more until I discovered that she only existed only in the anime! Oh my. An anime only character. What a waste. So is this all part of the trolling? You know, trying to give people like me some sort of false hope and anticipation? Yeah. They succeeded in that. No wonder I can’t help feel disappointed with her character now that they got me thinking about it.

This season’s opening theme is Akatsuki Wo Ute by JAM Project and Minami Kuribayashi. If you’re familiar with JAM Project’s trademark rock music, you’d feel very much at home here with this one. Personally, it just sounds average to me as there are other anime songs that fare better than this that I personally like better (example, Scrapped Princess, Busou Renkin, One Punch Man and Yomigaeru Sora: Rescue Wings). As for the ending theme, Sakai by V.W.P sounds like some slow rock ballad. Again, sounds average to me. So who this group who sang the opener in the first season? Don’t know much about this virtual group but I read some of its members have some voice acting lines in this season. Not that I care anyway.

Overall, this season still falls short of expectations and is not as great. However it is not as bad as the first season so I guess that itself is an achievement? Comments and reviews online are divided and mixed about this season. Especially those who have played the game would definitely curse this abomination because you know, the biggest issue of adapting a game with hundreds of hours of gameplay and cut scenes is to cut out so many parts and condense them into parts to nicely fit the airing schedule. And of course simpletons like yours truly who knows nothing about it will be left confused especially the first half being some psychological trauma on the main character and the second half somewhat slightly redeemed itself with some BETA action. So will there be another season? Well, there is always that small chance of hope. Yeah, why do I have a feeling that we have a better chance of getting that instead of eradicating BETA?!

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

Well, you know how bad your game is when you have to release an anime version to overturn all that negative perception! I’m talking about Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, of course. I have to admit that I am not really a big fan nor am I that interested in that action role playing game by CD Projekt Red, Cyberpunk 2077. But I guess there was a ‘scandal’ that was big enough for me to hear how disastrous the game was from its calamitous release back in April 2020 after being delayed multiple times and the game itself bugged with several gameplay issues. You bet that didn’t sit well with many gamers and it has become the butt of memes, jokes and criticisms for all the wrong reasons. I bet it would have been all forgotten by now had they not release this anime version in which I see it as a plea for fans and gamers to give it a second chance. Well, sorry folks. I’m only here for the anime. Not the game. Oh wait. This adaptation done by Netflix?! Oh dear…

Episode 1
Who this behemoth hunk mowing down the police?! Nobody can stop this big chunk of massacre! Until of course he runs out of juice and then the police owns him. Turns out to be some game David Martinez is playing from Ripperdoc and he likes it. But back in reality, looks like David and his single mom are financially strapped and they’re barely living the minimum standards. David makes his way to school and we see the dystopian future and different classes of the haves and have nots. Not sure why kids need to attend school if they’re going to hook up to their visor and go virtual. However, the whole thing short circuits thanks to David’s unlicensed programme. Mom is called in and they are forced to compensate. The principal thinks David doesn’t fit in but mom is adamant to keep her son here. On the way back, of course mom lectures David about it all. David thinks he really doesn’t fit in and wants to quit school and work, causing mom to be sad because she has been busting her ass day and night so he can get a decent education. Okay, okay. So David will stay and do his best. Suddenly they get caught in the middle of a crossfire between gangs. They crash. The rescue team abandons them because they aren’t on the list? Not sure how David got out of there because he sent mom to some quack hospital. Surgery is a success but he has to pay up whatever fees. He goes home and tries to find whatever he can scavenge to sell. Then he is confronted by his cocky classmate, Katsuo who tells him off to drop out. After mom insults, he uses his kung fu software to beat the sh*t out of David. More bad news for David as he is told that mom will not survive. But wasn’t the surgery okay? Yeah it was. At least for the discount package! She won’t make it and is given the funeral package. Oh damn. Mom then dies as David carries her jar of ashes back. Yeah, can’t even enter his home because his rent is overdue! Just climb in from the ventilation! Now that he is stressed up and desperate, David then barges into Ripperdoc’s place. Sorry to interrupt your virtual orgy but David isn’t here to sell whatever. He wants to fuse up with something and chrome up.

Episode 2
At first Ripperdoc doesn’t want to install whatever but then agrees in exchange for something. David endures a painful surgery on his entire spine to install this Sandevistan implant then walks all the way to school just to beat the crap out of Katsuo. He doesn’t care if this is all caught on camera and that he will be expelled. The beat down is done, he goes home. So what now? Yeah. Screwed. Meanwhile Katsuo’s dad, Tanaka who is some exec of Arasaka Corp, his assistant tells him about David’s case. Because David underwent that implant and showed no side effects of some cyberpsychotic thingy, he suggests he could be a prime candidate to test some product of theirs. As David is in the train, he catches this thief, Lucy trying to steal his chip. She turns the tables on him and has him work with her to steal the chips of others and they’ll split the bounty. David agrees and finds it easy with his abilities to steal those chips without the owners even realizing it. After all that is done, David suddenly starts to bleed and collapse. In the ambulance, the doctor mentioning about he didn’t take some precautions while installing the implant and thus this effect. Because the doctor wants to take out his chip and sell it for a high price, Lucy rescues David after renegotiating their cut as they ride out of the ambulance onto the freeway! They go see Ripperdoc who gives some meds. Of course he is charging him since he isn’t doing charity. He warns David not to screw around too much or the implant will fry his brains. Don’t say he didn’t warn you. Lucy brings David back to her place to drink and talk about things. Like Edgerunners being another word for Cyberpunk and a series that David is into. Then about some new life on some new planet which sounds all that good like utopia but it’s just a prison camp. David talks about his poor life and how his mom tried to work hard to get money for him but died. He stuck on because mom was doing it for him. Lucy tells him he shouldn’t work to achieve dreams of others but his own. She claims this city is worse than a prison camp and wants to get as far away from here. Then she takes him to some VR simulation of the moon. They hang out and have a blast. Just when the vibes between them are good, David is knocked back into reality. Some badass guy claiming Sandevistan belongs to him and he wants it back. Did Lucy sell him out?

Episode 3
Maine claims he bought it from a supplier but after he made the upfront payment, got ghosted. When he learns his supplier is David’s mom and she just died, Maine lets him off the hook for now. David explains how she died and this implant has nothing to do with it. He offers to pay back by doing jobs but Maine will not allow it. After he shows what he can do, Maine will give him a chance. David feels sore that Lucy lied to him and waited for her buddies to come. She didn’t plan on this but since Maine couldn’t shut up about his missing implant and she accidentally stumbled upon him using it, she had to do something. David returns home and gets a message from his principal who congratulates him of his reinstatement as well as scholarship with some demerit points removed as long as he apologizes (courtesy from Tanaka and his Arasaka). Of course David is not interested. Next day, David goes to meet Maine and his buddies, Kiwi, Dorio and Pilar. Now here is the lowdown on the job. Meet Maxim who is Arasaka’s driver and Tanaka’s bodyguard. They are to steal his data. Every weekend he is at some boxing match. They know his fighter will lose this weekend and what that happens, he will drown his sorrows in some bar he frequents. This is where David comes in to steal his data and he must do so without him knowing. He must hand it to Dorio to make a copy and put it back before Maxim realizes it.

Things are going well until suddenly Maxim’s boss calls. This means he is going to move out and the data hasn’t finished copying yet. Thanks to fellow Rebecca keeping him company, David and Lucy hide in his limo as they copy the data. But soon Maxim realizes his missing chip and rushes back to his limo. Well, it’s time for David to learn how to drive if he needs to get away from this raging bastard. Now Lucy will face the ride of her life as David drives haphazardly through the freeway while avoiding Maxim’s bloodthirsty goons. Eventually the last one is going to kill David but Maine arrives in time to blow the hell out of him into smithereens. With this success, Maine accepts David into his gang and gives him suppressants for Sandevistan as his fair share. Faraday then confronts Maine and he is not too happy the havoc they have created in stealing the data as Tanaka is now on high alert. Maine is not happy that the lack of info puts them in the dark although Faraday claims the less they know, the lower their risk. They are paid to get the job done and not think. Now they wait until Tanaka lets his guard down again before moving in. Maine explains to David about Faraday as the one paying them and the best fixer around. It’s simple. If you have no money, you are nothing in this business. David gets another message from the principal. About his apology? Screw it!

Episode 4
I guess David must be very free as he hounds Maine for some jobs. Well, he ain’t got any right now and since he is desperate to have one, he has David go deliver some package to Pilar and learns that his sister is Rebecca. Then Lucy calls him to hang out with him. Turns out Maine wouldn’t stop b*tching about David having no job and since she picked him up, I guess it’s her responsibility, huh? So in between confusing montages, we see David doing some training to buff himself up, enduring more painful surgery to upgrade his implants, getting into some sort of chaotic mess with his jobs that often end in some sort of bloodshed, partying with the rest of the gang, some advice Maine gives and something about if he likes Lucy or not because it’s pretty obvious he has a crush on her as well as Lucy’s dreams of going to the moon. One day, there is this mad dude taking a leak on their turf. Pilar tries to tell him off but that dude turns psycho and blows his head off! David is frozen in shock and he would’ve died from his second blast had not Maine moved fast enough to kick him out of the way. Rebecca becomes enraged and tries to gun down this motherf*cker. The rest go into action to take him down but it is ultimately David who blows this mother’s head off and somewhat saving Lucy. Of course Maine punching and smashing this guy’s head for good before he has a chance to kill David. Not sure what is wrong with Lucy but David is told to take her to Ripperdoc and fix her. After that the duo talk like David is glad to know she isn’t always lying all the time and even though he was angry with that, he isn’t the kind who holds a grudge. Lucy then mentions about one making a name not by how one lives but by how one dies. Since she laments she is stuck here, David promises to take her to the moon. So for that she kisses him and doesn’t want him to die on her.

Episode 5
Maine gives Pilar’s arms to David as Rebecca gave her permission too. I guess it’s too big for him so he’ll pass. Kiwi relays the bad news as she fails to hack into Arasaka due to its tight security. When she mentions about looking into Tanaka’s XBD files and found nothing interesting (except some gore porn that he is into) and how many of them were tuned by JK, David recognized that name. A fan of Jimmy Kurosaki who created the Edgerunner series, David explains the great editing that JK does that no others could do. David then has this idea to get Tanaka to come alone. Something about meeting JK so as to fine tune his personal fetish. I mean, would you bring an entourage just for that? The gang then hatch a plan to snag Tanaka. David meets him on pretence that he is his biggest fan. Just when Maine sneaks up on behind, JK unleashes some EMP that short circuits them out. David is then kidnapped. Dorio and Lucy chase the guy in a bid to save David. Meanwhile David finds himself surrounded by corpses and a gun in hand. Did he kill them? The police surrounds him but he automatically mows them all down! Then as they shoot his limbs off, weapons regenerate in its place until he gets gunned down for good. Turns out this is some simulation by JK as he explains most of his products are mostly for military prototypes and those with cash will pay a high amount for that kind of material. He points out to Sandevistan which was originally worn by Norris (you mean THAT CHUCK NORRIS?! Looks like him but only more buffed!) and it took some elite police to finally stop his killing spree. JK is impressed he hasn’t gone psycho yet from its effects but as David claims he won’t although JK is pretty sure he will. Then he forces David to watch another simulation. This time Dorio and Lucy barge in. JK has his armed drones to attack. While Lucy does some super hacking, David stops the drones. JK gives up and is taken hostage. JK talks to David since he is a fan of his series. Because he is not completely metal and some parts organic, he will be pushed to the limit. So either you lose yourself and go psycho or die. No in between. When Tanaka arrives to personally meet JK, the rest of the gang surround him. Tanaka will not give up without a fight and goes on the offensive. Luckily they knock him out but unfortunately JK got hit by one of Tanaka’s stray needles. With the rescue team arriving, they have no choice but to leave him dead as they kidnap Tanaka.

Episode 6
Looks like Maine is showing signs of cyberpsychotic. Because of that, while Kiwi is trying to hack into Tanaka’s mind, Maine slugs her out. To prevent further damage, Falco knocks him out. Now that they lost their only chance to hack Tanaka’s data, Dorio tells the truth about Maine’s cyberpsychotic catching up although the big guy still thinks he has got it under control. He has come this far and there is no way he is going to downgrade. Gotta keep running. Meanwhile Lucy thinks she can do it in Kiwi’s place although Dorio is very much against it. Hence Lucy turns to David and wants him to tell her she can. Well, what choice does he have? With that, Lucy gets the green light but with conditions. Lucy dives into Tanaka’s mind and begins her search. At the same time, Maine is starting to lose it. Worse, Tanaka wakes up but before David can tranquilize him out (being conscious puts Lucy in danger), Tanaka tries to convince him to stop as he reveals he is the one behind his reinstatement of the academy because he sees potential in him and is a valuable asset. This makes David hesitant. He can’t abandon his friends although Tanaka claims they are just using him. But what are the chances Arasaka will also use him? Then it gets worse as Tanaka gets short circuited and dies but not before they manage to save Lucy. Worse, Lucy points out there was no data in Tanaka. Now that Tanaka his dead and he has got some platinum premium policy, you bet the rescue squad and police are here right now! David takes Lucy and waits in the car while Maine and Dorio try to salvage Tanaka and stave off the police. David insists he wants to go help save Maine although Lucy is very much against it. Time for her to believe in him, huh? Maine has gone full cyberpsychotic as he kills all the police he sees. Dorio also gets killed in the line of fire while trying to protect him. When David returns to help him, Maine knows he is done for. Dorio is dead. This is as far as he goes. But not for David. David insists he can still help him but with those shaky hands, it’s time for him to flee. The whole place blows up as a stunned David escapes with Lucy. Keeping Maine’s arm as memento?

Episode 7
Looks like a tough David is now the head of his crew. He has a new rookie, Julio who is a big fan of his. Despite being excited on this mission, he is also exhibiting some nervousness. David and the gang bust into some house and since negotiations are not on the table, before you know it, it’s a f*cking massacre! Yeah, Rebecca being trigger happy filling up everyone with lead! Ultimately David finishes off the big boss himself. Easy. Their mission seems to rescue a kidnapped girl. Too bad Julio got too excited and rushes in. Bomb trap has his guts splattered all over. The mission is a success and his employer is pleased with it. David has also earned a reputation for himself and got a few fans admiring him. David then goes to see Ripperdoc to get more upgrades. The latter talks about Adam Smasher, a legendary hero of some 4th Corporate War. He is fully a cyborg and to some, he is a walking nightmare. David then gets a call to meet Faraday. Time for another job. A job from Militech who is Arasaka’s bitter tech rival. Faraday also wants David to get Lucy back in the game since she has been on a break ever since that Tanaka gig. Faraday doesn’t divulge in more details as he wants David to prove himself to him and see if he really lives up to his reputation. Back home, David tries to talk to Lucy into coming back but looks like she still needs more time to herself. Then they head out to the outskirts of Night City to see the stars. This has Lucy reveal about her past. Born in another country but raised in an Arasaka facility, she and several other kids were tagged as Netrunners. They were trained to serve the best megacorp in the world and this dream kept them going. Once training was over, they were sent to dive into the Old Net, an old system that was brought down by the infamous legendary hacker, Rache Bartmoss. Arasaka’s main goal was to look for lost info and knowledge. However as the Netrunners continue their mission, slowly one of them get killed off. The survivors realize that they don’t want to die for dreams of others so they make a break out of the facility. It is hinted that only Lucy survived. She wandered from place to place but settled in Night City, supposedly the best place to hide. Or maybe she just got comfortable here. She notes David still hasn’t chase and is still living out dreams of others. Maine’s. It’s not like she doesn’t understand but things are now different and she can’t be afraid of herself anymore.

Episode 8
David blows the brains off some researcher, Dr Evans as well as his innocent assistant who happen to be at the wrong place and the wrong time. A couple of Arasaka counterintelligence personnel are looking into a spate of their people being killed. They think a Netrunner is behind this but the one who killed Evans is sloppier. They need to get to the bottom of this and what better way to use a fixer as they view them as corporate lapdogs who are just self-serving. They sent a few assassins to kill Faraday but he manages to survive. Faraday then meets the boss of Militech and is told if he needs the money, then produce the results. After all, he blames Faraday for the failed Tanaka gig and no more money until he shows the results. Faraday then goes to talk to another fixer, Douglas about some cyberskeleton project which is a very tightly kept secret in Arasaka. His job is to eliminate anyone who knows about it. However a meddlesome Netrunner has been meddling in this ever since Tanaka’s death. Faraday has no idea on who it is and this whole thing comes off as weird because it can’t be an inside job as there will be traces of it. Hence Faraday’s job is to bring this Netrunner alive for him. David is out on another mission that ends in a bloody massacre. However he freezes up upon seeing a scared person but eventually Rebecca blows his brains off. Later Rebecca tries to confront him about this as he is getting more hesitant in each mission. David brushes it off although Rebecca is concerned because she doesn’t want him to end up like Pilar. David has nightmares about gunning down Evans and his assistant. He goes to see Ripperdoc for his usual meds although the quack doctor thinks he should take it slow. This makes David mad. He has the money so just give him his f*cking meds! Wow. Almost killed him. Here. Hope you happy. So it’ll be his last time coming here? Lucy then tries to confront David about this. This can’t go on. David then reveals the trauma of killing Evans and especially his assistant. Because she too had a child. Reminded him of his mom. Maybe he is losing it. Lucy thinks he should quit but he claims he has things to be done. When Maine died, he was happy Lucy ‘quit’ because he thinks she doesn’t deserve this way of life. She claims she is just taking a break. So will she come back? Uhm, not now. Just need a little more time. For what? Can’t say for now. She is shocked when he suggests they split. However something urgent comes up so she promises to talk it out back home as she goes to attend this urgency. Seems she has tracked down this Netrunner and is about to kill him but it is a trap as she gets short circuited. Faraday is glad she took the bait and it is also thanks to Kiwi who helped set this.

Episode 9
Faraday and Kiwi talk why Tanaka and Arasaka want David back so bad because he is so compatible with Sandevistan, they want to turn him into a lab rat to run more tests. So when Lucy hacked into Tanaka’s mind, she saw David’s info and erased it and hope Arasaka’s plan for him would disappear. Maine and Dorio were just collateral for that scheme of hers. She probably killed many others along the way just to save him. Now with Lucy in their hands, they believe Arasaka will welcome them. And of course, David is their bargaining chip as Faraday sends him on a juicy mission to hijack an Arasaka cargo. So we see some Mad Max style chase as David and his punks chase down the Arasaka convoy. Too bad for those punks, I guess it’s David and his main group to do the hijacking now. David breaks his promise to Rebecca as he uses Sandevistan to get his job done because obviously he is already showing symptoms of cyberpsychotic and being the only one who knows about it, he has her keep it a secret after promising not to use his implant. David finds the cargo is on autopilot and pulls off a daring stunt to stop the whole thing. Had to crash it into the chasm, huh? Then they have to hide in it as Militech has sent their entire military convoy to attack. Inside the cargo, Kiwi tells them about this cyberskeleton that it is carrying. Just like Sandevistan but only more advanced. Arasaka thinks this will enable them to overtake Militech’s market share and hence the top secret development. As it was mostly under Tanaka’s hand, that was how Faraday got the contract from Militech to steal it.

Faraday puts his next stage of plans into motion as he uses Lucy to do a fake communication with David to tell him to wear the cyberskeleton to save his friends. Only Rebecca is suspicious of this and warns him not to use something he doesn’t know. I mean, does he have the software to run it? Yeah well, Kiwi just downloaded it for him. David then gets into the suit. At the same time, Lucy breaks free as she relays too late about the cyberskeleton being a trap. Faraday has become a traitor for Arasaka and is using him to test this cyberskeleton against Militech. After that, Arasaka will collect him and the cyberskeleton. Faraday then disables Lucy as he forces David to get on with the job if he knows what is good for Lucy. Unlike Arasaka, Faraday believes David can survive this thing so show it to him. This makes David very angry as he is on the verge of going cyberpsychotic. But before he goes full on that, Rebecca injects his meds and returns him to normal. As Falco wonders why Militech won’t attack them, he realizes Kiwi is the traitor as she knocks him out and rides towards Militech. Once she passes them, they begin their attack. David then uses the cyberskeleton and his Sandevistan to take massacre to a whole new level. See all the blood and destruction in record speed! Despite the strain on his body the more he uses it, the one man army just annihilated Militech. And he is still up for the next gig to go rescue Lucy.

Episode 10
It’s a hell ride back to Night City as Militech and Arasaka forces try to stop David but get slaughtered in this wild vehicle pileup massacre. David is starting to lose his sh*t as he is hallucinating of his past and mom. Rebecca notes the meds do not work anymore and they have to take him to Lucy. She might the only one who can save him. After all, Ripperdoc did warn him the moment he takes the last of his meds, it’s a point of no return. Kiwi knows that her buddies will come after her once they’re done with this so she wants to quit and skip town. Faraday tells her to meet up and they’ll split their cut. However of course as expected, the bastard kills her as he will leave no witnesses. Before she dies, she contacts Falco and tells him she has placed a tracker on Faraday. This is the price she pays for failing to learn her lesson from trusting others despite the irony of teaching Lucy the same thing. The counterintelligence side realizes that this issue has gone beyond their control. At this stage David can’t burn out on his own. No worries. They have hired Smasher to handle him. Besides, the cyberskeleton was made for him in the first place. Faraday sees Douglas to hand over Lucy. However Douglas shifts the goalpost although Faraday still claims he has the bargaining chip AKA Lucy and her data in his hand. This is when David comes in and kills off all the goons. Smasher comes into the scene and has a showdown with David. David’s goal is to get an injured Faraday who is being taken away by the rescue team but Smasher wants to play with him. In all that helter-skelter and David losing himself, finally Lucy kisses him and wakes him up. She laments she didn’t want all of this and only wanted him to survive. David says it’s the only way to protect her from this city and everyone else he loves. He feels he isn’t worthy of her but without her, he has nothing. But she has a dream. And that’s his dream too. With Smasher still smashing, Faraday falls to his death as David rendezvous with Falco and Rebecca. However Smasher smashes Rebecca, forcing David to make his final arrangements with Falco before facing off with the behemoth. Falco takes Lucy away to escape. She wants to rescue David but no can’t do. David has put him up to this for them to escape. If they turn back, he dies for nothing. He relays David’s last words to her: Sorry, can’t go to the moon together. Eventually David loses to a much experienced and Smasher and gets killed. No regrets in death. In the aftermath, Lucy manages to make her trip to the moon. It’s not the same without David, huh?

Psychorunners: More Than Machines, Less Than Humans
Well, I guess it is true then. Because I heard a lot of memes going around how the anime is actually better than the gameplay itself! I’m taking their word for it since I didn’t play the game, let alone watch many clips of the gameplay itself. For once, the irony of how a Netflix adaptation turned something bad into something good! Yeah, we all know Netflix has this infamous reputation of tanking or ruining a series they adapt, right? But it is the reverse for this one because thanks to this anime, many players are flocking back to the game which has been greatly fixed up and is now very much playable. Should have been like this in the first place! Oh wow. The irony that the adapted version of Netflix saved the game and its reputation from further demise, huh? Oh wow. Nobody really saw Netflix doing something like this, huh? Weird for us to be saying how for once Netflix did something right!

So as far as the anime is concerned, I myself can see why it is quite interesting even without even resorting to play the game. Still not going to check out the game, though. The ending feels bittersweet but I guess as long as somebody survives, all is not lost. Story and plot wise, it might not be the most complex of storylines but it’s just, well, nothing that amazing either. To put it simply, seeing the main character living out his life and surviving the best he can on the wrong side of the law in a futuristic dystopian world. As for how far this anime ties in with the game itself, I might not be 100% correct, as I read this anime serves as a prequel to the game. I take that as they are not exactly connected to each other. This means you don’t have to watch the anime to play the game or vice versa. You won’t lose much in that sense and you don’t need to rack your brains trying to connect the intertwining plots. Though, I am not sure if the anime has some Easter Eggs from the game that fans would have spotted and greatly appreciated. Of course if you are a fan of dystopian sci-fi stories, you can find has lots of similar elements in many other games and movies such as Deus Ex, Fallout, Ghost In The Shell, Total Recall, The Matrix, Mad Max, Blade Runner and Terminator to name a few.

The best part and of course the main attracting factor of this series are the action bits. You can say that it is fast, furious, bloody and gory. If you’re an action junkie, this series is right up your alley and it doesn’t disappoint. That’s right. It isn’t for the faint hearted because you can see blood splatter all over the place and furthermore, the gory parts of the human limbs and organs, mangled and splattered all over the place as their bodies get torn apart! It lives up to all that and in every episode, somebody dies whether it is the main, supporting or even minor background characters. Yeah. They’re there just to help pile up the body count, huh? Definitely not for the faint-hearted especially with the dystopian theme where some scenes are downright disturbing (I think there was somebody having a virtual masturbation in the middle of the streets!).

As for the rest, oh well, I guess I will have say that I mixed feelings on it. By my greatest pet peeve on this series are terminologies and lingoes that they used. Being a sci-fi themed series, it is obvious that they are going to use a lot of sci-fi-like words. Therefore having such words really sound alien to me and seeing that I am not a fan of the series, I am often lost to wonder what those terms are. Yeah, too lazy to go Google! Hey, I’m not going to pause right in the middle of my show just to find out what those terms mean, okay?! But there is something that I have been bothering too. You see, as I watched with English subtitles, sometimes the English words sound a bit off. My Japanese vocab may not be that good and even more so of a series that is heavy on the sci-fi side, hence I don’t think the Japanese dialogue used such heavy lingo used in the English. Thus I am not sure if the English subs are heavily localized or it is part of the lore of the game itself. For example when they say ‘chrome up’, is it a term used only specifically in the Cyberpunk franchise or a normal term used in the entire sci-fi genre. Hence many of the dialogues are like that and it made it even harder for me to try and digest the story even further. It could have been just a really simple plot but because of the way they used such terminologies and language, it made me confused more and not understand what the heck is going on. Oh well, nothing like me to understand stuffs better like pure bloody action massacres and deaths! Yeah!

As for the characters, can’t say that they are too deep either because with the series being short (oh damn, a rare moment where the producers actually confirmed they are NOT making a SECOND SEASON?! Though, you fans gonna get a tabletop game instead!), there is nothing much to flesh most of them out. I mean, we’re here for the action, right? After all, many too will die so what’s the point in trying to give them too much screen time, no? It’s not like the series is going to last more than a single cour and going into triple digits of number of episodes, right?! So they’re just pretty sufficient for the season itself and especially like David who is the main character. In actuality, he is nothing special and just a normal kid. But if you’re living in a dystopian world like this, you would do anything to survive and it is amazing that David made it this far before he sputter out. So with the way he died, does this make him a legend? Up to you people to decide. His life as en Edgerunner isn’t anything special even though we see him turn from a rookie into a badass boss of his own crew himself, ultimately he is just like any Edgerunner who has gone cyberpsychotic. Not even he can overcome fate by beating the side effects of his abilities. Just like everyone else before him, he goes psycho and burns out. But I guess even if he is special to just 1 person, it makes his life pretty much worth it, don’t you think?

Herald Lucy. Ah yes, hot hacker chick and supposed love interest for David. One of the very few characters who managed to survive in the end because I don’t know, I thought everybody would be killed in the end but having Lucy as a survivor is perhaps the reason why the ending feels a lot bittersweet. So it’s perhaps not the physical place that Lucy wants but somebody to be with. It doesn’t matter where. She found that in David and after trying so hard to keep her man alive, only to lose him. Perhaps a reflection of her fate that she will always be alone? After all, the only survivor of Arasaka’s facility, remember? Don’t worry, David will always live on in your heart. Assuming her heart is organic, that is. Okay, sorry for bad joke.

As for the rest of the crew, I guess they’re pretty whack and crazy in their own ways. Like Maine who plays the big brother and father figure to David during his formation years as a rookie when he just joined the team. Then there is Dorio, his masculine lover who constantly keeps Maine in check since she knows he will be losing it. The most amusing character goes to Rebecca because this little petite spunky girl is just trigger happy! She is probably the most violent one among the crew as she has no qualms to unload her entire guns on her opponents until they’re out of juice! She’s crude and uncouth but somehow that makes her funny and the liveliest one among the pack. I can see how havoc the group would be had Pilar didn’t bite the dust. Yeah, both siblings are just insane. Kiwi is your usual traitor trope but needs some sort of final redemption too by helping her crew before kicking the bucket. Faraday being your typical antagonist of the series in hopes that we all should learn that crime doesn’t pay and that karma is a b*tch. You reap what you sow. Not so smart now that he is dead, huh?

For the art and animation, I have mixed feelings about it. There are both good and bad points about this aspect. While it is nice to see some of the dystopian scenes in high quality animation, however there are moments when the scenes somewhat downgrades itself. How should I explain this… Especially during fast moving action scenes, you can obviously see the lack of animation quality and it becomes lacking of details. Not sure if they did it on purpose because despite the dystopian theme, the series itself is literally quite colourful. Yeah, our main and supporting characters are mostly brightly coloured and in some scenes with the downgrade of visuals, it makes it all look a bit cartoonish. The series tries to go for an edgy sort of visuals and animation and some scenes employs CGI effects. Not that bad and definitely better than other anime series that used bad CGI. Still feels weird when seeing David using his Sandevistan ability because damn, those after shadow clone effects… Weird.

Oh right, have I mentioned that there are some nudity fanservice? As in, frontal nudity?! But those are quite rare and it is mostly blink or you’ll miss. So yeah, get your eyes peeled especially those short virtual sex scenes. And yes, Lucy’s tits. Good to know they look at least organic and not cybernetic implants! HAHAHA!!! Sighs… Character designs are pretty weird but when you a series whereby humans can fit metal parts to their body, sometimes this looks like the sci-fi dystopian version of One Piece in those terms. I just want to point out Falco looks suspiciously like Charles Bronson… And is Rebecca a love child from Hatsune Miku and Jenny XJ9? Not sure why Maine keeps reminding me of Barret from Final Fantasy VII. Must be that big buff body, huh? Also for some strange reason, I can’t help see Dorio as a buffed female Sanji of One Piece. WTF?! Is it me or does Kiwi’s hairstyle taken inspiration from He-Man?! Yeah, this show sure has crazy designs. This show is animated by Trigger and they brought to us crazy and weird shows like Kill La Kill, Inferno Cop, Little Witch Academia and Ninja Slayer From Animation.

Another factor making me watch this is Aoi Yuuki helming the role of Lucy and Kenjiro Tsuda as Ripperdoc. Though, both are pretty tame in their voice acting as their characters aren’t the rowdy type so there goes my expectations in seeing them going wild with their voices. The only other seiyuu I recognized is Sayaka Ohara making her short cameo as Evans’ assistant. The other casts are Kenn as David (Leopold in Black Clover), Hiroki Touchi as Maine (Panther Lily in Fairy Tail), Tomoyo Kurosawa as Rebecca (Kumiko in Hibike! Euphonium), Michiko Kaiden as Dorio (Rico in Shingeki No Kyojin), Takako Honda as Kiwi (Hone Onna in Jigoku Shoujo), Yasuyuki Kase as Falco (Kankurou in Naruto), Wataru Takagi as Pilar (Proud Wolf in Tensei Kenja No Isekai Life), Kazuhiko Inoue as Faraday (Gildarts in Fairy Tail), Yukihiro Misono as Smasher, Tetsuo Komura as Tanaka (Genma in Ghost Hound) and Kaito Ishikawa as Katsuo (Iida in Boku No Hero Academia).

The opening theme is This Fffire by Franz Ferdinand. The Scottish rock band, not the Archduke of Austria, mind you! If you like this kind of music or fans of the band, the song is right up your alley. But personally, I find it a bit bland (so sue me) and somehow doesn’t fit the action pace of the series. I mean, it sounds a bit weird and with the very colourful opening credits animation (short of being psychedelic), I think they’re trying to be edgy or something. As for the ending theme, Let You Down by Dawid Podsiadlo and Magdalena Laskowska is more of a slow alternative rock. I guess pretty okay for me compared to the opener but still not really my kind of music. Damn, I thought it was U2’s Bono singing it. I have sampled some of the music from the OST and many of the songwriters and singers are Polish based. Well, CD Projekt Red is Polish based so it makes sense. Sad to say that many of the songs aren’t my type either as they range from really hard punk metal rock (the kind that makes you want to do a lot of head banging) to strange techno music. There’s a lot of variety if you’re into this kind of music anyway.

Overall, the anime itself might not be a masterpiece or being close to being classified as one. I mean, do you expect this to go up with classic juggernauts like One Piece and Dragonball?! I only love it because of the exhilarating violent action parts and basically this is its selling point whether it is the anime or the game (you don’t expect an action role playing game without the action, right?!). The story and characters are pretty average and the visuals and music depend a lot on your taste and preferences. The anime did its job and now the game itself is back to being at least likeable and more importantly, playable. So what do we learn from all this? Next time, complete and make sure your games are playable with no major bugs upon release? Nope! When your game is doing badly, just release an anime of it! So when are we going to see an anime version of Assassin’s Creed: Unity, No Man’s Sky, Fallout 76 and even Daikatana! Oh right. Some games will always forever be sh*tty no matter.

Dennou Sentai Voogie’s Angel

When an invading alien force has driven us humans to a corner, how do we fight back? Create a super intelligent and highly capable and hi-tech mecha? Nope. How about stealing the aliens’ technology to create devastating nuclear firepower and weapons of mass destruction? Nope either. Well then, how about praying to God for a miracle? Nope because God doesn’t exist here. But angels do. Uhm. Sort of. In the setting of Dennou Sentai Voogie’s Angel, as you can tell and obviously see, humans created sexy cybernetic enhanced women as their last hope for salvation to fight against this sentient life form. Oh God. Why do I feel that would just accelerate and push humanity’s existence further to the brink?

Episode 1
As narrated, in the near future, Earth has fallen to a group of aliens known as Space Emigrants AKA SE. For 100 years, humanity has been living under the sea and now they have what it takes to reclaim Earth from SE. So these 5 cybernetic women will do the job, eh? So we the SE as beautiful handsome people as they conduct a meeting to wipe out humanity once and for all. And Teddy the boss wants it now! Now we see Midi reporting to Dr Crimt about the future of humanity. Looks like living underwater for 100 years have had a bad effect on humanity. Well, duh! With supplies from the surface remained cut off, looks like humanity can only survive no more than 3 years! Hence Crimt needs to hasten his plan to take Earth back from SE and his angels are their only hope. Now see those angels in training. Voogie the lively one, Rebecca the challenge nerd, Merrybell the clumsy coward and Shiori the gentle airhead. Yeah. These angels are humanity’s hope? Seeing them flop in training and getting chewed by their leader Midi, humanity is doomed! Later Voogie watches a period samurai show and gets some ideas. She calls her comrades to train with her to show off those moves but makes a fool of herself. But training is over as the alert sounds. SE has begun their attack. They sortie as Dr Woodford fill in the details. SE’s goal is to force their Aquabase surface and by doing so, they will destroy it with their hypercannon. Yeah, some pressure and oxygen science theory there! So our angels must use their Dimension Blaster to destroy it. Even though that weapon is still in experimental stage, they have no choice but to use it. Yeah, better make use of this single shot. So as the human fleets surface to attack the enemy, SE themselves are getting ready to fire the hypercannon. The angels wait until the timing is right and then fire the Dimension Blaster into the hypercannon. Did it work? Radar and communications cut off for a while… And then they resurface in a pig pod! So it’s called Strikemyer AKA Myer? Salute to our heroines as the human fleets are now free to attack the enemy without the hypercannon threat. All that awesomeness is soon lost as Midi reveals the downfall of using Dimension Blaster: Myer will lose all power and can’t function anymore. Yup, they’re dropping like a rock into the sea. Pathetic. But the SE side is now infuriated that humans have created such angels to counter them. Except Teddy. He’s laughing at these pathetic fools. Bring it on! I can see why…

Episode 2
Jay reports to Teddy about his failure but the latter isn’t angry. Instead he is happy that humans are starting to fight back and this will make things more interesting. Looks like he has his own cyborgs… Meanwhile the human fleet have to rescue the angels because Myer is stuck at the bottom of the ocean and water is sipping is! Hurry! Save us! They are supposed to be mankind’s hope… After the rescue, they join with the rest for the next mission’s debriefing. The plan is to attack them at once at their base since SE is building more hypercannons and they must destroy use this chance to destroy it before that happens. Commander Howard is to lead the next mission but he has his disagreements. He refuses to work with angels and view them nothing more as machines. Racist! This makes Voogie mad but worse, Merrybell feels hurt and runs away? Machine or not, you make a girl cry! Howard bad! As the angels are grounded, they wonder why they have no past memories since they believe they were once humans but cybernetic enhanced. Rebecca thinks having such memories and emotions will only hinder their mission. They are after all created to destroy SE. They bug Midi for answers but she isn’t saying. We see her memory of reporting to Crimt that she has adjusted the memories. She felt guilty about this but Crimt reminded her job is to observe them.

As Howard leads the airstrike, he remembers his friend got killed when the enemy took control of their own machines and attacked them. Howard lost his arm in the process and replaced with a mechanical one. The airstrike fails as all but Howard have been eliminated by the hypercannon. He survives because the angels defied orders and went to save him. However Howard will take responsibility of the deaths of his men. Hence he does a kamikaze Independence Day style as he rams right into the base! Woah! So easy?! This allows the angels to barge in. Oh Voogie, you don’t have time to mourn Howard’s death. Get on with the mission! Once inside, Midi goes down with Myer while the rest have to fight cybernetic enemies led by Ash. They lost and got captured. They realize that Ash is a cyborg like them. They tell him to give back their land they have invaded but Ash laughs at their foolishness. He claims mankind have been destroying Earth with mindless wars and destruction of nature so it is SE who actually saved it! Ash does not mind viewing himself as a tool and will be disposed of once the war ends. Midi tries to tell her angels not to be swayed by his talk but he soon reveals that Midi is actually 100% robot unlike the rest. After torturing her, Midi continues to remind the angels to maintain their dignity and pride has humans. She will activate her final programme for them and release their memory data files.

Episode 3
Time to delve into the memories of our angels. Rebecca was a successful model and living a pretty comfy life. Until that year where SE began their attack. Her parents were killed and worse, her baby. She named her baby Lex?! Sorry, no Superman story… Anyway, she also seemingly got killed but she was engulfed with hatred that she will make them all pay. Next is Merrybell. Already in a weakened constitution and bed ridden thanks to the shock from her mom’s death, the new woman whom her father remarried did not like Merrybell and viewed her as a burden. Not sure what illness she is suffering but Merrybell soon realized she is bleeding to death and doesn’t want to die. She wanted to live… Now we move to Shiori as she is an experimental subject in some facility. One day she cannot take it all now as her powers went berserk. Not even the army can touch her. She wanted to end it all and take her own life as she forced her power to go out of control. But the supervising doctor risked her life to save her and told her to live. Shiori stopped but it’s too late, the good doctor died. Finally Voogie, she awakened in Crimt’s lab having no memories of anything. She is told she is a cyborg reborn to fight invaders. When she sees a replica robot, she got scared. This unleashed her monstrous power as she cut it down. The more robots Voogie cut down, the more confused she got thinking about her unknown memories and this power she has. Now all of them remember Midi has always been there taking care of them. With their returned memories, they also unleash their superhuman powers and break free. They view Midi as their comrade and will not allow anyone to die. This is what they are fighting for, to prevent more deaths! Ash is given a run for his money as Voogie fights her while the rest go to successfully destroy the hypercannon’s engine. Ash loses and wants to be killed. Voogie holds back her anger and refuses to do so. They may be cyborgs but they have their pride as humans. Now that this base is useless, Jay plans to evacuate. But what’s this? The satellite laser in space is targeting them? Looks like Teddy too views this base as useless and is going to decimate friend or foe. You goons are abandoned. Ash uses this chance to electrocute Voogie so as to make the angels go down with him. Voogie’s strong desire to call Myer for help, that pod suddenly activates and rushes to her aid. The angels and the human fleet escape in time but Ash and his cybernetic subordinates wait for doom to arrive. They are relieved, though. Because they’ll be free of these machines… The laser hits and a huge explosion occurs.

LMAO Angel Project
DAFAQ?! WHAT THE F*CK???!!! HOW THE HELL CAN IT JUST END LIKE THAT???!!! NO WAY!!! As if the series wasn’t bad enough, they had to give this unsatisfying open ending that brings no closure at all and leaving everything else hanging?! WTF, DUDE???!! COME ON!!! Oh… Later I found out there was this summary version whereby they condensed everything into a single episode. Yeah. Like, boring! But wait! I further read that this summary episode, Dennou Sentai Voogie’s Angel: Forever And Ever has some few minutes of additional footage! OMG! This might contain some scenes that might at least give this series some sort of closure! So they trolled us to buy that just for this?! Well, too bad I can’t find that rare episode anywhere on the internet so I guess I’ll forever be stuck with this unsatisfying cliff-hanger. Yeah. It really sucks.

The story feels ordinary and if not cliché. You know, aliens want to wipe out humanity but to show us humans being tough and resilient, we have survived and attempting to make a comeback. Although it is not really that exciting of a premise, they could have at least presented it in a more interesting manner because from what I see here, this short OVA just feels like 1 random adventure-cum-mission. That’s all. Since this was an originally produced anime and not based on any manga source, that is why I sometimes feel that this idea was just an experiment. You know, the creators had an idea about something so they made it and see how it went. Because the whole thing also felt like they were winging it, I guess they dropped the idea of making more episodes or turning it into a proper series.

So whatever potential or development this series had were instantly killed and this series never saw any daylight again. You can say humanity of this series were doomed then. Because it could have been interesting to know more about the SE side and especially the seemingly fickle Teddy. Even the angels could have been better fleshed out but because of this single mission they have, looks like they blew their chance and in our eyes, they look like dumb idiots. Uh huh. More like cute and sexy cosplay women than cybernetic enhanced machines. You sure they’re not using some fanservice excuse to gun for a certain demographic? Ironically, their flashback was the most interesting point of the series but too bad it still boggles my mind why they were chosen since all of them lived in different times within the 100 year timespan since SE’s invasion. How and why they were assembled still boggles my mind. Perhaps it is their strong will to live when they were staring death in the face and being the few survivors of mankind, I suppose Crimt can’t be choosy.

This it feels like the characters have their potential wasted. Sure, 3 episodes isn’t enough to flesh things out but like I’ve said, these angels look more like a bunch of ragtag lovable idiots than anything that would make a normal person instantly think that they are actually mankind’s saviour. Which also brings me to another baffling point: How the f*ck do humans have the resources to create such hi-tech equipment if they’re stuck beneath the ocean for 100 years? Don’t tell me they discovered some mysterious energy source and materials that only exists in the bottom of the sea floor. And the best they could do is create these angels? Sorry folks, no cybernetic enhanced mermaids for you. And why don’t the SE buggers just go sea hunting and wipe out the humans? Don’t you dare tell me these aliens’ weakness is water! OMFG!!! It better not be! Water, water everywhere, not a drop left to spare. Yeah. It better not be.

Too bad when the angels have their moment of redemption in the final episode, it felt like it came too late because they are supposed to be this badass right from the start. Want to surprise us, eh? More mindboggling stuffs as I wonder why they named this series so because Voogie is not the leader. It’s Midi, right? Or am I missing something? Sure, Voogie is the main character and has the ingredients for it all. So are you saying that assuming Midi died, Voogie now takes over the leadership role of the angels? Makes me wonder if there are other cybernetic enhanced women out there as backup because if we only have these, definitely we’re screwed. Oh right. Quality over quantity. And why does Voogie have a very odd name compared to the rest? Named after Boogey Nights or something? And the scientist responsible for this project, Crimt seems to be a mysterious character. Makes me wonder if he is also the bad guy and double agent… In the sense that he could be SE origin but defected to humans due to Teddy’s autocratic dictatorship. I mean, how do you explain why humans suddenly developed some sort of technology to fight SE after 100 years, right? That’s a freaking long time for humans. The way he says this project must not fail in a gloomy tone, I don’t think I would be confident either…

It is also unfortunate that the SE side too aren’t given much prominence because I believe that there is more to this than them being presented to us as baddies of the series. At the start, we see several high ranking commanders and looks like there is some friction between them. So there is potential that there might be uneasiness between them despite the hierarchy and all. But it feels like a waste since nothing more on that is touched and we just see one of the commanders in a usual mission to wipe out humanity. So I’m also guessing that Teddy doesn’t wipe out the humans instantly despite telling his commanders to do so is probably he wants some sort of entertainment. Oh you know, where’s the fun if you just fire all your hypercannons at Earth and blow everything up instantly. Or is he trying to do this to weed out those opposing him? Wow. So much ‘interesting’ ideas that they should have hired me to write the rest of the script for the series! Alas I was born too late and couldn’t make it. Note, this series came out in 1997 and it took a year for all 3 episodes to come out. I was born in the early 80’s, by the way. Why do I feel so old…

Although the art and animation is pretty 90’s era style, unfortunately I have to say that quality of this one feels inferior. There are times when the scene and characters look a lot simpler than they should, like as though they skipped some details because the action is fast paced don’t bother animating too detailed since it will all pass in a blink of an eye. Because of that, the characters look a bit weird if you take a closer and longer look at them. Speaking of the action scenes, they’re just pretty passable and average. Nothing really special and they’re just there because it feels obligatory. To think this was done by veteran J.C. Staff, oh well, you can’t be making great animation all the time so this is one of their not so great ones.

Great to gear some recognizable seiyuus like Takehito Koyasu as Crimt, Kikuko Inoue as Shiori, Akira Ishida as Ash and even Nobuyuki Hiyama as Meyer. Of course the rest are veterans like Aya Hisakawa as Voogie, Kotono Mitsuishi as Rebecca, Shiho Kikuchi as Merrybell, Sakura Tange as Midi, Yumi Touma as Teddy, Toshiyuki Morikawa as Jay and Juurouta Kosugi as Howard. The opening theme is Motto Motto Radical Fight by the quintet angels. Your typical lively 90’s anime pop rock. All episodes have different ending themes. The first being Ganbare Otoko No Co by the duet of Sakura Tange and Shiho Kikuchi, the second is Namida No 5 Byoumai by Sakura Tange and finally Dreams by Aya Hisakawa. All just sound passable to me.

Overall, this series is disappointing and there could have been some potential but it all felt wasted and flushed down the drain. Like as though they’ve given up on saving humanity, probably the same reason was given not to put any more effort to fleshing out things further. In other words, abandoned. Next time humanity is on the brink of destruction and aliens want to kill us with dumb excuses to save the planet instead, I don’t think mother nature needs intervention from higher life forms to save her. She can take care of it all herself even if it takes a hundred or a thousand years to heal. And instead of creating sexy cyborgs to fight for us, maybe just call Goku and his Super Saiyan fellows to come save the day. That’ll be much easier and more effective. Oh wait… Never mind… I’ll stick with these cybernetic babes instead. Part machines but still totally 100% cute and sexy!

Tenbatsu Angel Rabbie

Hmm… This seems odd… Not sure what to make out of Tenbatsu Angel Rabbie because at first I thought it sounded like a hentai title. Heh. Got to get my mind out of the gutter. So when I read the synopsis about a clumsy and inept angel sent down to a dystopian Earth to help Earthlings, I thought it should be a funny series. Well…

Space angels to the rescue…
Long ago, some weird creepy angels destroyed mankind and their civilization. Yeah, no more modern Tokyo. Now we see a futuristic space station hovering over Earth. Uhm, so this is the base of angels? Today is Lasty Farson’s first day to become an angel but she is already running late. And clumsily. Yeah, how the f*ck can she tumble all the way down the stairs? Isn’t there an elevator to the top?! Anyway, her comrades are worried about her running late especially on her first day because there will be ramifications. Thank goodness she arrives in time and in 1 piece. Without further ado, Lasty codenamed Angel Rabbie is now launched down to Earth. She safely crash lands in some jungle and has her lunch stolen. Didn’t she eat before she left? When she arrives at a human settlement, nobody is interested in hearing her claims being sent from heaven to save them. An old man that some God appeared and mesmerized the villagers into finding stuffs for them. They no longer have the will to work or do anything else save listen to God’s words. So when Lasty goes to see this God herself, this b*tch deems Lasty as someone who will bring more monsters and to rid of her. So, the villagers just dumb her in a garbage bag like taking out the trash?! Turns out this God is of course and imposter and she and her underlings’ plan is to have the villagers search and give them valuable stuffs. Once they have enough, they will flee.

Lasty is saved by a young boy named Luka who tells the story of how people fear some disaster because in the past, there were some who betrayed this monster called Aterui. Hence everyone is so afraid and they thought of giving things to appease it. Luka knows this story is fake because long before Aterui came, this village was attacked by monsters and his grandpa lived to tell the tale (those not so fortunate were turned into stone). He believes they must destroy it to restore their village. Luka brings Lasty to his hideout. She then stumbles into a strange but familiar building. Its interior is exactly similar to her temple. Then this strange girl, Lukia Shawl tells her everything here is from heaven. Suddenly a monster pops up and turns some into stone. Uhm, Lasty has to seek permission and command centre must give their approval for her to transform into Rabbie? But in this form, she is now efficient as she fights the monster’s golems. Her comrades think she is no good in close quarter combat but look at how Rabbie beats down those golems! It’s like she’s a wrestling pro! Rabbie then mentions about some magical weapon used by magic powers in some great magic war. Of course Luka and his friends don’t understand as it happened a very long time ago. This monster is piloted by the imposter God as they’re trying to flee with the stuffs. Of course her underlings don’t know how to control it. Rabbie comes in to save the day so the imposter tries to preach divine punishment for defying her. Wrong word, lady. Because Rabbie will give them their divine punishment instead. She uses some laser beam satellite to blast them away. The villagers are freed as they believe a real God has saved them. Luka talks to Rabbie and realizes she is from heaven. Rabbie says she can’t get too close to Earthlings although it is her duty to protect them. Luka hopes they can still be friends. But Lasty still regretting she still haven’t had lunch…

Angel Beats Me…
Uhm… What the heck? And to think I was expecting something out of this, how wrong I was. Yup, some sort of disappointment I got instead. After watching this, it soon dawned to me that this was an originally written anime and not based on any source. While it sounds like a good thing, however the way I see things has gone, it has wasted a lot of potential. I thought the story was pretty generic even though at first glance it looked a bit interesting and when you have a main character who is somewhat clumsy but lovable, it should be something okay, right? Unfortunately it wasn’t. Hence this single OVA felt like just a one-shot idea to test and see if there was some sort of good reception from it all, then perhaps they’ll proceed to make more episodes out of it. Since it is hard to find more details on it, I guess this was the only episode ever released, so that greatly says it all.

With just a single episode, there is no justice done to everything, from the characters to the story. Everything just falls flat in the end. It’s like when we’re starting to jump in and try to understand the whole lot that is going on, the episode ends. And that’s all we’ve got. Hence making this feel a lot like a big time wasting experience. Because whatever about clumsy Lasty and her more efficient alter ego as Rabbie, her supportive command centre and even the villains who feel a bit like a discount Team Rocket, they’re just forgettable. Even more mind boggling that these are so called angels but they all look like magical girls. In space! You telling me that heaven is a base floating outside Earth’s atmosphere?! It just doesn’t feel so right. And young angels being sent to Earth to correct history, why the f*ck are they sent instead? Can’t God do the job Himself? You see, so much question marks and nothing gets answered. What a waste of everything.

If there’s one redeeming factor about this series, it’s the ending theme. I’m not saying I love the ending song which is of the same name of this series. But when you have an edgy rock piece that spams “Tenbatsu! Tenbatsu!” in its lines, that sounds pretty epic had not the series failed to live up to such hype. And here I thought Rabbie would be some sort of sadistic BDSM queen or something but looks like my delusions got the better of me. Even Rabbie’s fight scenes felt just average and obligatory because we need to see her potential as a fighting force. To justify that Lasty despite being a clumsy klutz, she is chosen because she has some fighting worth. And like I said, this whole angel theme thingy feels like a hoax because if they were labelled as magical girls, that would be more believable. I mean, look at their transformation scene. Isn’t that so magical girl? Unless angels is their term as magical girls and heaven is the name of their space base. Yeah. Whatever.

It is unfortunate that this retro OVA that came out in 2004 didn’t see any more episodes and it is most likely buried deep in the piles of anime trash that nobody would stumble upon unless you have pure coincidental luck. Like yours truly. Credit the power of internet for this blessing or curse. Or both. This series could have been better had it continued with more episodes (although I won’t be expecting much either) but for better or worse, I guess some things are left better this way. That is this series’ judgment and divine punishment for being mediocre that no angels can even save or correct from the annals of history!

Kurogane Communication

Imagine being the last human on Earth. What a paradise, no? The whole world to yourself! Well, if you’re the kind who hates humans, hates socializing and is more of an introvert. Then yeah, that could be the most ideal dream. While it is not an original idea and an idea that has been toyed around in many films and series, Kurogane Communication is of that setting. A lone girl left as the last human survivor on Earth and her robots go about living their daily lives. Her robots help her do everything they can to support her but deep down inside she yearns to meet other humans. So I take it, no matter how good those robots are, they can never beat a real human companionship, is that what they’re saying?!

Episode 1
Folks, behold the last human on Earth: Haruka! Some big war happened 30 years ago but Haruka doesn’t remember much how she survived. But vague memories of her parents putting her in some pod and never returned. Of course she isn’t alone as the rest of her pals she lives with are robots. They are Spike (nice kid who wants to help her), Trigger (more like trigger happy), Reeves (since when did Terminator became effeminate?!), Cleric (high IQ robot who saves power to preserve his IQ… WHAT?!) and Angela (ninja babe who prefers to stay away from everybody. Hmm… Kinda like a human…). Haruka confides in Spike as she feels sad that her parents had not come to pick her up because she’s a bad girl. She thinks that is why they abandoned her here. Hey, what you expect a robot to do?! Next day, Spike can’t find Haruka anywhere and thinks she has run away due to last night’s break down.

Episode 2
Haruka goes out walking but she didn’t tell the rest. So they thought she has run away and start to look for her. This brings back memories when they first found her sleeping in a pod. Not sure what programme they had because they think it’s their job to raise her. Of course Angela opposed. I mean, robots raising a human? Cleric argues the fact that they as robots can only do so much but they cannot become her family because they’re not. And that is what Haruka truly needs. Is that supposed to enlighten us?! Of course Spike won’t be pessimistic. You won’t know if you don’t try. Wow. Haruka doing some shopping and get this, a dress still in mint condition after sitting 30 years abandoned in the store!!! Haruka thought all this walking would make her remember her lost memories but it didn’t do anything. Besides, she’s hungry so better go back. Suddenly she is attacked by, uhm, discount robot Aliens?! Luckily Angela is here to slice them up. With such robots here, they think this place is no longer safe. They head back as Haruka throws a surprise birthday party. She remembers it has been a year since they found her so she decides today as her birthday (and that f*cking dress fits her perfectly!). And she would like to celebrate this with her family. See? She sees you robots as family.

Episode 3
Haruka is bathing when the water runs out. Uhm, why does Spike get embarrassed to see her naked? And why does she freak out when a robot sees her naked?! Anyway, the rest detect this place’s water has dried up. Didn’t think somebody was running the water utility plant for 30 years, HUH?! As the rest try to find a new water source, Haruka wanders about herself and thinks of digging a well. Well, since she is the only one who uses water, might as well take some responsibility and find some. With Trigger’s help in blasting a big hole, Haruka ventures down and finds an underground subway. There is a water source too but suddenly the whole place comes gushing with water! Not sure about Reeves and Cleric’s detection that the ground is moving. HUH?! Haruka tries to call Trigger for help but that golf ball has gone offline (his trait is that he gets turned off from whatever shock). Although the place is flooded, Haruka is found safe. Yeah, thank goodness the water flooded her back to the top. And just like that, the water problem is solved.

Episode 4
Haruka wakes up one night as it is getting noisy. Turns out those discount Alien robots termed as Machines (okay, I’ll accept this lame name) are attacking the place! While they manage to destroy all of it, Trigger gets damaged. Luckily his brain is still intact and just a circuit is severely damaged. Nothing like go scavenging for parts to bring him back, eh? Haruka asks about those Machines so Cleric explains they are non-intelligent robots who have only orders to destroy. Basically, war machines with the sole purpose of fighting. They are stumped that there were too many last night. As they go to search for parts, Haruka won’t sit back and do nothing (leaving a defenceless girl all alone?!). What do you know? How convenient, an electric scooter still working! She rides in hopes of catching up but stumbles into a Machine and crashes. Then to her horror, sees a Machine producing factory. Luckily Angela is here to save her ass and reunite with the rest. It seems this is the factory they were made and hence they came here to get the parts. But now it has turned into a Machine producing factory. Hence no matter how many they destroy, it is useless unless they destroy the factory. The question is, who turned it so. Hope their bombing destroyed it all. Now that they’ve got the parts needed for Trigger and before you know it, he is back online.

Episode 5
Haruka tries to be nice to Angela today but looks like she is not in the mood. Haruka feels sad that each time she looks into Angela’s room, it only evokes sadness and pain. Yeah, feels like gloomy torture room! Angela talks to Reeves if it is possible to erase part of her memories. Yeah well, as robots I’m sure that is possible. But he cautions this may damage her basic programmes since as intelligent robots, memories are essential. As Haruka is teaching Spike and Trigger to plant a flower, Haruka is not amused at this futile attempt. Because like humans, it will eventually wither and die so what’s the point?! My, in b*tch mode today, isn’t she? Later as Spike fixes the laser antenna (WTF he sucks at fixing despite being a robot?!), Angela talks to him about trying so hard for a human. Eventually they’ll abandon you if you outlive your purpose. For Spike, it is his calling and it brings him joy. He doesn’t believe Haruka will abandon him because she is kind. I suppose that does not compute for Angela so she starts having painful snippets of memories. Something about Lavinia betraying her. So pain that she wants Reeves to erase her memories now!

Episode 6
Wow. Reeves conducting an operation on Angela. Hey, wait a minute… “OPELATION”???!!! Hilarious?! However Reeves has to postpone this because he finds nothing wrong with her memories. It must be something else. Haruka thinks of visiting her but the rest don’t understand the term of visiting so they think there is no point of doing that since she will be shut down temporarily until they find the cause of her stress. Angela remembers about Lavinia. A fellow robot fighter like her. She cannot understand why Lavinia who was just a robot who fights, now cares deeply for a human girl since she cared for her. Subsequently, Angela learnt Lavinia has been scrapped after losing to her. Her employer wanted Angela to continue making more money for humans and only saw her as that. Angela did not like it and fought her way out until she was taken down. Haruka goes to see Angela who is now up. That flower died so have this synthetic one instead. When a slab is going to fall on Haruka, Angela saves her. Seeing Haruka worried for her, Angela now understands what Lavinia meant. In the aftermath, Angela cancels her memory erasing procedure and now she is being friendly to Haruka, much to her delight. You sure her programme didn’t malfunction or anything?

Episode 7
Time for a beach episode! Sort of. I guess Haruka needed a break so the robots bring her to the sea. More like the city sunken in water. So they have some water fun and it’s a good thing these robots don’t get short circuited. But they have to wear weird swimming outfits? Thank goodness Angela won’t participate. Also weird to see robots trying to fish… And then there is this big monster fish trying to get Angela swimming. How the f*ck can Trigger miss at that range?! So when it is about to eat her, Reeves is the real hero. But really, how the f*ck can his puny spear from that distance kill the fish?! Oh well, he might be a super strong robot… That night they camp and Trigger puts up a nice fireworks display for Haruka and all to enjoy.

Episode 8
When next morning comes, the entire sea has dried up! Worse, with the heat wave, Haruka then collapses from heat stroke. They have to get her home but she is in no condition to move. I don’t see the problem about the robots walking all the way back even if they’re a bit far from where they left off. Besides, didn’t they come here on a jeep? Reeves remembers some supplies in a nearby building. But he has Angela take care of Haruka while the rest go to get those supplies. Well, another mind boggling moment because why the heck are the supplies still in good condition?! I know they are well preserved but wasn’t this place flooded like just yesterday? Even if it was in an air sealed room, how could they be preserved this long?! Did I just answer my question with that air tight keyword? Haruka wakes up from a bad dream and clings onto Angela. She wants to stay this way for a while so what has got a robot like Angela do but let her. When the rest get back, they thought Angela had been mean to Haruka but the latter disagrees with that. Trigger thinks Angela being kind is the end of the world! Oh man, you really crack me up!

Episode 9
Reeves and Cleric have analysed the ground movements. Seems the sea’s disappearance was caused by a massive underground earthquake 3000 km from here. Due to that damaged tectonic plate from the war, this means in 12 hours, a big mother tsunami will hit them. With many shelters from the war damaged, they set out to find one that they can be safe in until the tsunami recedes. Reeves wants Spike and Trigger to stay with Haruka because if they fail to find a shelter, he wants them to protect her. Like, HOW???!!! Of course Haruka won’t sit still and goes to find her own shelter. They stumble upon this huge beached ship. Is it seaworthy? However looking more at it, this brings back bad memories to Haruka. Yeah, looks like some invading alien spaceship! She feels unwell so Spike lets her rests inside. ALONE?! Of course she wakes up and wanders about, stumbling into a room with some sleeping pods. Brings back memories, no? She gets scared as she all her memories come flooding back.

Episode 10
When Spike finds Haruka, she accuses him of not telling her the truth. She realizes this was where she woke up. Flashback shows when the bombing got worse, her parents put her in this pod to save her. However due to some failure of something, they can’t save themselves and sacrificed themselves to this furnace so as to stabilize the temperature and let her live. Haruka is still upset Spike never told her this truth. He was told by Cleric not to because such traumatic memories may cause her to become withdrawn. Like now? Still, she’s not happy and was always under the impression her parents hate her. Reeves then calls Spike to bring Haruka to this Flyer (that alien spaceship). So they’re going to fly away in this, huh? Well, do they have enough energy capacity to make it start working again?! Stubborn Haruka wants to stay here despite Spike’s warning the tsunami is ahead of schedule. She thinks robots don’t understand her feelings but Spike claims when she is sad, they too feel sad. It would be sad for her parents who sacrificed themselves for her to live so she must live on their behalf. Since Haruka is still broken, Spike forcefully takes her with him.

Episode 11
Oh well, rebooting this thing is going to take time. How mind boggling the firewall and defence system is still up. Even so, the smartest robot is struggling to bring Flyer under his command. Meanwhile Haruka is truly depressed. She thinks there is no point in living since her parents are dead and wants to die. You sure about that? Spike wonders if they can just stay safe inside Flyer. No can do. The impact of the tsunami will wreck Flyer and turn them all into scraps! Cleric realizes by the time he can get Flyer under his control, the tsunami will hit. Reeves has no choice but to do a risky move to freeze the entire system for an instant so they can gain control. But it failed and now the entire defence is on alert. Yeah, lasers shooting at Haruka. Had not being for agile Angela, she would’ve gotten her wish. Haruka then falls through a trapdoor as Angela realizes Flyer might be awakening. Don’t look now but the tsunami is getting closer!

Episode 12
Haruka finds herself in a strange room before being led to the bridge. Just a touch, the entire place activates as Flyer wonders who is disturbing his sleep. Seeing the rest as intruders, Flyer tries to get rid of them all as Haruka pleads they are not a threat. Angela manages to get Spike to where Haruka is as Spike tells Flyer about their grave situation. However Flyer does not care and wants to die in the tsunami. Another suicidal robot, eh?! Seems he laments he is the only survivor and if he can’t sleep, he will join his dead comrades. With Spike talking about robots working for humans, I guess Flyer isn’t impressed either. Flyer chides him for not understanding those robots who fought in the war and now he wants to take flight for a human? F*ck you! Goodnight! Flyer going back to sleep mode, Spike has no choice but to do that risky move Reeves did. Oh, now Haruka doesn’t want to lose him because it is meaningless to be alone. Spike claims he won’t die because that will make her sad and that goes against his calling. He does the move and surprisingly this allows Cleric to take control of Flyer and take off just in time before the tsunami hits. Woah! Riding the wave?! In the aftermath, Spike is alive and stumps everyone because based on Cleric’s calculation, he would not have survived it. Damn wrong he is. Haruka promises to be with them forever and to stop being childish as she makes peace with her parents. Goodbye daddy and mommy.

Episode 13
Reeves talks to Flyer and apologizes for trying to override him. It was to save Haruka. He suggests to work together but Flyer still doesn’t trust them and is especially tired of humans. But he will let them stay on board until they find land. That is when Trigger remembers before the tsunami, he received a transmission before the tsunami hit. Too bad he forgot! A ROBOT CAN FORGET?! Cleric analyses his memories and while he has that info, it isn’t clear. As Flyer makes his way to the coordinates of the transmission, Spike eavesdrop on Reeves and Cleric talking about the possibility of another human. Hence Haruka might leave them since it is better for her to be with another of her kind. This means they will have served their purpose. This makes Spike sad and he is trying to sabotage and not find land?! Of course he can’t. He must protect Haruka. Once they reach land and rest, Spike is obviously down so Haruka talks to him and assures she won’t leave him. Did he forget that promise already? This makes him feel better because as long as he protects her, there is nothing to worry about. With Spike back to normal, the rest go look for food while Haruka stays put. Oh, look who this human assassin trying to take out Haruka!

Episode 14
When Angela comes to check on Haruka, that boy, Kanato freaks out and escapes. HUH?! Haruka wants to go after him but Angela stops her. What if he is an evil robot? Nope, he isn’t. Look at how he bled when he tried to escape and got his hand scraped by the branch! When Flyer is seeing flying away, the rest realize they have been abandoned. Uhm, wasn’t this the deal? Then they heard about Haruka being attacked and contemplate if he is an intelligent robot like then. Haruka dismisses it and tells about the bleeding. But the fact he attacked her means he might not be necessarily on their side. We see Kanato attacking Machines for their chip for Sone. However these are old models. Kanato saw new robots and thinks their chips will be better. The robots prepare a hot bath for Haruka. Since when Angela is treated as a lady and joins in? OMG. For a robot like Angela, she got tits???!!! Anyway, Haruka talks about Kanato and thinks he has it rougher than her. Perhaps he has never met kind people nor had a family. After Haruka is done bathing, she goes off and is attacked by Kanato. Uhm, I thought the robots agreed to be careful so who the heck is protecting Haruka now?! Kanato slashes Haruka’s arm and is in shock when he sees her bleed. Not a robot? He refuses to believe she is human because there are no humans alive. Haruka tries to get psychological on him. You’re not alone! This guy going to go crazy after seeing a few drops of blood?

Episode 15
When Machines pop up, Kanato takes Haruka to hide. Quiet, don’t make a sound. And just like that they leave. But when Haruka hears Trigger coming close, she tries to go warn him. Instead, a Machine catches her. Haruka then wakes up in Kanato’s place. Meanwhile Haruka’s robots realize something is wrong as she has not returned. They mount a search for her and spot Machine tracks. They follow it to some ruins. Since there are loads of auto defence, it isn’t easy for them to get in. Haruka is appalled that Kanato hates robots and doesn’t trust them. He believes they are mere scraps and that Haruka is being naïve. After all, it is what they are programmed for. With Angela trying to sneak in, Kanato goes out and leaves Haruka locked inside a room. WTF a couple of girls wants to dismantle her?!

Episode 16
Alice and Lilith get cold feet to see who should dismantle Haruka. Despite Haruka being nice and all, the duo are just bumbling and fumbling their way. Yeah, they sound more like jokers than threatening. This farce is put to a stop when Kanato returns. GTFO. The dimwits thinks Haruka is such a well-made robot that everything about her including her wound is so real! Kanato shows Haruka around the ruins. She sees a transmission unit and thinks he was the one who sent it. He says it wasn’t him because it is broken. Could it be from other humans then? He doesn’t believe so because they’re the last humans. Yeah, he thought he was last until Haruka showed up. What if there’s another last of the last human? As Angela is tired from fighting Machines, Alice and Lilith thought they can capture her to make up for that fiasco. Too bad for them… Haruka hears fighting from afar and thinks her robots are coming to save her. Kanato dismisses this and thinks nothing of them especially they’re not family. Then he brings her deeper into the ruins to show her something. Uhm, so his mom is a robot?!

Episode 17
At the height of the war, Kanato was put into cold sleep in this place. When he woke up, it was only him and his mom and the rest of his robots. So as they lived their normal lives, one day mom tried to take him and run away from this place. However they were surrounded by Machines and in a bid to protect him, she got shot. That was when Kanato saw those mechanical parts. So, let me get this. He is sore because he thought mom was human but turned out to be a machine? He is upset a robot has been programmed to act like his mom and got manipulated. Haruka doesn’t think so because as one who lived with robots, she also gets their true feelings of warmth. She believes mom cared for him. If that’s the case, why didn’t mom tell him she was a robot? So that’s what bugging him?! Angela forces the dimwits to take her to where Haruka is. Since she isn’t in Kanato’s room and they failed to get the better of it, Angela goes off herself to find Haruka. Then she gets trapped by Sone but WTF she uses her strength to lift the gate and throw it back at him?! She then takes down Kanato but stops short of killing him since Haruka doesn’t want her to kill. Angela will take Kanato back as Haruka also requests to take his mom. After the rest get word from Angela, they set up bombs and explode the whole goddamn place because it’s a Machine producing factory. Wow. So easy to blow up, huh?

Episode 18
Kanato is taken back with them. When he wakes up, he is a bit hostile but since he is unarmed, he can’t do anything much. The robots interrogate him for attacking Haruka but Haruka hopes everyone can let it slide. Well, nothing untoward happened, right? Yeah. Almost. Until Kanato is no longer a threat to Haruka, he will continue to stay here. Sone reports to Honi about Kanato’s capture. However Honi’s priority is for Sone to finish repairing something in which it will take a week. Kanato as the hostage, he’s got so much time, care to join in planting sunflowers? He joins them from dinner and Spike getting jealous seeing Haruka spending more time with another human? As Kanato baths alone, he remembers mom never let him touch her. Alice and Lilith has snuck in to rescue him but he tells them to leave because he is not ready to go back yet. Not until he finds out about this group’s identity and purpose. Reeves and Cleric are seen preparing to revive Kanato’s mom.

Episode 19
Kanato wakes up from this nightmare whereby mom turned into some zombie monster and tormented him! Yikes. Definitely fuel nightmare for a kid. Since he is sweating all over, Spike tries to take off his clothes to wipe. However he touches him the same way in the nightmare so Kanato becomes defensive and takes a knife, ready to kill. Of course with Haruka the mediator, he gives up. Then she asks for a favour and has him follow her to where Reeves and Cleric has partially revived his mom. He is not pleased and thinks they are trying to access her memory for info. Haruka is sad because she can only see her mom in heaven (isn’t it the same for Kanato?) so at least he has this last chance. Reeves assures that he has inspected the body and everything is so damaged. He only managed to revive some backup programme that runs when everything else is terminated. So basically mom revealing the truth that she is a robot and that his real mom died after giving birth to him. Hence she was programmed with the responsibility to look after him till he can look after himself. Over the years, she became attached in her role as his mother and started thinking she was the real deal. However she knew she had to tell him the truth one day but couldn’t bring herself to do it. She never let him touch her for fear he would find out her cold metal exterior. But she has always loved him and would have loved to be his mom forever. Goodbye. Oh damn, sad is sad but where the f*ck did those tears come from?! Oh Kanato, make peace and say bye-bye to mom…

Episode 20
How nice. A grave for Kanato’s mom. Oh Haruka, now you’re feeling guilty if what you did was wrong?! However Kanato has this peace on his face as he thanks her for giving him a chance to talk to mom. Oh damn Haruka, don’t you cry now! Meanwhile Alice and Lilith are forced into hard labour preparing many missiles. Then they overhear Honi talking to Sone about human survivors on Mars! WOW?! WHAT?! 3 years ago, he received a transmission. He thought it was some malfunction and rechecked it. No doubt they were signals from humans on Mars. Because he told Kanato there are no other humans than him, he broke the antenna to prevent him from finding out. Now he is going to correct that fact and bomb the hell out of Mars! OMFG!!! HOW LONG WILL THE MISSILES TAKE TO REACH MARS???!!! Kanato discuses with Haruka and co about his group’s purpose. Well, it was sure not to find other humans. This is when Kanato remembers something strange. The day his mom died, Honi ushered him back to the castle. The Machines didn’t attack and followed Honi back. Bungling Alice and Lilith can’t even drive straight so they crash their vehicle as Trigger picks them up. They are here to tell Kanato about Honi’s devious schemes. That is when Cleric reveals about the thing he found in Trigger’s memories about the many different frequencies that aren’t used for broadcasts on Earth. Hence the transmission came from somewhere other than Earth. NOW YOU TELLING US THIS???!!!

Episode 21
Haruka realizes Kanato is gone. Don’t worry, they’re all going to go find him, right? Yeah, Alice and Lilith still sleeping like a baby… As expected, Kanato returns to confront Honi about his lies. He knows everything. Especially about his plans to load all the missiles into Flyer and send it crashing into Mars. Oh, so that’s how… He thinks Honi wants to kill all humans just like how he did to mom. Oh Kanato, is that puny gun going to even scratch Honi?! THINK ABOUT IT?! But Honi plays psychology on him. He dares him to shoot if it makes him feel better. After all, Kanato must live. Enough to confuse the hell out of the kid and make him weak. Kanato is then locked in a room. He accuses Honi of doing everything for his sake but in the end was just taking everything from him. He is appalled it was Honi who gave orders to the Machines to kill mom. Like, how will that make things better now that he knows that? The dumb bots are forced to lead Haruka and co into the ruins. After giving them the slip, they stumble into Honi. After Honi finds out they were the one who leaked info to Kanato, he shoots them! Oh well, can’t say if I should be relieved or shocked about this fate of theirs. Haruka’s side stumble into a hangar and see the Flyer. But it’s too big to be a normal one. Cleric checks its programme and confirms its course to crash into Mars.

Episode 22
Reeves and Cleric try to communicate with Flyer but it’s not responding. Worse, its engines are starting up, ready to lift off to Mars. The rest go in search of Kanato. Haruka and Angela stumble into the bodies of Alice and Lilith. At the same time, Sone is also here. He is on the wrong impression he did this to them and attacks. However he is bested and told off by Angela to check their memories if he doesn’t believe what they said. Sone also admits he did programme Flyer to fly to Mars but knows nothing about crashing into it. The missiles are loaded to destroy any obstacles ahead. Really? Sone realizes Honi is the culprit behind this. He becomes disillusioned about his loyalty to Kanato. Sone tells them where Kanato is locked. Then he goes to help Reeves and Cleric to change Flyer’s programme. Angela faces off with Honi but gets taken out. Now Honi is going to kill Haruka because, wait for it, there should be no other human survivors! You must not exist! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Episode 23
Uhm, Haruka and Honi playing hide and seek? Yeah, you can run but you can’t hide! Meanwhile Spike finds where Kanato is. WTF he is in a dilemma to help him?! JUST LET HIM OUT! Honi corners Haruka on Flyer. SHE IS ASKING IF HE HAS ANY KINDNESS IN HIS HEART?! YOU ASKING A ROBOT THAT?! All he claims is that Kanato needs him. But is he making Kanato happy this way? Luckily for Haruka, Angela is here to help but since she is injured too much, she gets taken out again. Haruka protects her and Honi finds it funny a mere human using her life to protect a robot. He fires a warning shot into her arm. Still wanna throw your life away for a robot? But here comes Kanato to stop Honi. Honi says goodbye and escapes into Flyer. Sone reveals this Flyer has been dead for a long time and an outside programme is controlling its flight. So why not try to hijack that outside programme?! Sone plans to sacrifice himself and wants the rest to run. After Flyer takes off into the atmosphere, he will explode the missiles. This will be his atonement. Reeves and Cleric won’t leave him. The more hands to help, the better, right? Oh well, looks like Honi has taken full control of Flyer as he begins to take off. But standing before him is that Flyer!

Episode 24
Honi fires his nuclear cannon into Flyer! That takes care of that. Now Kanato confronts Honi. The latter claiming he can finally fulfil his duty to make him happy. That is why to accomplish that, all obstacles must be removed and this includes Kanato. Uhm, doesn’t this conflict with his programme?! Kanato fires a few shots into him. No effect of course! However that Flyer has enough energy to ram through his brethren and send it crashing! In the aftermath, Kanato survives but a dying Honi reveals the truth. After Kanato was born, Honi was tasked to keep him alive and that become his primary programme. It is that very same programme that made him the only human survivor. Other humans must not exist. That is why he had to kill his mom when she started to act like one! HUH?! The one who programmed all this was his father who wanted Kanato to live a life of loneliness forever! WTF???!! THAT’S SOME SICK CRUEL TWISTED SH*T!!! After reuniting with the rest, they talk to Flyer. After observing them, he thinks it isn’t bad being a robot and his doubts of humans dispelled. Oh, so now he has a change in his opinions. That was easy! Despite his damaged body, he still has enough energy to give them a ride to Mars. Holy sh*t, how long is it to Mars?! Oh right, it’s only 7-9 months… Anyway, with Kanato and Haruka curious to ascertain survivors on Mars, they decided to take this chance. Flyer is fixed up (and so are Alice and Lilith so we won’t have more tragic deaths) as the robots say goodbye to Haruka and Kanato. Why can’t they go together?! Oh, they have to make Earth a better place when they come back? Oh, I thought the humans will kill robots on Mars… Heh… Many years passed and we now see a mini Haruka?! Yes, this is the daughter of Kanato and Haruka and they’re all grown up and back again to see how their robots on Earth are doing. We’re all doing fine!

I Robots, You Human
Gee, that was rather okay. While I’m not saying that this is a bad or one of the worst shows of the season or ever in my life, there were many pretty dumb moments that made me go WTF. Gee, perhaps I’m feeling so smart right now and narcissistic and that’s why I’m feeling so. But anyhow, I got to ask if there were really any human survivors on Mars. Because you see, only Kanato and Haruka (with their daughter of course) came back and they didn’t even bring any human survivors back. Okay, maybe, just maybe some of them were taking a leak somewhere or go sightseeing. You know, final epilogue too short and too fast to show us everything.

So I am going to assume that either those humans are so settled on Mars that they don’t want to come back even if Earth has rejuvenated (albeit by a little bit) or that there were no survivors (why the heck sent those communication signals for?!). Because Martians killed them or they died of some incurable Mars disease. HAHA! Kanato and Haruka probably saw the problem and whoops, made a u-turn back to Earth. Or Mars became a dystopian like Total Recall. Heh. Oh wait. Should I call those humans settling on Mars as Martians now? Thank goodness Flyer had enough strength for the return trip. Hey remember, Flyer was damaged a lot after that huge ramming. So perhaps he was giving them a safe slow ride to Mars and that explains the time they had to raise a kid. Yeah whatever. This BS conspiracy theory of mine is getting out of hand. Especially my predictions for season 2 that never came because another great stupid war on Mars broke out and human survivors once again ran away to some other planet! Thank goodness I wasn’t the scriptwriter!

The plot of the story is pretty basic and there is nothing much to it. The first half sees Haruka and her robots trying to live out a normal life and of course, trying to showcase the bonds they have. Especially Angela who was a lone wolf because had she stuck with this personality for the rest of the series, it would be very hard for Haruka’s side to effectively work as a team seeing the direction of the plot is going. For the second half, it takes to a slightly new direction as the twist shows us that there is indeed another human living on Earth. Hence the side plot of Kanato and his past and the climax of Honi’s true evil schemes coming to light. While I won’t say that it is the most interesting of plots, it was enough to keep me intrigued to know what happens next. After all, each episode lasts only about 14 minutes so that short duration might help in keeping a bit of suspense. Or waste some time. Depending on the flow or context of that episode.

The biggest factor that perhaps kept interfering with my thinking or at least made me think too much of conspiracy theories are the robots themselves. You see, my main gripe with them is that they act too much like human. No doubt, it was explained very early that they are the intelligent types and this means they have been programmed with emotions and actions that are more likely to see them act like humans. The problem is that no matter how advanced they are, they are still basically robots in the end. So while this is not a bad thing, but this is just personal as I find it mind boggling that humans could actually create and write such near perfect artificial intelligence.

Which gives rise to dumb moments like for the first example I shall give you: Early on a few encounters of Spike catching Haruka in the nude. Why the f*ck does she get so conscious about this?! Yes, sure, robots programmed to be close like humans. Even if Haruka thinks of them as more than robots, it still doesn’t make sense she has to fluster like that. So what if Spike sees her in her undies. Is he going to get a boner and rape her?! Is that in his programming code?! I THINK NOT! That’s why moments like these DO NOT COMPUTE!!! That’s why my human brain is close to being short circuited and spamming WTF lines. Yeah.

Remember in the first half of the series whereby there was this Machine producing factory? Uhm, so who the hell activated that and why? Did they forget about this part? Because well, it doesn’t really matter in the second half since God decided to flood the Earth as Haruka and her robots became Noah on the Ark. Holy sh*t! What the heck am I saying?! Anyway it was mind boggling they ushered in something that didn’t really matter. Because it would also be no brainer if Honi was the one who activated it since his camp is so far away. Another weird part is that the intelligence robots, are their flesh made out of metal or is it just really soft metal. I was under the impression bullets won’t do jack sh*t on it but apparently they can penetrate the skin and cause some damage. Or are the bullets special? If it’s soft and warm like the human skin, then it wouldn’t have been a thing to worry for Kanato’s mom. If it’s hard like cold steel, then yes. It has to be either one and can’t be both. And why is this only special for female robots?! Yes, male robots look more robot than the female ones. No wonder I’m so confused.

While Earth is abandoned and decimated from the war, the other mind boggling thing to me is that there are no corpses lying all over. Sure, the big war happened like some odd 30 years ago. The flesh may have rotted away but the bones and skeleton should have remained. Do you know how long it takes for a human body to completely get decomposed? Even if it is a century later, you’ll still see some traces of it. Get what I’m saying? Instead, we see just see rubbles and debris of the concrete jungle but nothing that indicated life was on this planet. Like as though everybody got up and left. Don’t tell me the robots used the dead bodies as fossil fuel because how the heck do you get electricity running in the first place then? Or those human survivors took the dead bodies back to Mars to be buried? That’s going to be one heck of a job and I don’t see the point of it either.

I’m sure the underlying theme is about family bonds and togetherness. It doesn’t matter if you are not related, heck, even if you are not of the same species or even a living thing. As long as you care and look out for each other, that is good enough to make you family. Which is both good and bad thing because as I pointed out earlier, it just feels strange and unreal that Haruka treats her fellow robots as her family. Good because it shows why not? They’re the only ones taking care of her all this while. She isn’t a dick to mistreat them just because they’re made of metal. Bad because they’re still robots. Imagine the same scenario but an otaku guy living with his sex dolls instead! Yeah!

Thus the characters aren’t anything too deep themselves as they are just sufficient for the plot and direction of the series. The most we get is Angela who has a past to flesh out. This is only so that she could ditch that lone wolf personality of hers and become Haruka’s true bodyguard. Yeah, so reprogramming is possible for these intelligence robots, eh? And then there is Spike who starts to have this conflicting dilemma about wanting to protect Haruka all by himself. So you wonder if Spike should be the perfect AI that is so boring or so monotonous, or should he be like a fellow human with flaws and errs because that makes his character more pleasant. So you got to ask, is it really for Haruka or just for self-gratification for himself. Good thing he didn’t turn out like Honi did because he could have been the dark version of Spike if he misinterpreted his basic programming. Yikes.

Trigger feels like the mascot of the series albeit he doesn’t do anything much and isn’t really very prominent. He’s just some grumpy little robot who wants to do fun things like shooting instead of guarding or patrolling which he deems boring. Cleric is supposed to be high IQ robot but sometimes I feel he is just pretty meh. Well, because of his analyses that come out more cautious or pessimistic, this is perhaps what made me think he might not be so smart after all. I could be wrong, though. Because I was expecting some sort of genius move but seeing he can’t even hack or override Flyer, maybe I’m just expecting way too much from him. Reeves, I guess they needed some sort of father or mother figure so this gentle giant is the one there supporting Haruka and give some warm advice if Spike gets too anxious about everything.

Since Trigger is too cute and not sufficient enough to act as a comic relief character, hence we have Alice and Lilith for that part. I feel those 2 are just written solely for dumb moments. They are really the dumb blondes of this anime. And we can’t hate them too because they’re designed so cutely and we give them a big pass for falling under the dojikko category. Yeah. Sone isn’t a bad robot but I feel that he just blindly works and does what he is told. Because we see him unaware of everything and it’s like, duh, you’re a robot and you don’t know?! Well, maybe Honi was intimidating enough so Sone dare not questioned his actions. Just do as you’re told. Imagine a robot having emotions of regret and then trying to take action to atone. Wonderful.

I still can’t believe that Kanato’s initial hatred for robots stemmed from his mother who is a robot. So I was wondering why Kanato never thought of himself as a robot then? Is it because he bleeds? Yeah, weird. Did he ever think if mom was a robot, does that make him a robot too? I know it’s silly but it never occurred to me that he looked like he thought of his real biological mom. Just his bitter misguided hatred towards her. Glad these kids got strong enough to get over their parents’ death. Like as though it was the biggest factor that was holding them back from moving on. Yeah, it really seemed like it. Remember when Haruka got back her memories about her parents? Yeah. That. All she needed to do was to accept and make peace and the rest is history. As the last human on Earth (then), what was she going to do about it? Sue?! So yeah, that’s the only option to go.

Art and animation are old school retro anime. This was after all released at the end of the 90’s so you can see that era’s own unique style then. So this means your characters like Haruka look a lot like cute girls from that era. Like Naru from Love Hina (heck, same seiyuu too. Coincidence?). And Kanato like a discount version of Seikon No Qwaser’s Sasha. Yeah. Of course some of the robots’ designs are questionable. I guess it’s to have a variety because it would suck if they all look the same. So we have Reeves obviously taken from the Terminator reference wile Spike, he’s a crash test dummy, RIGHT?! Cleric looks like some petrol kiosk (or is it a bit like Eve from Wall-E?) while Trigger as the series’ pet mascot has to look cute so being round like a golf ball is the simplest design they can do for him. Does Sone have a trash can as his head? And is Honi an evil version of Robocop? As I have said earlier on regarding female robots. They look so feminine. Big probability this series is targeted for male audiences, eh? So while Angela looks like your typical hot cyberpunk babe, Alice and Lilith actually look more like magical girls. Heck, I thought Sailormoon invaded this series! I don’t see any of joints or crease on their hands or legs so sometimes I thought they’re just cosplay maniacs who think they’re robots. Yeah. And why those Machines, they be looking like discount Aliens or their rejected designs?! This series was done by APPP who did Golden Boy, Project A-Ko, Kachou Ouji and Sci-fi Harry.

It is pleasant to hear Yui Horie as Haruka. She still sounds the same now as she was back then in her early days. One of the few in the industry that has a strong staying power and a solid fan base. Houchu Ohtsuka as Cleric is the only other one I recognized. Initially I thought Ikue Ootani was either Alice or Lilith but too bad I can’t add that pigeonhole conspiracy of mine as it was Naomi Nagasawa and Etsuko Kozakura respectively. I also thought it was Takehito Koyasu behind Flyer’s voice. Turns out I’m wrong and it was Masashi Hironaka instead. The rest of the casts are Hiromi Ishikawa as Spike, Kenyuu Horiuchi as Reeves (titular characer in Guin Saga), Rica Fukami as Angela (Sailor Venus in Sailormoon), Junko Shimakata as Trigger, Yuka Imai as Kanato (Inaho in Master Mosquiton), Akio Ohtsuka as Honi (titular character in Black Jack) and Kouji Ishii as Sone (Mitsukake in Fushigi Yuugi).

Both the opening and ending themes are sung by Yui Horie. The former, My Best Friend reeks retro style anime pop levels of upbeat and liveliness. Just sounds rather okay in my books and nothing special. As for the latter, Dear Mama sounds a bit weird because it sounds like a song for a carnival or a circus. It’s a little slow on its beat but gives off that warm and fuzzy feeling. Well, what was the name of this song again?

Overall, this series might not be the best post-apocalyptic or artificial intelligence themed series but it is still good for a little popcorn entertainment. After all, it is still somewhat weird to see a lone human being frolicking with robots and her robots acting more like humans than humans themselves. Heh. Robots are the new human Earthlings and human survivors on Mars are the new Martians. Weird, no? It would’ve been totally different if Haruka had a pet dog companion. Oh wait. Didn’t they recently have such an anime, Sekai No Owari No Shiba Inu To?! Such dystopian future isn’t so far off in reality because it’s just taking place in another form: Being addicted to our Smartphones and social media sites. We’re totally dependent on these babies and more just to get on with our daily lives. Gee thanks, uhm, modern conveniences, science and technology?

Black Rock Shooter: Dawn Fall

Oh wow. I guess they can’t really leave a series stay dead, huh? It has been a full 10 years since Black Rock Shooter graced our TV screens and never would I have expected it would return with some sort of spinoff sequel, Black Rock Shooter: Dawn Fall. Wasn’t the OVA and TV series adaptation good enough and had some sort of conclusion? Not that I can remember much about them anyway. Yeah, very vague memories at this point. You could say I totally have forgotten all about it. Uh huh. Not a big fan of it to begin with either. Oh, what’s this about this new series? So I see this is some sort of alternate spinoff, huh? Yeah well, perhaps they want to remind the newer generation about this once classic cult character and thus bringing the titular character back is a way to show that the character can also adapt to modern times, huh? Ah well, let’s see if this can bring back some of that good ol’ nostalgia feeling. Maybe if my brain doesn’t remember, perhaps somewhere deep inside my body and heart would. Heh. I wouldn’t even count on it.

Episode 1
Earth in dystopia mode. Robot-like aliens ravage the land. Dead Master and Strength fighting them in a losing battle, wondering where Black Rock Shooter AKA Empress has gone. Meanwhile evil loli, Lunatic wonders if they’re done because all they’re doing has been in vain. As we are told, the year is 2062 AD and we’re in San Francisco! 20 years after the Project Elysion failed and the AI known as Artemis ran amok and chose war with humans (where have I heard this storyline before?), the ecosystem changed drastically with the surface being contaminated with Arche nanobots, forming what is now known as an Iron Ocean. Inside a lab, Empress wakes up from the Matrix. Uh huh. Unplugging herself from the tube and all, she has no memories of what happened, herself or how she got here. Nearby, siblings Norito and Miya are looking for stuffs and stumble into Empress stuck behind a door. Hesitant at first but when a robot attacks, Empress somehow busts out and fights it. Forgot how to use your gun? Why, just whack it till it stops! Empress wants to return to a home she knows as Lighthouse No. 8. She takes the siblings up to the surface to avoid being cornered but face more onslaught of those robots. Norito wants her to take Miya and escape but it isn’t Empress’ policy to abandon. Either they all survive together or die together. When the going gets tough, they are saved by Batmobile Black Trike who helps them get away. Elsewhere, Lunatic talks to Schoolmaster Smiley about the activation of a Hemiteos Unit detected. She wants his Educational Institution forces to go into maximum pursuit mode. Empress is stopped by Colonel of the Peacebuilding Force. It seems they have picked up her reboot pulse and view her as the last survivor and guardian of humanity. A brief explanation about Elysion that was supposed to start some large scale automated labour went awry. Artemis and its unmanned forces are building an orbital elevator to connect Earth and the moon. Once that completes, all the mass produced machines there will come here in full force. He wants Empress to destroy it. So, I take it they cannot fly through space? Too bad, conversation cut short when those pesky robots attack. Colonel’s men get slaughtered. Empress now remembers how to use and manipulate her Arche weapon and uses it to blast the enemy. However the one finishing it off is Strength. Then she targets Empress.

Episode 2
Strength tries to clobber Empress although Colonel provides the latter with some support. Eventually some strange memories are hurting Strength’s head so she retreats. Colonel is unsure why Strength is attacking Empress as records show they are supposed to be on the same side. They head to Norito’s town but Colonel’s attempts to get directions to the nearest Peacebuilding Force’s post falls flat. Nobody’s kind to say anything. The gang sit down as Colonel explains more about the Hemiteos Unit that was Elysion’s secret project. They’re supposed to be human girls modified into weapons of war. The leader was given the codename Empress. When Artemis went rouge, Hemiteos Unit still fought alongside the humans. However in the end, they lost and went missing. Empress wonders if he knows where Lighthouse No.8 is but he doesn’t since priority now is to get to the next Peacebuilding Force’s post. Suddenly this strange girl, Monica Kaburagi claims she can use some old technology she put together to find that post. In exchange, she wants to tinker with the machines as she is a great mechanic. She is even more interested in Empress herself. Norito has a request of Empress. He was out looking for medical supplies that is lacking in his town. That’s when he stumbled into her. He needs to get it but he can’t since the hospital ruins is surrounded by enemy drones. Colonel doesn’t think they have time for that but Empress accepts this mission. She wants to remember herself and hopes she wasn’t someone who would abandon those in need. The plan is for Empress to distract and bait the swarm of drones while the rest go into collect as many supplies. This goes well until the robots start to pop up. They escape but Norito falls off the jeep. In danger of being killed, Empress comes to his rescue but there is only so much she can handle. The rest? Conveniently Strength is here to assist her. Strength is not happy Empress cares for a puny human. Though, she can’t understand why she hates her and runs away. Is she tsundere?! After returning Norito back, the rest head off for the post. As they camp that night, they spot the Institution coming their way. Oh, it’s Mad Max season already?!

Episode 3
Under the guise of educating the ignoring masses, they commit massacre. It seems the mad bunch is chasing after a runaway girl, Momiji. So did one of Immortan Joe’s property got away?! You bet Empress is going to save her. Hence a short Mad Max chase. I swear, this is starting to look more like BRS: Fury Road! Eventually they manage to destroy some and the rest escape. Momiji is distressed because she wants to save her other friends who are on their way to become some property sacrifice. Wanna bet Empress wants to go save them? Smiley learns of an escaped sacrifice and orders his men to capture her at all cost. Failure would mean that last resort… Empress and co are waiting at a train line as Momiji knows an Institution’s train will pass here. However they have to get down since somebody is sniping them. It is Dead Master and she won’t let Empress get away. Too bad with Colonel throwing a smokescreen, they escape. As they hide, Monica explaining how Empress can regenerate her parts by absorbing and accumulating iron scraps and drone parts. Of course it will take some time. Now the plan is for Empress to fire her Coilgun. Even she cannot find balance, all that matters is that she fires. However it backfires as there are more guards on the train and even if Empress destroys the track, the drones quickly repair it back. So now it is Mad Max chase round 2 but with a train! To complicate matters, Dead Master shows herself and is adamant in killing the one she loves and hates. So it’s a pretty intense 3 way battle. After all that action, Empress and Colonel manage to derail the last carriage where the prisoners are held. Momiji happily reunites with her friends and if you wonder why the Institute just let this happen and not take action, well, Smiley realizes it has come to this stage so he sets off the bomb! Empress is too late to save Momiji and her friends so they got caught in the blast. RIP, sacrificial girls. Empress becomes depressed over her failure to save them and, uhm, falls asleep? Maybe it’s better this way.

Episode 4
Smiley reasons he killed the sacrifices because they are better dead than being returned to the ignorant humans. Now he sends Charlotte to get Empress, the most evil of existence in this world! Colonel has reached the post and meets with Major Volt and his reinforcements. They go over the plan to destroy the elevator as Colonel updates Volt about Empress’ lost memories, the attacks on her by her comrades as well as from the Institute. Later Volt tells Empress about Colonel’s wife and daughter being kidnapped and killed by the Institute. Hence he personally has a grudge against them but chose to suppress his feelings and focus on the mission. He is telling her this since she too is shaken from the deaths of Momiji and co. Next day as they head out to the elevator, Dead Master joins in the entourage. However this is to convince Empress to let her kill her and end all the suffering since she lost her memories. After all, all their battles with Artemis ended in pain. Thus she believes this world isn’t worth saving anymore. After killing her, she will kill herself. Not before she defiles her corpse! But sorry girl, Empress doesn’t feel like dying now. Feeling rejected despite having a polite negotiation, Dead Master will do it by force. She goes off to snipe her but is attacked by Charlotte. She bombards the entire force too. Colonel can’t shoot her despite having a clear shot is because, wait for it, she’s his daughter! Charlotte and Dead Master b*tch and fight over Empress. However Charlotte is superior and beats down Dead Master. Empress fires a powerful shot that scares the sh*t out of Charlotte as she escapes. Empress hugs Dead Master and reiterates she doesn’t want to die. This means she doesn’t want her to die too. So I take it, friendship back to normal? Colonel is left to regret his actions that left many of his men dead. He thought Charlotte is dead but is still alive. Now he is so confused. Empress is willing to go get Charlotte for him despite their mission to destroy the elevator. But Monica has a better idea. They should continue the mission since Charlotte’s target is Empress, they are bound to meet again. When that happens, Colonel can use this chance to talk to her like how Empress talked to Dead Master and got through her.

Episode 5
Strength is drinking out her sorrows and causing a ruckus at the bar. Those incomplete memories are still giving her a major headache. Suddenly Norito comes begging to her to help him because the Institute has got Miya and needs her help to rescue her. Don’t look now because they are here to terminate her. Strength fights back but when they release a special Arche on her, she regresses into a cowardly child. Luckily her Black Trike takes her away. Meanwhile at Empress’ side. They decimated another Institute’s base. However it is another lost case. Despite killing all the guards, all the sacrifices are dead. No signs of Charlotte either. Monica then hacks into the server and finds a disturbing piece of news: Miya is now on the list of sacrifices. Looks like they’ll have to go to the Institute’s HQ and settle this. Norito pacifies a child-like Strength. He wants her to take him to Empress but unfortunately she doesn’t know where she is. The Institute then arrives and looks like Strength has been played out by Norito. He betrayed her because they told her they would release Miya. Strength becomes mad and knocks the ground, causing it to shatter. Yeah, they think she can’t survive being crushed by the rocks! How the f*ck they know if they didn’t even check it out?! Of course we still see Strength alive but now she is torn between her 2 personas. Her child-like who still believes in doing good while her more aggressive and merciless side thinking humans are not worth saving. Confused, she screams out to Empress’ name. The Institute has killed everyone in Norito’s town and are about to do the same to him because that’s what happens to all useless men. It is Norito’s lucky day as Strength returns to fight back. However she has sniping support from Dead Master and Empress. Strength can tell it belongs to them so once she absorbs this power, she powers up and starts her clobbering. In the aftermath after burying the dead, Empress hopes Strength can join them in infiltrating the Institute’s base. However she isn’t interested. Suit yourself. But Empress believes they’ll eventually fight together again. After lots of thinking, I guess Strength changes her mind and takes Norito along for the rescue. Better hurry. Maybe already too late. Because looks Smiley has done Miya in.

Episode 6
Miya is still alive as Smiley praises her passing the adaptability test. Now he will turn her into a Hemiteos Unit who will bear his child! A full scale modification surgery if you call it. He talks about what Artemis is doing is only right because switching to being a superior species is healthy in the long term to weed out the weak ones. The mad ambush on the Institute’s main mobile HQ begins. This time Smiley decides to postpone Miya’s surgery to teach those uneducated barbarians a lesson. He transforms into his true form. Not sure if this macho baby form is scary or cringe. Maybe both. Of course Charlotte joins in for ultimate mayhem. Meanwhile Strength and Norito have already infiltrated inside. They are in a carriage with dead sacrifices as Strength tells him to identify if any of the corpses is his sister’s. If so, mission is over. None. Phew. This leads to Strength confronting Lunatic. The duo have a bad history since the latter have done lots of things on her that she calls training. What else? Fight! Smiley has a showdown with Empress as he claims he has found the correct bride who will bear his child who will become even more perfect than he is. Empress disagrees with his ways and of course Smiley claims that is only because they are all uneducated! So this isn’t Smiley’s true form?! Yeah, now a big black baby, huh?! Scarier or more cringe?! With Black Trike taking heavy damage, it looks like Empress is going to lose. That is when Volt sacrifices himself to give Empress that chance to put a hole in Smiley’s body. And just like that with the big boss down, the Institute is over. Lunatic who is about to own Strength can tell Smiley is dead so it is futile to go ahead with this. She lets Strength goes and warns it would be troublesome if Charlotte gets abducted. After Miya is rescued, Strength tells the rest about Lunatic. They discuss about Smiley not being human and cannot produce normally and hence this perverted idea to conceive a child via pseudo Hemiteos Unit. Charlotte may be one of his brides but something must have went wrong. Otherwise he wouldn’t have targeted Miya or Empress. Lunatic also said about her being the embodiment of Artemis and that Charlotte is feared to be abducted instead of being killed. This could mean there is a chance to break her from some mind control. The next stop is the elevator but Empress wants to head to Lighthouse No. 8.

Episode 7
A flashback of Colonel’s happier days with his wife and daughter. Because Black Trike is seriously damaged, they cannot move forward and must find parts to help for its self-repair. This convenient scrap dumpster might be it. Of course it is not enough and they need to scavenge for more. In the meantime we hear Colonel talk a bit about Charlotte and her love for baseball. Yeah, her corpse wasn’t found anywhere at the Institute so she has to be alive, right? With some robot enemies detected nearby, they have to get the repair moving. Monica detects a Peacebuilding Memorial Library nearby where they can get the desired parts. With Dead Master on the guard, the rest head inside. They are greeted by a robot named Andy who guides them around. Monica tries to get more info about Colonel and his family but most info has been deleted. She then falls into some hole and stumbles into a stray robot. Colonel takes it out but Andy ‘sad’ that one of his family members is dead? Andy then shows them his scrap family. Trying to make a baseball family from the parts he gathered, huh? Weird. Meanwhile Empress tries to tap into the archive to learn why Artemis rebelled against humanity. Andy explains by giving that trolley example. In short, Artemis killed a few to save the masses and then took responsibility by committing suicide. That was the answer that pleased humanity who was searching for some high ethics in AI. Lastly, she asks about Lighthouse No. 8 but Andy says all activities are classified and the facility has already been closed. As they have the parts and are leaving, Colonel gives Andy a baseball. Build a better baseball family, huh? Monica promises to visit again once all this is over. With Black Trike all fixed up, now they’re ready to move. While Andy relishes seeing those humans again, too bad that will never happen because Charlotte comes in and smashes this tin can to bits! Anything related to Empress will be destroyed!

Episode 8
Colonel reminds the girls about the near completion of the elevator. When that day comes, all hell breaks loose. They have termed that day Dawn Fall. Roll credits? Gee, I guess D-Day or Judgment Day have been taken… Anyway, in order to get to that elevator, they have to cross the Iron Ocean. Monica is not pleased because she joined them to make money and now it is looking like a suicide mission. Well, everyone else is okay with it… Colonel has hired Isana the fisherwoman and her crew to help them get across. It seems Monica knows her and they are not on good terms. Short flashback shows they were lovers. Yes. Lesbians. But one day she left a note that she was going to die and disappeared. Monica thought she was dead the whole time. Well, now that she is earning some money as a fisherwoman by taking valuable scraps from the Iron Ocean, this also comes with its risk as she has been exposed too much from the contamination and is beyond saving. Thanks to her boat camouflaged as a reef, the robots and swarms do not attack her and it is safer to let them pass without firing a single shot. They then arrive at a small island in which Monica has detected some organic enhancement parts of Empress. AKA, the big money.

Isana leads Empress and Strength into it while Dead Master stays back because she is afraid of bugs. Then they find some orb in which when Empress touches it, starts activating after recognizing her system. The place starts to rock. When Isana comes back alone, this leads to a showdown with Dead Master because Isana wants to secure the ship and leave while Dead Master won’t leave her partner behind. With Empress and Strength seen, now they can move on. But don’t look now, a huge bug is after them! A scared Dead Master fires at it, alerting other robots to also attack. Isana thought of becoming the decoy to let others head to safety. But Colonel will not accept ‘desertions’ and has Empress bring her back. Touching the orb again, looks like the system now completes its update and turns into a bigger and more badass gun for Empress to blast that bug into bits. Empress is tired out after absorbing so much energy but we know she’ll be alright after a while. Colonel has safely crossed the Iron Ocean to rendezvous with the other Peacebuilding Force members who will take him to the elevator. Colonel duly rewards Isana along with some land deed she always wanted. Monica will go with Colonel and co after being convinced there is more money to be made! Remember Monica, can’t make money if you’re dead! Isana hopes when this is over, they can go swimming again and consummate their love. Not sure if Monica is pulling her leg because she cheekily refuses. Not into that lesbian sh*t anymore, huh?

Episode 9
Flashback shows Charlotte survived Smiley’s adaptability test. However her mom, Jessica tried to take her and escape but was cornered by Smiley and his men. It seemed she sabotaged the modification process on Charlotte and hence her modification failed. Even so, Smiley claimed he will treat her like his daughter. However Jessica threatens to shoot Charlotte but Smiley offered her a chance to help make Charlotte be his bride to bear his child. Jessica knew Charlotte is valuable to him and won’t kill her. But Jessica will not let herself be a toy of a sex doll and would rather die. As they shoot her, Jessica prayed that Black Rock Shooter would come save her daughter. Smiley took Charlotte in and because of her trauma watching mom’s death, she was easily brainwashed to be convinced Smiley is her real father. And wow, is Smiley still alive but recuperating? Because Lunatic talking to him how the gang are closing in on the elevator and they have to do something about it. Lunatic also notes her true body is on the moon and even if the elevator is destroyed, she’ll build a new one until Earth is destroyed. She tells Charlotte to head to Lighthouse No. 8 because that is where she can become a complete Hemiteos Unit. Lighthouse No. 8 is at Bogota. Of course now a decimated capital swarming with robots. Flashback shows Empress was put here in an orphanage under Jessica’s care. Since she had no name, Jessica let her pick a tarot card and she got Empress. It was there she also made friends with Dead Master. She too had no name and others ostracized her because of her horns except for Empress. Again, picking the tarot card… She gets death! How the f*ck did it become Dead Master?! Doesn’t Death sound much cooler?! Anyway, now that the orphanage is decimated and certainly it would be dumb for anyone to conduct whatever secret experiments in the open, they search for a hidden lab. They remember Lighthouse No. 8 was an experimental lab to create top quality soldiers. But had Empress not come here, she would be long dead. That’s why Empress is fighting to protect the ones she loves so as not to disappoint Jessica.

Thanks to Monica’s hacking, they find a suspicious mine belonging to Lighthouse No. 8. Wow. A full lab inside. You mean it’s still working?! Like as though somebody wanted to let them find this secret chip and yes it is. Because it plays a video of Jessica. She claims she too is a Hemiteos Unit and they were using Arche that reproduces infinitely, Elysion was to build a semi-permanent infrastructure. She collaborated with Peacebuilding Force to create the ultimate soldiers. Hence Lighthouse No. 8 and all Hemiteos Units were trial subjects. Since Jessica is too old, young girls were gathered and many Lighthouses were built around the world for this purpose. At the same time, Artemis rebelled. These girls were sent to the frontlines but only 3 survived. When Empress and the Peacebuilding Force lost, Jessica hid her identity and started living as a normal human. She had to lie to her husband because anyone discovering her identity would be in danger. She regrets being kidnapped by the Institute. There are records of the heinous experiments they did and Charlotte was one of them. But she has planted some virus that will allow her escape during some disruption. Jessica believes that Empress is back if she is watching this video. Her final request is to save Charlotte. Yeah, she has also provided some cool goodies for Empress to level up. Or she can use it to erase her powers. Choose. Because this pod is good enough for only 1 use. So as they start to recalibrate Empress, the Institution is here. Charlotte faces off with Colonel and she is unaware he is her dad. She thinks he is a pervert as he allows her to beat her up. Of course a father can’t raise her hand on her daughter, right? This starts to bring some memories back but the mind control is still strong. Good timing Colonel doesn’t have to die by her hands as Empress is done and more powerful than ever.

Episode 10
Flashback shows Lunatic defeating Empress and then showed her defeated comrades who are crucified. They too have gone crazy from all the pain and suffering. Lunatic comes down to play for a while with Dead Master and Strength. Realizing she is too important for this, she leaves Smiley to finish the job. Yeah, sex maniac wants to f*ck them till they ascend to heaven! With Charlotte out from Empress’ counter, she is put in the pod (powered by Empress’ Coilgun) in which her powers will be stripped. It will disarm her but no guarantees on her memories returning. Dead Master and Strength are getting owned by Smiley. Will they be his sex victims? First, a flashback showing Smiley feeling himself as the strongest but also the loneliest. So Lunatic suggested he f*ck every girl in the world until they conceive and if not, just make his own bride. Yeah. Great idea! Empress takes to the battlefield to fight against the Institution goons. But learning about her comrades’ fate, she is in a dilemma. How can she save both sides? She must choose. Don’t worry, Colonel will take over fighting the goons so she can go save her friends.

Empress saves her pals before Smiley rapes them. Now he thinks Empress wants to be his bride because it is proof that she came to him. Can this guy get any more twisted? Dead Master and Strength now remember their true memories that Empress did not abandon them. In the aftermath of their lost to Lunatic, they went crazy attacking Empress. She had no choice but to seal them since Lunatic’s mind control is triggering them as long as Empress existed. The debugging may cause memory defects but Empress is okay with them forgetting her as long as they don’t die. A very injured Empress then limps her way into a pod to regenerate, hoping she’ll meet them again someday. Empress claims Smiley is obsessed with having a child to deny his emptiness. Can someone empty create something? They or not like him because they have their memories and experiences. Since they are not perfect, they are not alone. The trio combine their powers to finish off Smiley. Now he is reduced to a little baby doll? Monica takes Charlotte out from the pod after the recalibration is done. But Charlotte still has not broken out from her mind control and takes Monica hostage. Colonel tries to reason with her but she is still adamant that Smiley is her dad. The attack on Smiley rocks the place. Colonel protects Charlotte from the falling rocks. She also stabs him in the process. But he is okay with that since he wants her to stop killing so let his death be the last one. A terrified Charlotte screams as daddy hugs her. But don’t worry, Colonel is a tough cookie so he survives. Good news as the Hemiteos trio return and Charlotte regains her original memories. Hi papa. Brings tears to your eyes, no? Now for the bad news: The Iron Ocean is rising rapidly.

Episode 11
Some parts of the Iron Sea have disappeared and all the robots are gathering at the elevator. Perhaps to solidify its defence in anticipation of humanity’s final attack? But Colonel and co discuss the flaws of the elevator because of its limitations to carry objects through it. They’re missing something. Then they realize that the moon lacks what resources Earth has. Hence the elevator is used to suck up its materials. But for what purpose? Reports come in that some sort of weapons are detected on the moon and are expected to land on Earth in 6 hours. In the meantime, Colonel and Empress talking about stuffs since their journey ended. Monica decides to leave seeing she got her reward. Because it is now going to be a battlefield, it is only logical for civilians to escape so technically this isn’t running away. Colonel also spends some time with Charlotte. She wants to fight but he wants her to evacuate with the rest. There is no need to risk her life since Empress and co are fighting for her. The moment arrives as Colonel orders his men to prepare a path for the Hemiteos Unit towards the elevator. Well, this is the easy part. Bombing and blasting all the robots along the way. Because at the elevator is Lunatic. She easily turns the tables and heavily wounds Colonel. Then with all that mumbo jumbo sci-fi explanation, from what I understand is that the elevator is sucking up the Iron Sea towards the moon to produce some sort of high speed acceleration plasma nuclear weapon that will be dropped on Earth. Oh look, there’s 30 of them dropping now. The rest will drop gradually and in no time, the whole Earth will be destroyed. Why is she doing this? Artemis was supposed to be a terraforming AI and not a combat one. Okay, more mumbo jumbo sci-fi explanations and from what I get, she realized she knew little about humans. So before she can make other planets suitable for human life, she needs to understand humans. Hence the twisted logic instead of improving planets, she will improve humans! Because there is so little data about them especially human extinction, hence she will wipe them out and based on this data, will develop a better human society. This will take billions of years but she’s immortal so she can wait. Oh damn, AI playing God!

Episode 12
The mad rush to the elevator continues. Of course with Lunatic and her robots providing strong resistance, it is easier said than done. Most of the Peacebuilding Force has been wiped out and Colonel taken on heavy damage. Charlotte may have come into the picture to help but there is only so much she can do. Yeah, the same case for Monica and Norito. Don’t want to miss the action? Since Charlotte is adamant to help, Colonel tells of what she needs to do. However, knowing he might slow her down, after saying he always loves her, he kills himself! SH*T! NO!!! Empress’ slugfest with Lunatic ends with defeat. Dead Master tries to snipe her but she got killed. Now that almost all of humanity has been destroyed and those plasma are constantly raining on Earth, Empress sees no reason to protect humanity if they are gone. So she’s giving up? Not quite. This means she can go into overdrive mode and sacrifice herself, causing immense damage. In her true form, a powerful blast destroys the elevator. On the moon, Lunatic analyses the damage and it seems impossible to continue bombarding Earth with the weapon. But she is more than satisfied with the results that has 70% of humans wiped out. According to her calculations, she’ll go into hibernation mode and do some self-repair. This means she’ll be back in about 200 years for the next round of destruction. Time skip 50 years later. Dead Master and Strength are kids? Charlotte is taking care of them. Norito has now taken after Colonel’s mantle and now looks as badass as ever. Monica is now a scientist while Miya is now a Hemiteos Unit due to the surgery to save her life after getting hit by that plasma. Based on the tarot cards they picked from Monica, Miya’s codename is Fortune while Charlotte will be Temperance. Black Trike has been converted into a rocket because Norito and co are gonna ride it into space! They’re going to bring the final fight and finish off Lunatic on the moon! Of course there are robots and drones all over so it’s going to be hard. This gonna be like Star Wars? But don’t worry, suddenly Empress is back to help! Where?! How?! What?!

Rise Of The Machines From Dark Of The Moon: Dumb Fail
Where the heck was Empress sleeping during the past 50 years?! How convenient for her to just follow the gang after 50 years to space. Say, if she could have gone to space alone, why didn’t she did so?! Something feels so wrong. Like as though they made the ending in a rush. Not to have a closure but to have some sort of possible cliff-hanger. Black Rock Shooter is eternal, is that what they’re trying to say? In our hearts, maybe. So are we going to have another sequel? Maybe. In 200 years! Hopefully not! Yeah, all of us can’t wait that long and who knows what will happen to humanity by the time 2 centuries have passed. Will anime still continue to exist?! You know, I shouldn’t be bothering myself with such silly matters that isn’t pertaining to the series…

This version of Black Rock Shooter is definitely way different from the one that I barely remembered 10 years ago. Uh huh. No more high school girls with alternate persona and that the theme was filled with pain and suffering. You can say this version is definitely unrelated in so many ways and the only similarity is that they used back the Black Rock Shooter characters. That is all. Otherwise, this 2022 seems to be catering more towards the sci-fi action folks as you can see it borrows heavily the elements and usual ingredients of a dystopian future like Terminator and Mad Max. It is not the most of original ideas even in anime itself as I have seen such themes like the future war of humanity with the machines as recently as Dolls’ Frontline and as far back as Karen Senki. Oh yeah. You remember the atrocious latter? So if you’re looking for an intriguing plot or storyline, this is not the kind of series you want to watch because it is pretty much predictable that AI wants to destroy humans because their twisted logic dictates that humans are the biggest assholes in history. Which I agree wholeheartedly. So who plays the better God? Humanity or AI? You decide.

As I can see, this latest version is definitely not for kids or younger audiences either. Of course, not to say the previous iterations were suitable for such audiences because of its dark and controversial themes, this one you is definitely not for children. Well, there is some swearing especially Black Trike who sometimes love to spout the F-bombs. Maybe Japanese aren’t used to that word and can say it casually. Although there is literally no nudity fanservice here, you bet there are some sex themes here. Aside from Smiley’s fornication, there is also some sort of adult talk of sex with Empress. I think this is supposed to be done as a joke because Empress who lacks understanding of human wit and sarcasm, Monica got the ball rolling over this confusion that love = sex. And so, sometimes you hear her quip deadpan jokes about sex because she misinterprets it to be love. I know, sometimes it feels a bit more like cringe than funny. But yeah, if the Hemiteos Unit is going to protect humanity, they have to understand it better and one of the basic topics for humanity is sex, right? Yeah… And then there’s that Monica and Isana lesbianism… Trying to pander to something? Pride Month is over…

Honestly, the only thing that I find myself loving about this series is the mind numbing action. Uh huh. It’s the only thing that I could ‘understand’. It was pretty fun with all the explosions and exaggerative chase scenes in the initial episodes. I love the ones that parodied Mad Max and even though I kept seeing Fury Road spoofs in it, I still enjoyed them because it was mad and exhilarating. Don’t care if it all doesn’t make sense but hell yeah, it was fun. High speed octane explosion! Oh yeah! That’s my style of entertainment! So when subsequently when the series is about to reach its final stretch, hence the obligatory explanation of this and that, blah, blah, blah, oh God, even though it was pretty simple, I guess my simpleton brain considered it to be complex. Yeah, all those back story and sci-fi terms, it didn’t really go well with me. After all the no brainer mind numbing explosive action, my brain wasn’t ready to go back into that thinking mode. So give me more of those explosive action, please!

As for the characters, I guess they are just pretty okay on the superficial level. This different version of Black Rock Shooter means the characters are a different reincarnation of those from 10 years ago. Since I can’t remember, I can’t really compare. But as far as for the context of this anime goes, I guess they’re pretty okay and nothing too deep. So if you like deep character development, this series isn’t it either. After all, it feels like they needed to hammer in the action and move the plot faster. Because initially we see Empress working alone and then we have Strength and Dead Master confusingly fighting against her. Whatever problems they had then were quickly solved and now they are fighting on the same side again. Like as though they needed to give us some sort of character drama between them. Like Dead Master being yuri for Empress while Strength has some sort of split persona between her weak childish and strong badass side.

On the humanity side, I feel Monica is a bit redundant (or is she a comic relief character?). She is supposed to be the engineering genius but I don’t see he do anything much. Maybe that’s the problem. I didn’t see her. She might have accomplished it all in the background and the series don’t want to bore me with more technical mumbo jumbo on how she does it because it’s not like I would get it, right? So yeah, even if she is a genius in fixing up Black Rock Shooter, I am still going to complain that it all looks so unreal because of how quick she could solve the problem, like as though she read from the script on what to do next. Same case for Norito and Miya, they’re like featured on and off but I suppose it is for the final scene to show us that there is somebody to continue fighting for the sake of humanity. Colonel, your typical tough cookie guy who is also a father. I’m sure it’s to hit some feels and pull the heartstrings especially when a father makes the ultimate sacrifice for his child. Making it even more bittersweet he just reunited with her and then had to take his own life just for the sake of humanity. Oh well, better they have reunited than never, no?

One of the most disturbing characters you might agree with me is of course Smiley. This guy is really strange. He isn’t human nor robot, so is he alien? Maybe he is just a doll and it could have been interesting to see how he came to life. Did he got animated because of some Mutagen contamination or something? As an antagonist, it’s like they want us to hate him because of his twisted goal in f*cking every girl in the world. He is probably the biggest reason why this series is rated for adults. You think his naked anatomical model with a retractable crotch area is scary? Wait till you look at this macho baby version! Definitely will a fuel nightmare. Smiley may be the secondary antagonist and his role gives more variety to the story, but I think without him and his Institute, the story may be a lot more bland. Only thanks to his Mad Max Institution, we can get awesome chase scenes and mad action. So when they raided his base and killed everyone off, it seems the fun died out. Really! That’s why the subsequent episodes felt so boring that they had to bring him back for the final fight! I know that isn’t the reason but I kept feeling it was so. Because subsequent fights with those robots just really felt not as exciting. I mean, everybody is shooting big beams. Sure, big explosions, okay. But not as exciting as those madmen from the Institution.

And now Lunatic as the primary antagonist. Well, she lives up to her name but overall as the biggest baddie of the series, she still falls flat because she is pretty much predictable. You know, the smartest AI turning rogue and wanting to eliminate all of humanity. Now, where have I heard this kind of story before? You could say I find her more of a bore compared to Smiley. Of course as the biggest villain of the series, she will be a tough nut to crack and as we have seen, our heroes have fought so hard against her and the victory came at a cost. A Pyrrhic victory? And this is just Lunatic in her substitute form. Her real form is on the moon so it remains to be seen how f*cking tough this one would be. Game modes have hard mode as the ultimate challenge. Perhaps this one would be labelled as f*cking nightmare mode! And that is already the easiest setting! Oh well, good thing that she is back in hibernation. See you in 200 years. Assuming humanity hasn’t wiped itself out yet.

At first, I thought this series was done in 2D animation. But then I started to notice that they were moving in not really your typical 2D-like movement. It soon dawned to me that the entire series is done in 3D CGI animation! Well, I am not saying that the CGI is a masterpiece as there is still room for improvement. However if the CGI can fool me into thinking this was 2D and the animation itself is close to flawless, this should have been the standard and lesson for other animes (Mushikago No Cagaster, Ex-Arm, Tesla Note, to name a few) should they wish to employ 100% CGI in their production. Yes, despite being 100% CGI, it subsequently never bothered me a bit because it was really high quality (and I was preoccupied with the action). So once again to remind you animators, if you really want to do CGI anime, please at least use this anime as your standard threshold. It should be that way. Take it from Bibury Animation Studios (Azur Lane, Go-toubun No Hanayome S2, Grisaisa: Phantom Trigger) on how to do CGI right. Other than the CGI, I guess the other character designs are pretty standard. Though, I thought some of the robots could be better designed. They look more like monster-robot hybrid. The sceneries are mostly monotonous and bland. It is understandable seeing the dystopian future the series is set in but at least it is not so dark where I can’t see anything.

For the voice acting, I only recognized Tomokazu Sugita as Smiley, Saori Hayami as Dead Master and Misaki Kuno as Black Trike. Definitely Tomokazu Sugita sounds like having fun in his perverse role. For the Black Rock Shooter trio, they changed the original ones and thus it ended my speculation that they’re related to the one 10 years ago. So now replacing Kana Hanazawa, Miyuki Sawashiro and Kana Asumi as Empress, Dead Master and Strength respectively, we now have Yui Ishikawa, Saori Hayami and Megumi Han. The other casts are Takuya Kirimoto as Colonel, Ayaka Asai as Monica, Akane Tomonaga as Lunatic, You Taichi as Charlotte, Saya Horigome as Norito, Asuka Itou as Miya, Ryouko Tanaka as Jessica and Kei Mizusawa as Isana.

The opening theme is Aseed by ZAQ. Your typical edgy anime hard rock style that fits the pacing of the series well. More hard rock style as the ending theme, Before The Nightmare by Kanako Takatsuki is played at an even frenzy pace. No time to rest. Start raving and bang your heads to the tune of this song! You’re going to need all the hype, motivation and pumping up before the final mad fight with Lunatic! Of course the final episode’s ending theme has got to go back to the nostalgic titular song itself that was sung by Supercell (Hatsune Miku). Yeah, time to bring back that old nostalgia with this full length iconic song. I’m not sure about the other insert songs throughout the series whether or not they were from Supercell. Not their biggest fan, so don’t really care.

Overall, I find this highly enjoyable and entertaining from an explosive sci-fi action perspective. Everything else (except the visuals) feels a lot mediocre and pretty average. I can see why many people weren’t impressed when this came out because they butchered or dumb downed the works of Supercell and turned it into some generic sci-fi sh*t. Oh well, it sucks to be sophisticated pieces of sh*t like you. While I agree this does not have the most interesting of stories or the deepest of characters, if you’re here for the exaggerated over the top explosive action, you won’t be disappointed. That’s all you should come here for. Otherwise we should be thankful that there are people who slogged for hours, weeks and months to produce this garbage just for our entertainment, just for many of us to cast it off as nonsense. Now you know why AIs like Artemis, Skynet and even Ultron want to destroy humanity, eh? Oh boy, the things we put on the internet these days, the Hemiteos Unit might think twice if they want to further protect us. Yeah, humanity should just stick to making the much safer sex bots instead…

Ergo Proxy

This has been one of those animes that I have been putting off because of its confusing themes and all. That’s right. The original anime Ergo Proxy could have remained as such had I not been ‘bold’ enough to recently go watch such similar genres like Serial Experiments Lain. After my stint with those, hence it gave me the ‘confidence’ to go check this one out because, well, how freaking confusing would it get, right? After all, such animes lately wasn’t as confusing as I thought and feared it would be and thus this anime could also be something of that nature. Yup, my own fears and insecurities blew up that unfounded and baseless claims of confusion. So what a better way and timing for me to banish that haunting ghost of bugging behind and dive down into this anime. Oh sh*t. Come to think of it, I don’t even know what this anime is about! Did I forget the synopsis or was it too confusing for me to remember? Oh no!

Episode 1
What’s going on? Some creature whatever woke up too early and escapes the lab. I think. Some attack in some alley. Somebody got killed. Too dark to see. Too confusing to understand. Re-l Mayer and her AutoReiv, Iggy are doing their investigation about some resident who got brutally murdered. They investigate the AutoReiv body that is believed to be infected by the cogito virus that makes them achieve self-awareness and no longer be controlled by humans. Re-l also talks to an immigrant, Vincent Law and reminds him of his job to protect the citizens from that element as that is the fastest way to become a citizen. As she continues her investigation, a monster-like robot attacks her. Though, it got away. Raul Creed is the newly appointed director general of the security bureau. Some issues talked including immigrants occupying an abandoned immigration facility. And some Proxy being awakened and no reports have come in despite an ongoing sweep operation throughout Romdeau City. There have already been numerous deaths and the numbers are steadily increasing as AutoReivs running wild as a result of the cogito virus. It won’t be long before the citizens become restless. Raul wants permission to kill but is told to just capture it. Losing a few citizens is nothing. They just need to increase production. The most important thing is to capture and bring it back. Re-l returns home. She knows being called by her grandpa, Donov is a sign of unrest at the security bureau. Then that monster barges in and attacks. Not sure why it’s fascinated with her face. Then it looks like that escaped specimen coming into the picture and they fight. Re-l must be so confused that she passes out. Yeah. Me too. What the hell is happening?

Episode 2
Re-l is given a list of suspects but she can tell that none of them are it. It was a monster who attacked her. Re-l becomes very agitated as she thinks the security bureau has wiped out the incriminating data. They show her a footage of Vincent in an interrogation. Perhaps he could be the culprit because there is evidence he has feelings for her. Of course Re-l rubbishes that. Worse, they think she is hallucinating from the stress and has her go see Dr Daedalus Yumeno if she wants her position reinstated. Re-l also notices Iggy’s memories of the incident has been wiped out. She thinks there might be a connection to this. Re-l tries to convince Daedalus what she saw was real. He would like to believe her but needs to complete this consultation. As he leaves the room for a while, she checks on his computer and stumbles upon some specimen and Proxy. Later when Re-l tries to talk to Iggy about Proxy, his chat mode becomes forcefully disengaged. This has Re-l realize that Iggy is being watched. Re-l then goes to talk to Donov and the regent but it seems they are ignoring on what she wants to ask and suggest she be put back in the admin bureau, something Re-l doesn’t want. She is forced to promise never to act on her own again to maintain her position. Re-l has a new place to live since her old one has been cordoned off. Re-l further realizes that Donov is trying to control her actions via Iggy. As Raul is at the mall, he witnesses Vincent being chased by that specimen. Damn, lots of innocent people died during this chase! Vincent just watching the whole tragedy unfold? Eventually he gets security to lockdown the place. By that time, the specimen has chased Vincent to the lower levels. Re-l is off doing her own investigations in some abandoned place. She finds a familiar pendant and remembers it belongs to Vincent. Speaking of him, the specimen corners him. But it’s like he changes character and they, uhm, hug?!

Episode 3
Uhm, not sure what dream Vincent woke up from but it looks like he is alive. Re-l tries to call him but he does not answer. Iggy then shows her the intelligence bureau’s databank has been accessed many times in a short span. Could it be the security bureau and for what purpose? Vincent is trying to find his AutoReiv, Dorothy but she is already broken. With the security bureau here, he thinks he has been set up to make it look like he has killed her. He makes a run for it. While hiding, he meets this companion AutoReiv, Pino. She follows him around and even answers the call from Re-l. Just when Re-l has got through to him. Vincent is in despair that he is being set up and needs help. However he realizes he is dead either way so he is going to try and get out via some plug-vent despite doing so almost guarantees death. Re-l wants to come to him but he won’t wait and continues to make his way there. Since he is hitting dead ends, Pino leads the way until he reaches there. At that time Re-l has also arrived. She slaps him and demands answers on what he saw in her bathroom. Then how do you explain this pendant? He is unsure of that but thinks it’s that same monsters who attacked him at the mall before the security bureau started chasing him. Speaking of them, looks like they have been surrounded. No, Re-l didn’t call them. At this point, Pino has opened the plug-vent as it sucks Vincent out. Iggy protects Re-l from sharing the same fate. In order to avoid risking the city, they have to close the hatch and forgo capturing him. Vincent resigns to his fate as he leaps out. He realizes he could never become a citizen in the first place.

Episode 4
Re-l is investigating on her own and it proves hard without Iggy. Then she finds something. Meanwhile, some weird dream Vincent has. Not sure if it is real or not because it shows Vincent as the one who killed Dorothy. When he wakes up, a bald man named Hoody has treated his infection. He is one of the lucky ones who got cured as many don’t even last a week. He has been asleep for 10 days. He knows about Vincent’s circumstances due to Pino. Vincent wonders why he saved his life. Hoody had someone did the same on him many years ago. Hoody has fond memories of Romdeau as he came from there. Vincent claims everything is fake but Hoody notes every lie is the truth until you recognize it as a lie. Seeing its truth may be the right thing but it may not bring happiness. Hence Pino’s logic: Lies = happiness. Vincent then realizes this isn’t the immigration sector. He walks out of the shed to find he is indeed already outside the dome. Re-l sees Daedalus and after he promises he can keep a secret. She reveals that she has found Proxy’s body and the security bureau doesn’t know about it. She wants him to do examine without letting Donov know. Re-l brings the body to him and Daedalus is shocked that the supposedly immortal Amrita cells have been annihilated. Re-l goes off to find the other monster who killed this one and they both promise to pretend they did not see anything here. Vincent meets the other people who live in this wasteland outside the dome. Mostly they don’t like the air there or got exiled. Vincent then meets Quinn who collects wastes thrown out by the dome. Some parts are still good to use. They have to hide because this Regular Service drone is doing is usual recon probing. Vincent doesn’t know it does not target AutoReiv so he thinks Pino is in danger. He goes to shoot it down. The drone’s final footage is watched by Raul who spots Vincent in the footage. He orders more reinforcements for the probes. He places Vincent as higher priority than finding the specimen as this man holds the key.

Episode 5
Everyone is suspicious of Vincent but Hoody creates lies to claim Vincent is a freedom fighter. He further lies about Romdeau is doomed and how government officials are going all out to crush the rebellion. What’s this about he is in contact with Romdeau and that’s why he knows about Regular Service? But is sure fooled everyone. Vincent wonders why he lied so Hoody says his quick wit is the only thing that has kept him alive. He tries to help people but all he got are complaints. So you bet more lies as he claims a negotiator will be sent and the possibility of them going back to Romdeau. Of course the only one suspicious is Quinn as she finds his story doesn’t add up. Then a negotiator really arrives. Turns out to be Re-l and she wants to take Vincent back. Hoody won’t give him up so easily and because he heard some conversation between Re-l and Daedalus, he starts lying about knowing about Proxies. In fact, he has met a few of them. He continues saying how they can be anything and are quite powerful. But Re-l doesn’t even pay attention and continues to want Vincent to come back with her. Because Regular Service is going to come and clean up this place. Meaning, everyone staying here will die. Vincent wonders if he can go back to Romdeau but Re-l promises to prove his innocence. A Regular Service then starts attacking them. Re-l even getting injured herself but had to dive down to save Vincent who has fallen off the slope. Re-l is exhausted after saving Vincent who is unconscious. She is demanding answers from him and duh, he’s not responding. Too dramatic that she also collapses.

Episode 6
Raul gets a warning from the higher ups for trying to pursue deviants of Romdeau as it is based on popular opinion and not facts. He must bear him mind his position as chief of the security bureau. Re-l wakes up and instantly goes out to find Vincent since he is her only lead to Proxy. She threatens Quinn she is going to take Vincent back to Romdeau but in her state she is too weak to do anything. Vincent comes to Re-l’s aid as Quinn reveals Hoody’s bluff that he has no medicine or cure. Everyone just healed by themselves. Since they’re going to escape this place, she makes a deal with him to come with them and she’ll give this last vaccine to him. Vincent contemplates on this and assuming if she is lying about the vaccine, Re-l is doomed either way. Hoody advises to take her back to Romdeau. When Quinn and co start sailing away, Regular Service drones start attacking. However the ship has a mechanical malfunction. Some fix it while others fire back at the drones. Similarly, Raul joins Daedalus in retrieving Re-l. It seems she is riding her ship back to them as they assume the other person with her is Vincent. However when the ship lands back at Romdeau, they are shocked that the person is not Vincent but Hoody. One final look at Romdeau before he gets executed on the spot. Vincent is actually with Quinn on the boat as he has finally fixed it to get it start moving. However Quinn has been injured gravely from the battle and dies. And the vaccine is just alcohol.

Episode 7
Vincent and the survivors take a long lonely journey to Mosk, his homeland in hopes of finding answers. Re-l is in hospital but she recovers fast. Then she wanders around the facility as she ponders about the truth that there is actually a world outside this dome. Then she stumbles into a lab that is the artificial womb. Daedalus explains this is where all Romdeau’s citizens are born and raised as efficient citizens. Since everything is controlled, thus balance is maintained. This is how humans are able to continue living. Of course Re-l now has doubts as she has seen a world outside Romdeau. Daedalus will help keep their promise but needs Re-l to do him a favour to save face and see Donov. She does that and asks about the outside world but is only greeted with silence. Daedalus then has Re-l reunited with Iggy and thanks to his procedure, he is free from Donov’s control. Daedalus has done his autopsy on that monster but must explain the beginning to her. He shows her this Mosk Proxy lying dormant. It was already here when he got transferred to this facility and it was believed to be plundered from Mosk. Its reason for being locked up is not known but he knows it is definitely not human and that it is more of a God than a monster. They are not allowed to wake it up. Then something about Amrita cells which are immortal and Proxies are the key to why they are still alive. Suddenly a few AutoReivs enter to kill Re-l but are dispatched easily. Daedalus believes they have been infected with the cogito virus and it could be they have been turned into weapons. He believes this is Raul’s doing and trying to keep a hold on power by finding out where Proxy is. Of course the one who holds the answer to that is Vincent. An AutoReiv revives and suddenly kills Re-l! Oh no! She dead for real?! Vincent’s travel continues as the remaining survivors slowly pass on, leaving him and Pino to continue the long journey alone.

Episode 8
Vincent has travelled so long that he has run out of food. He thinks he is going to die soon but soon his ship gets caught in a crossfire between the Charos and Asura forces. Eventually Vincent is taken in by the Charos side and they believe his story since he ate a lot of their food. They are also willing to help fix his ship but in the meantime, they need his help and extra manpower to fight off their enemies. After all, it seems the Asura side is trying to storm their dome and steal the artificial wombs. During this time, a mysterious monster starts killing the Charos soldiers. Hence suspicion falls on Vincent and Pino as this only happened when they have arrived. They are locked up as Vincent realizes he only brings death to wherever he goes. Then he starts to fear if there is something inside him. Could it be he transforms into something he is unaware of? At the same time, the Asura forces mount another attack. But the Charos side loses ground as the mysterious monster starts killing them off. The Asura side frees all the locked up prisoners. Then we see the mysterious monster fight another monster. The former loses. Some weird eye beams exchange between them. Not sure what the f*ck is happening. In the aftermath, mysterious monster is dead and some weird guy picks up a joker card on her. Huh?

Episode 9
Vincent is picked up by Kazkis Hauser who is the master of this tower. Seems Vincent is the only survivor of that massacre. Pino seems to be hinting to Vincent that they can’t stay at this place and they have to leave but Vincent is in a daze and confused. Probably the win Kazkis keep letting him drink. Vincent questions Kazkis about the war between Charos and Asura so Kazkis talks about the fake people Charos are and how their Proxy, Senex was destroyed and hence the end of Charos itself. Kazkis share Vincent’s same sentiments of the feeling of being tormented by something despite not doing anything. He tells a little back story between him and Senex. From what I understand, they built this place and loved each other. So he blames Vincent for killing her before they could get married. Vincent denies as he doesn’t remember it. Vincent further learns this whole place is void of people and Kazkis talking about life and death. He questions Vincent’s memories. Learning he is from Mosk, it could be his memories were transferred to Monad who couldn’t handle its immense volume but did it anyway. Because Vincent loved Monad. Because of that, he lost to Monad and himself by erasing his own memories. Now he has run away in the most shameful manner as he accuses Vincent to be a Proxy who killed his beloved Senex. Kazkis transforms to his Proxy form to kill him. When the hurting gets too painful, Vincent starts to undergo a painful transformation. Yes, Vincent is a Proxy. Kazkis again asks who he is and finally he replies he is Ergo Proxy and the agent of death. Kazkis curses him to be burnt by the truth and engulfed by eternal darkness before he goes off to reunite with Senex. Vincent is saddened to now know he isn’t human. He continues his journey with Pino to Mosk. Seems Pino knows his identity all along but was never afraid of him as he always helped her.

Episode 10
Daedalus has been suspended. Raul is not pleased when the regent warns him about overthinking. Because what happened to Re-l can happen to him. They must now think of their next action after a death of a Proxy. A short electrical outage happens in Romdeau before it is being restored. Because it lasted for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, he believes Daedalus is behind this. So he arranges to meet him and wants Kristeva to look for his hidden research data. Daedalus thinks this visit is meaningless since he has lost his reason for living as Re-l is dead. His whole life and purpose was to raise her. As Raul talks to him, he hints he knows he is the one behind the outage as well as the one who used Monad as bait to pull the wool over the regent’s eyes and conceal its existence. The existence of a second Proxy from the collective. He also well knows Re-l is still alive. Indeed. She is in another dome. However it is void of humans but all the AutoReivs are working like usual until kingdom come. Raul further adds his real reason is to get another Proxy and Re-l was just a means for that. But now that he has lost her, this method is now unfeasible and hence a secret message was sent to Raul to get his attention. Raul forces out from him the real reason of the outage. Why did he amass a huge amount of energy for himself? It’s to revive a Proxy. Raul gives him a chance to work for him and will let him research on this Proxy of his all he wants. He will be under his supervision. While Daedalus is happy with that chance, he is actually doing this all for Re-l. Speaking of her, she stumbles into a young girl who takes her pendant. She goes after her and after learning Re-l won’t give up in finding that person, she returns it to him. Uhm, this young girl is young Re-l? All imagination because she disappears and Re-l finds herself sleeping on the bench. She leaves this world with Iggy.

Episode 11
Vincent is lost in the sandstorm and he finds it strange a bookstore in the middle of nowhere. The old bookstore owner invites him for tea as Vincent asks if he has seen Pino. However he is told not to be so hasty. So as Vincent takes a book to read, he is shocked to its title as his name. In fact all the books here has his name as its title. Then some strange mindf*ck hallucinations as a Proxy keeps telling him that he is him and vice versa. Vincent thinks this is a dream but is denied that this is one. Some talk about communication and Proxy being a monster. Not that I understand. Vincent tries to remember far back into his past but he can only remember something happened at Mosk, the reason he migrated to Romdeau. Proxy thinks it is because he doesn’t want to remember. As long as you don’t want to find the answers, he will not understand even if he is shown one. More confusing talk about the circle of life and existence. And what’s this about feeling your own heartbeat and the answer lies here?! Also others creating them other than themselves so as to be tied to the world’s system known as life. HUH?! In the end, Vincent is forced to admit that he is Ergo. Vincent is then thrown back into reality. Bookstore gone. Just lying in the sandstorm. Re-l pops up. She has finally found him. Is this a dream?

Episode 12
Re-l wants the truth. He says he is a Proxy. Why looking so shocked? Did you not want the truth? As Vincent continues his journey, Re-l continues to follow him. Then as they stop to rest, she still doesn’t believe he is a Proxy although he mentions about the other Proxies he stumbled and killed, that’s how he learnt he is one. Hence he wants to return to Mosk to find answers. Re-l then deliberates as she remembers Daedalus gave her 2 FP Bullets. He created these that theoretically could kill a Proxy. Thus Re-l will help him capture some data. Well, test it out! Pondering whether to shoot a sleeping Vincent. Suddenly he pushes her down and claims he loves her. Woah. This escalated quickly. Did all the lonely travelling made him feel so? Re-l plays along and kisses him so as to retrieve her gun. Vincent notices somebody watching and goes after her but loses her. Later Iggy warns Re-l that they don’t have enough fuel to return to Romdeau. Of course Re-l doesn’t want to go back there emptyhanded and since Vincent said he loves her, she knows he wants to stay with her. Pino wanders off and stumble into that peeping tom girl. Then Pino runs for her life because this huge guy trying to get her! At that moment, Vincent felt something and transforms into a Proxy. Re-l and Iggy see this as Vincent fight that hulk. She confirms it is that Proxy she saw back at Romdeau. Re-l then shoots an FP bullet into the hulk, effectively killing him. When Vincent reverts back, Re-l threatens that she can kill him with this bullet. Vincent seems like mocking her because a mortal killing an immortal? But Vincent restrains his alter ego so nothing untoward happens. Re-l will continue to follow Vincent as she wants to know the truth, not a Proxy’s death. Someday he will kill him but not today. When that happens, can he still say he loves her? She then orders Iggy to head back to Romdeau alone with this hulk’s corpse for Daedalus.

Episode 13
Taking shelter from the storm, all Re-l do is complain? Pino won’t be her servant. Don’t bother her when she’s reading! Meanwhile Iggy is pondering about Vincent and Proxies when that peeping tom girl who is an AutoReiv keeps banging on the window. She is here to take back the hulk’s corpse and Iggy allows her. He observes her as she performs some last rites and this supposed master of hers as he wonders what she’ll do now that she no longer has a master. He reflects this as the same as himself. If Re-l dies, he will have no master so his logic is to kill Vincent. Re-l is shocked to see Iggy back. From the way he talks about caring for her, she realizes he is infected with the cogito virus. Because he knew about the procedure, he found a loophole to avoid detection and gave himself a clean bill of health. He knocks her out and locks her in a pod in the ship. Then he forces her to listen to his rants about how he has always been by her side supporting her but she doesn’t care about him. Re-l refuses to accept this is the Iggy she knows because of the rude way he is speaking. Iggy claims his goal has not change and that is to protect her. So he goes out to kill Vincent. He confronts him and reasons that he will kill him because one day he will kill Re-l. At the same time that AutoReiv tries to break through the pod. The moment she does, Re-l uses this chance to escape. Iggy sees those serious eyes in Vincent and knows those are the eyes that will kill Re-l. Damn, Vincent faster and more aggressive than Iggy as he demands for Re-l. Assassination attempt fails so Iggy runs away. Luckily they kill the AutoReiv hot on Re-l’s heels. Re-l claims Vincent has defeated her and this way she won’t be able to kill her. The AutoReiv tries to self-destruct. Iggy carries her away until she explodes. In the aftermath, Iggy laments and blames Re-l for this happening. But he also doesn’t want her to hate him. While blaming her as useless, but if she dies, he would have lost his reason to live. He can’t understand why she is his master. After burying Iggy, Re-l ponders why he didn’t search for his freedom and continued to be by her side. Vincent returns Re-l’s gun as they resume their journey.

Episode 14
Oh dear. What a strange and confusing episode! Re-l and Vincent stop by in a town to resupply. We see them hang out and although Re-l wants to quickly resume the journey, Vincent prefers to stay longer and heck, he tries to flirt with her but gets rejected! She accidentally pushes him off the ledge. Oh sh*t! Did he die?! Can he die?! She goes to check on the body but it goes missing. Weird confusing stuffs start to happen as we see Re-l on the alert and when Vincent asks why, it seems Pino wants to kill her! She gets locked in. Then Vincent investigates the place where Re-l jumped off but didn’t find her body. Instead, Re-l points her gun from the back and asks who he is. Then she locks him on the rooftop. But then, we see Vincent putting Re-l’s dead body in the pond. So this is proper burial? And then as revealed by Pino, there are actually 2 Vincents and Re-ls here. When This Vincent tries to kill Pino, Pino knows this isn’t the real Vincent since he doesn’t know she is an AutoReiv. Vincent tries to revive Re-l’s corpse but she drowns him with her. This has Vincent talk to his other self. From what I understand, the imposter Vincent claims nobody loves him since he is a nobody. Because he cannot eliminate himself, he eliminated them. He became the only person left. With this Vincent, he can now eliminate himself. After all, Re-l just rejected him, right? Then Vincent kills Re-l. Vincent doing a monologue about loneliness and being terrified to find out the truth as the people he wants to be with disappear. Might as well die now? In the aftermath, we see the real Vincent and Re-l continuing their journey. It seems Re-l has noticed a way to identify the imposter: No reflection in the water. Vincent narrates about the Proxy trying to find acceptance by changing himself. He believes he is the same. By travelling with Re-l and Pino, he can change who he is and understand the meaning of life. Hence he can’t let himself die even if he is a Proxy.

Episode 15
Uhm, WTF is going on?! How did Vincent end up in a quiz show? Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?! More like Who Wants To Be In Jeopardy! We see the host, MCQ asking Vincent several general knowledge questions. I can take pride that I know half of them! So this is the deal of this quiz. Vincent must score a million points in 30 minutes answering correctly. Doing so means he will live and MCQ will die. Otherwise, Vincent dies. Definitely, Nightmare Quiz indeed. Other than the straightforward question and answer, Vincent is also given some panel quiz in which he must guess which person based on the clues. Sorry, it’s not Re-l, it’s not Pino and certainly it’s not Ergo. Uhm, who the f*ck is Proxy One?! Next quiz has Vincent identify some mosaic picture. Re-l and Pino are made to join in and it’s obvious Re-l doesn’t give a f*ck. Hmm… Does this picture of an interplanetary migration ship have anything to do in the plot? Finally, the rapid question and answer quiz in which Vincent is in a race against time to answer the most correct answers for survival. Hmm… Seems like most of them are asking about Proxy and the likes. In the end, Vincent achieves a million points. MCQ congratulates him and a short farewell for the host before he goes off to die. WTF is going on…

Episode 16
In this equally weird (and boring!) episode, we see Re-l keeping a diary as she observes Vincent and Pino’s habits. Hey, Mosk is still a pretty long way to go and their ship is stranded in the wastelands as there is no wind. So some of the notable observations include Re-l not taking this sh*t that Vincent leaves the toilet seat up! WTF, she his mother now?! Yeah, she’s going through his stuffs when he isn’t around. Hoping to find something? Then there’s Pino trying out Re-l’s makeup and has Vincent put on some. Hideous! By the way, does she need to put on makeup? Oh right, she looks so different without those eye shadows! Re-l getting irritated by that lone facial hair on Vincent and since he didn’t shave it, she trolls us by thinking she is going to give him a kiss but it’s to rip it out! With resources running low, looks like they have to ration their beans. Re-l still needs to use more water to wash her hair and reasons that Vincent’s hair is shorter so he should use less water. WHAT?! In order to save electricity, they have to use candles now. Pretty romantic? Not! I guess it got to Re-l so she copies Vincent idiotic way of screaming in the open for the wind to come. Ironically she realizes the solution was simple all along. There’s no point in thinking too hard and now she feels happier and can smile. Woah. Re-l smiling? Sure she didn’t catch Vincent and Pino’s idiotic disease? See what the miracles of not giving a f*ck can greatly have on your health and sanity! Now with the wind picking up, they continue their journey to Mosk.

Episode 17
While stopping over and getting ready to move on, they realize Pino is missing. They try to find her and it leads them to a cave where there are few dead strange humanoids. Heading further in, looks like there is Pino playing the piano. There are more strange humanoids living there but Vincent and Re-l have to leave since there is toxic gas in the area. Then they realize these creatures have adapted to such living conditions and cannot survive under normal ones. Hence those dead are those trying to get out of the cave. Re-l sees some strange drawings on the wall that indicates pregnancy and birth. Raul gets into an argument with Daedalus who blames him for chasing away Vincent who is the Proxy. The regent wanted him to stay and had not Raul do this, Vincent wouldn’t have awakened on his own. Raul then goes to talk to the regent and asks them if they are citizens or prisoners. They tell him to do his job and not overthink. He continues to argue that the environment outside has been healing but not enough for them to go live outside. Therefore they are prisoners. He wants them to tell him what to do to protect Romdeau but they give no clear answers. Seeing hallucinations of Vincent, he thinks he is the winner and will never allow it. Then he blames Donov who is nothing more than one of the cogwheels. He tells him to do us all a favour and die. Raul has been stripped of his position and Kristeva appointed to his role until a new one is chosen. As it will take time to strip Raul of his privileges, Kristeva observe closely on him. Then she loses track of him and tracks him down all over. Then she realizes that deletion was only a bait. Don’t understand this part because Raul is playing his piano as the guards surround him. Some missile is launched as it cannot be aborted. So, he’s gonna destroy the world and blames Vincent for taking everything away from him? Especially taking away Pino?

Episode 18
Holy sh*t! So that missile destroyed Mosk?! Damn, it travelled way faster than Vincent’s ship did. So you bet when they arrive, they see Mosk completely decimated. Since they’re here, better start looking around for clues. Raul is brought before the regent and being interrogated of his strayed ways. He was supposed to set an example for the citizens. He continues to blame them that all this happened because they sheltered Vincent. He then adds that he doesn’t need God nor seek salvation but destruction. Not sure about the logic that even if the world is destroyed but they continue to resist, Romdeau will continue to exist. The regent then reinstate his position and allow him to do it his way. Because only then he will know their despair and suffering. Raul talks to Daedalus and wants him to be part of his next project that doesn’t need God. Outside, he meets a young girl whom Daedalus claims will become the real Re-l. Vincent cannot recall anything and wonders if turning into a Proxy will do the trick. Then he uses his pendant to open a secret room. An AutoReiv named Amnesia welcomes him and it seems all the memories of his master are written all over the walls as backup. Suddenly Vincent destroys the wall and kills off Amnesia! WTF?! Oh, it was all a dream? As they continue their search, this time with Re-l and Pino, they enter that same room after unlocking it with his pendant. Inside, Amnesia is offline although he keeps spamming the line the one divided must become whole again and to head to Romdeau. Re-l sees the same message on the wall that was in her bathroom. Noticing Amnesia has the exact same pendant as his, they wonder if this was a message left behind by Monad. Hence they’re going back to Romdeau as the final key that could link Monad, Vincent and the Proxies could all like there. Yeah. Come all the way here just to know they have go back there again. What a great road trip.

Episode 19
Pino wakes up in the dumpster. Before her are 2 cartoon characters, Al and Pul. They say she is in Smile Land, an amusement park that is created to make people happy all year round. Mascots who lose popularity will be dumped here. Pino wonders if she is abandoned by Vincent and Re-l. Both claim that everyone here has problems but can send their requests to Will B. Good, the creator of this place. Uhm, is he Walt’s long lost Japanese brother?! Then this cricket character, Rogi will bring them to see Will. In exchange, he wants Pino to tell all that she knows about Vincent. Nice guy, right? They escape the dumpster and go up to the surface. Those police dogs think they are going to ride the rides for free and that won’t do. Pino dodges them and it becomes a cartoonish comical chase. Eventually, Pino and her friends are captured. The police dogs have records on her friends but none on Pino. However they find her strange as an AutoReiv because her smile is so natural. She claims she got it after meeting Vincent and Re-l. With time running out, Rogi has them go straight to the climax and meet Will. The creator explains why he created this place and his motivation to create and protect the perfect smile. Pino gets suspicious when he asks for any weakness of Vincent. She claims she doesn’t know. When he asks for anything precious, she realizes she has his pendants by lies she doesn’t. He continues to bug and convince her that he can make her wish come true as he shows Al and Pul turned into humans as they wished. However when they comment on Pino’s natural smile, Will tells them to STFU and turns them back. But they won’t take this sh*t so they pull him out and beat him up! Will then reveals that Vincent will arrive here soon and that as Proxies, they must fight and this place will be destroyed. That’s why he was trying to find his weakness by invading into Pino’s dream. But now he realizes he doesn’t want to fight after seeing Pino’s smile and would like to spend time here quietly smiling. Pino wakes up. Noticing Smile Land up ahead and Re-l wants to stop for supplies, Pino pleads to Vincent to not go there because nothing good will happen. Vincent believes her and gives this place a pass. Will and everyone praise Pino for saving Smile Land. Thank you, Pino. The girl with a smile!

Episode 20
What a confusing episode! Vincent finds himself on the operating table of Daedalus and experiencing lapse in his memories. Re-l is being chastised by the regent for being problematic but since she brought back something satisfied, they let her go. Vincent soon realizes he is trapped inside Re-l as he can see and hear her actions from first person view but cannot influence her actions. Pino is being kept in some dark room for suspicions she has the cogito virus and she hates it here. She wants to go rescue Vincent but Re-l won’t allow her. Re-l is also taking some psychiatric sessions under Swan. She is brought to see Vincent in Proxy mode and he thinks he can kill her before he dies because she betrayed him. Swan soon reveals that this Vincent inside Re-l isn’t the real one. Because of Re-l’s unstable mental state, she split her personality to deal with the guilt of betraying him and created another personality inside herself. At Swan’s command, it seems she can switch between Re-l and Vincent as she pleases. Don’t really understand the next scenes that switches back and forth between them but Swan believes Vincent is trying to take over Re-l. Vincent wants to save her by making his own existence disappear so Swan suggests showing his past even if it’s a fabricated one. Not sure about this part either because it could all be in Re-l’s mind as we see them talking of the prospects of Vincent marrying Re-l. Then Vincent escaped. Re-l is given a gun with FP Bullets to use if it comes down to that. Swan suggests killing Re-l inside her fantasy. Then her divided self can be whole again. Since he can’t do it, Vincent goes to get Pino. Let’s go kill Re-l to save her. Okay. Whatever. Because this world isn’t real anyway. Vincent then realizes Swan is a Proxy because even Re-l should know he would never let go of his pendant. Swan then questions his existence and identity. She has one pendant like his too but can’t take it off. Not sure if Swan baited Re-l to shoot Proxy Vincent. That is when Vincent returns to reality. Still piloting the ship and Romdeau is nearby. The pendant is still in his possession. Yeah, WTF did I just watch?!

Episode 21
We’re back at Romdeau. However everything is in a mess! Is Romdeau being destroyed? Many AutoReivs have gone crazy and some are attacking. Re-l stumbles in an AutoReiv disposal unit. It seems they have realized that Vincent was right and things turned out this way because they relied too much on their Entourage. They return to hunt down AutoReivs as Re-l notes that Vincent has been missing ever since they entered Romdeau. Even if she spotted him, he was in Ergo form. Re-l then goes to see some bureau guy who confirms 90% of the population is dead. He also laments the need for change and things should’ve just stayed the same. Also, Daedalus has lost his reputation from it all. I don’t understand the next scene about Ergo. It’s like snippets of past events flashing and putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Then he stumbles into the supposedly self-proclaimed Re-l. She knows he loves Monad because she does too. She gets embarrassed and runs away. Re-l then sees Daedalus who knows she has stolen data from his computer. She wants to know the drastic decrease in population but he laments she isn’t his Re-l and a traitor. But he explains about Raul’s suggestion that if humans change themselves, they don’t need Proxies at all. That is what Project ADW is about. Basically it is to remodel humans but Daedalus knows it will end in failure because that’s just impossible to do. This is all because Raul cannot accept that humans are losers but since Re-l is here, it means Raul is still alive. He hints to her that it wasn’t Raul who was behind the attempt to assassinate her. She should go ask Donov. Ergo is before the regent. Spamming more philosophical thoughts that I don’t understand. What raison d’etre?! Ergo then starts to kill Donov as Re-l sees this horror. Since he turns his sights on her, she has no choice but to fire the FP Bullet. He starts writhing in pain, reacting to its effects. Then Raul comes out laughing like a madman.

Episode 22
Ergo can still kick ass with just 1 arm. So, panic and run, Raul? Yup. He did that. Loser. Ergo then spares Re-l and goes away. She thinks he is going to kill Raul. She is then approached by substitute Re-l who wants to save Vincent. Daedalus is not happy the substitute wants to see Vincent and orders her to go back to his lab. Re-l seeks his advice but he doesn’t care. Donov is dead so just go kill Vincent. All Daedalus wants is for his Re-l to see him. Re-l then talks to the regent about the creation of Romdeau. They confirmed Ergo created it but left and put Donov in charge. He did so only proves he wasn’t omnipotent. To Romdeau, Ergo is definitely a God but an incomplete one. Then the invasion of Mosk was for revenge but Monad deprived and sealed them. Now the creator has returned to this place. Raul is rummaging through Daedalus’ place looking for FP Bullets. However Daedalus has thrown them all away. Daedalus doesn’t care as long as this substitute Re-l is by his side. Raul shoots him. Too bad he didn’t die since the substitute protected him. Re-l realizes Vincent was a version created so he could forget he was a Proxy. She thinks he set this up knowing Romdeau was meant to collapse from the day he met her. She felt helplessly attracted to him. Re-l feels confused because those who have supported her existence are slowly leaving her. The regent tell her to find her truth, one that she must lead herself. An injured Raul wanders about. An AutoReiv accidentally pushes him and he gets pierced by a broken glass. Ergo returns to the dead Donov’s body. Re-l confronts him and believes his memories have returned. But she will not kill him after learning about the truth. Doing so has made his existence resurface. She knows there is another shadow manipulating both Vincent and Ergo. She calls out to him so a voice laughs and opens a secret path to the top. That guy is… Vincent?!

Episode 23
Since Daedalus has activated Romdeau to self-destruct, Re-l will go deal with him and leaves Vincent to deal with Proxy One. And so a confusing talk between the Proxies begin… Proxy One thinks he is being deluded but Vincent believes his memories from the road trip were all real experiences. Proxy One explains about Proxies being agents of the creator. So what I understand is that the creators created Proxies and all this is just a trap. Once humanity is restored and their bodies readjusted, the Proxy elimination programme begins. So Proxies created pseudo humans whom they cannot defy. Despite all the failed experiments, betrayal and despair, they still love them and perhaps the creator wanted to be loved too. It is hinted humans destroyed this world and then fled. Just like how Vincent fled Romdeau, the world he created himself. Vincent is just the after image of Proxy One who had lost all hope. Then they both fight. Re-l meets Daedalus. They talk about Donov always wanting to make the creating, even if it means creating Re-l for that purpose. She doesn’t care because she wanted to love grandpa but the regent refused to do that and the only one he could open up to is Ergo. Daedalus sees his substitute Re-l turning into an angel and flying away. He is sad she too has left him. So sad, he gets crushed by a falling block! That Re-l goes to interrupt the Proxies fighting. They identify her as Monad. Vincent realizes Proxy One purposely lost so as to throw the entire burden on him again. Monad whisks Vincent to the skies. Daedalus in his dying breath, explains about AutoReivs as part of the Proxy plan. Their revolt helped bring about their ruin. Bringing humans back via this wasn’t the first option and everything here is an obstacle to it. Daedalus tells Re-l how to escape before he dies. Monad wants Vincent to live with her in the skies and forget his memories. Unfortunately he can’t. He doesn’t want to lose his memories even if it means crawling in the darkness below. More importantly, somebody waiting for him. He gives his pendant to her and returns while she flies away to welcome back the creator. Vincent has one last talk with Proxy One who believes his existence will be a punishment for the creator. Romdeau collapses and Re-l could’ve met her death had not Pino saved her. Don’t worry, Kristeva is guarding her as Raul’s final orders. Pino detects Vincent is alive so they go pick him up. Vincent narrating he and the survivors are facing their reality and as Earth heals and the real humanity returns, their new fight begins. As Ergo, he will be the agent of death.

Ghost In The Proxy: I Think, Therefore I, Erm… Err
Woah! Woah! WOAH!!! What the f*ck just happened?! I guess the final episode was too confusing for my puny brains to understand. So let me get this straight. This whole thing could be some sort of Wall-E thingy because humanity left Earth and let these Proxies recreate their land? And now they’re coming back to take back their land? Hell, no way! I can see why Vincent wants to wage a war with those returning bastards. Don’t you try to steal the land that we have toiled so hard for thousands of years! Good grief. Humans are such complicated and cunning creatures, no? I wonder if those humans would be fat useless motherf*ckers or fused themselves with some robotic and symbiotic alien life. Would make a cool dystopian action movie, though. Too bad that’s the end of this series in this context.

Sadly, I still find the story confusing till the very end! Safe to say, I did not fully and really understand what the heck was happening from start to finish. Maybe just the gist of it but if you ask me to sum everything up in one big picture, I think I am lost. I believe the series is trying to explore themes of identity and existence but unfortunately I am not bright enough to self-analyse all that and think too deep about it. Which is both good news and bad news. Yes, being a simpleton watching this show is like a double edged sword for me. It is bad enough that I do not understand what is going on and hence greatly impeding my enjoyment of this series. However the good news is that because of that, I am perhaps spared further confusion of trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together, etc. Therefore I did not dwell too much of the series and gave much thought on its themes because it’s simply no use for me who does not even understand the basic premise to talk about things that I do not already understand.

So from the way I see it, the whole series is one big long journey back and forth in discovering the secret truth behind Romdeau and Vincent. Vincent got kicked out of Romdeau as soon as he returned and that started a long and arduous journey back to Mosk. Meeting a few weird characters and Proxies along the way. Some of those episodes felt draggy and boring only because I don’t really understand what it meant. Especially when they arrive at other domes, strange things start to happen. Is it a dream? Is it all an illusion? Yeah, it all just put some sort of pressure on my brain. Good think it somewhat shut itself off so I don’t actually fry them by thinking too much! HAHAHA! Oops… Anyway, not sure if I should feel disappointed the return to Mosk was a short one because it felt like some plot convenience to further the plot after a long road trip. Now we’ve come a long way back here just to find we must go back. Uh huh. Feels like a joke but oh well, what do I understand. On the journey back, some of the episodes really felt strange and filler-like. So out of place that it makes me go WTF. Like that quiz show and that Disneyland parody, I am sure it is to give some subtle hints. Although I didn’t really understand nor link them to the actual plot, I actually had fun watching them because they’re somewhat light-hearted and easy on the brain. Yeah. Of course the final arc returning to Romdeau that has turned from a utopia to a sh*thole, oh boy, let’s just say I felt you need to be a bit of a rocket scientist to try to figure out what’s going on. Okay, okay, so I wasn’t paying attention. But how could I when I am so confused at that stage?

A unique aspect about this anime is that it focuses on 2 different characters, namely Re-l and Vincent. Hence it might be one of the reasons it was confusing to me. Initially it goes back and forth showcasing both these characters and eventually both will end up on a journey to find the truth together. At the end of the day, I’m not really sure what a Proxy really is but I believe it like some sort of God that sustains life of a dome. I think. And so Vincent being Ergo and the likes of other Proxies like Monad, linking the characters and plot together, don’t really get it. Last episode’s revelation mindf*cked everything so I am back to square one. So, Proxies are just like their name implies? Substitute caretakers until the real humans return? Now I can see why Vincent AKA Ergo don’t want these motherf*ckers to return and if they do, it’s a hellish welcome for them. So if you ask me about the character development about these 2 main characters, I am not sure what to say. It has been a long journey and from my point of view, they don’t really change that much. Even after Vincent discovers he is Ergo, he is still trying to remain as that Vincent we have always known.

Then Re-l is like being too serious and all that she’s basically no fun. Yeah. Especially when she feels like the kind of woman who demands respect because of her high authority and privilege. Sheesh. So can I call their dynamism to be boring? Yeah, because seriously, I just don’t get it. So what if this is all for the downfall of Romdeau? It’s hard to think Re-l is in love with Vincent after putting up that mean poker face that would make babies cry! No, seriously. So what’s this excuse of not killing him but will kill him when the time is right? I’m just so confused right now… I’m sure I want to make puns of her name but let’s get real… HAHAHA!!! Oops, there it is.

In order to break the monotony between Re-l and Vincent, I guess this is where the series’ pet mascot AKA Pino comes in. As a companion AutoReiv, she is the most carefree character and goes about at her own pace, having fun when she sees fit. So yeah, if watching Vincent and Re-l is a big bore to you like watching paint dry, here, have a bit of Pino time to ease up some of that tension. Who wouldn’t love to see cute Pino in her rabbit costume just for fun, no? The irony that a loli AutoReiv knows how to have fun and enjoy herself better than humans! I would love to say that the series might go ahead without her and it actually can but it would have been lot more boring without Pino’s presence. Uh huh. I would like to say that Pino’s presence ‘saved’ this anime even if it’s just by a few points. So Pino the best character of the series?

Raul, he is supposed to be the series’ antagonist or so I believed but I fail to see him living up to that. I just see him as a man who slowly goes crazy as he loses faith about the utopia system in Romdeau. So he wants to get rid of the current system and that makes him the bad guy? Initially I never understood why he was so obsessed in hunting down Vincent at first until I read up a bit after the series ended. So, it was Vincent who accidentally caused his wife and new born baby child to be killed during that chase in the mall? Oh. Now I see why he blames Vincent. Daedalus, this guy’s obsession is Re-l. To a point whereby he created a fake one as replacement. What an oxymoron. Geddit? Fake real? We all do know Re-l’s name is actually REAL, right? Will the real Re-l please stand up?! Sorry, can’t resist in making that pun.

I believe this series has a lot of trivia in it. If you know your literature and arts well. For example, those regent in Donov’s chamber, I believe they could take after Michelangelo’s statues. Even some of the characters’ names are based from mythologies like Daedalus and those characters from the Charos’ side have names based on Aztec ones. Even the Blu-ray cover of this series bears an uncanny resemblance to Evanescence’s Fallen album. Be careful, you might mistake Amy Lee to be some Re-l cosplayer! And you might accidentally buy Evanescence’s album instead of this series or vice versa. Wow. Talk about another form of confusion.

If there is one thing about this series’ art and animation, it is downright gloomy and depression. Which is actually very befitting of the series’ dystopian theme. You see the eerie wastelands devoid of life and especially those fallen civilizations. Heck, even inside Romdeau where it is supposed to be teeming with life, everything still looks dull but only on a brighter scale. The human characters look a bit more real compared to your typical anime characters. Of course I want to point out Re-l seeing she is the character that stands out in terms of her design. Yup, you’ve guessed it. That bad eye shadow makeup! I am very sure it doesn’t make her look menacing but sometimes I feel she’s like some gothic emo girl or something. Considering how dull and boring everyone else looks (Vincent is plain dorky in his looks, right?), I suppose having (freaky) dark blue eye mascara make her the most visually memorable character in the series. Other than Pino of course who looks more anime kawaii.

The creepier ones are the AutoReivs like Iggy and Kristeva. You think they would make life-like robots but unfortunate they have to look this ‘ugly’ and perhaps menacing if I should say the least. Are they scared spouses might actually fall for them and elope if they look like your hot sex robot dolls?! And of course, special guest appearances by Walt Disney and Adolf Hitler! Hitler who?! Oh you know, Vincent’s boss and in the AutoReiv disposal unit… There is also use of CGI. Although I did not obviously spot one, I read a lot of it was used. Well, if they managed to cover it up and not make me even notice, I guess it must be a good job, right? This series is animated by Manglobe who is now defunct after being bankrupted. So I guess we’ll never going to hear sequels from Deadman Wonderland to Gangsta and even The World God Only Knows unless some other studios decide to bravely pick them up, eh?

For the voice acting, I only recognized Koji Yusa as Vincent/Ergo and Hochu Ohtsuka as Proxy One. The rest are Rie Saitou as Re-l (Tokine in Kekaishi), Akiko Yajima as Pino (titular character in Crayon Shin-chan), Hikaru Hanada as Raul (Akihiko in Junjou Romantica), Sanae Kobayashi as Daedalus (Lucy in Elfen Lied), Kiyomitsu Mizuchi as Iggy (Chuusuke in Onihei) and Houko Kuwashima as Kristeva (Sango in Inu Yasha). The opening theme is Kiri by Monoral. One can easily mistake this song as some American slow alternative rock because the lyrics is entirely in English. But personally I find it a weird match because it doesn’t match the edgy dystopian feel of the series and the opening credits animation feels worthy to be its own MTV. The ending theme is Paranoid Android by Radiohead (damn, I thought it was U2!). Yes, that English rock band, Radiohead. Not really a big fan of them so I don’t know much of their brand of music. But the song seems fitting itself and gives that paranoid atmosphere. The ending credits is unique because everything is slanting!

Overall, this series is unfortunately confusing and complicated to me so I did not enjoy it very much. Oh well, sometimes you have hit and misses. I’m talking about confusing anime genres that aren’t as confusing as I initially feared them to me. I definitely had a hard time digesting this one. Those who enjoy psychological and mind boggling stuffs in their animes would find this a great treat but otherwise I would say simpletons should definitely stay out of this. Yup, definitely not for the intellectually challenged! I’m not mentally prepared to go rewatch this again and not waste my time on the small chance of having me understanding a little bit better. Not worth the risk! Because time to move on and go back watching dumbed down animes of the season that I tend to love so much. Yup, those fakeness is where my real passion are! Sorry for bad pun if you don’t get it.

Date A Live IV

Majihiku wa… I hope the reason why they made Date A Live IV is because they and everyone else missed Kurumi. A lot. Very much. There can be no other reason, right?! Not because the light novels already ended its run back in 2020 and hence they have enough materials to adapt the remaining chapters and plan how they are going to go about it, right?! I mean, rarely an anime series gets a fourth season and this far, right? So what else could it be because of our majestic darling Kurumi herself, right? Because finally are we going to see Shido conquering Kurumi or even better, Kurumi becoming everyone’s b*tches and conquering Shido himself! Oh yeah. I hope I get to see the latter. Majihiku wa…

Episode 1
Looks who’s back, b*tches! Kurumi clones causing havoc at some lab to free a trapped Spirit known as Sister. Aw, shucks. That’s all we get for Kurumi for this episode?! Now we go back to Shido and looks like he is okay after whatever check-up. He goes to see Kotori but she’s in the midst of raping Mana?! Actually, trying to undress her to get her check-up due to all the body enhancements that DEM has done on her. Well, let’s leave those ladies be. As he goes to town, he stumbles upon an unconscious girl in the alley, Nia Honjo. Turns out she is hungry. Not sure she is hungry in the horny sense because she can flirt with him as he carries her home. Shido learns she is a mangaka and one of his favourites. But something doesn’t add up as he read that manga 10 years ago and the author stopped writing for health reasons years ago. Well, better start cooking before she dies of hunger. That’s not the end of it as Nia makes him help her finish her manga before proceeding to ask him to go out on a date with her at Akihabara next week. Yeah, need someone to carry her stuffs, eh? He declines but she wonders if he is okay with that. Hence she transforms into a Spirit for him. That change your mind? Isn’t it his job to date Spirits? She knows him because of her angel, Raziel that tells her what happened in the world. Though, it can’t predict the future or read people’s hearts. However if you write it down, that future will happen. So, like Future Diary?! She also mentions she was captured for 5 years under DEM, hence her hiatus. Now she can resume her work. And since she is listing down all his embarrassing manga characters he created when he was young, I guess the date is settled. So at Akihabara, Ratatoskr is observing his closely. Yeah, first dating choice comes up. How to compliment her clothes, huh? Ironically the safest option is dead last so Shido has to go with the bold and daring flirty one. Being the pervert Nia is, she likes it somewhat. The date continues as we see Nia an eager beaver with all the things she has missed out. The date proceeds smoothly until she trips. Shido tries to catch her but falls over her. Great chance. But before Shido can do anything, Nia says that she can’t fall for him because she can only love 2D. EH?! But I can relate!

Episode 2
Emergency meeting! Must be real serious if Ratatoskr starts brainstorming like this, huh? Nia is ecstatic to see a favourite manga character before her. Her happiness level shoots up. But when he is about to kiss her, all that drops back to zero as she busts Shido in disguise. WTF is the meaning of this?! He gets beaten up for that. But at least now they know she can get happy with such a character so the next plan seems to be sending Nia a demo dating sim. Shido the protagonist. Nia is amazed at how advanced this game is and has been playing for 2 hours and her happiness level slowly rising. But when she uses Raziel to find out more about the game and she discovers it is Shido doing real time voice acting and all (and everybody is just spying on her), she blows her top. I guess it gets desperate now as Shido’s harem now brainstorm to help. Suggest to turn Shido 2D?! Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean steamrolling him flat. Just turn him into a manga character. That way, if Nia knows what Shido has done, she’ll like him too. But looks like Nia knows what they’re up too thanks to Raziel. Even if they make such manga, it’s not like she’s going to read it, right? After all, she is rushing for this Comico event in a few days. That is when Kotori comes up with a challenge that if their manga sells more than hers, she must read theirs. Challenge accepted. Soon, Nia is visited by Kurumi (ALL HAIL THE QUEEN!) and knows she is the one who freed her from DEM. Kurumi knows Nia is the second spirit after Spirit of Origin and needs a favour to ask from Raziel. It is to tell her who the Spirit of Origin is and a way to kill it. Later Kurumi talks with her clones about the disappointing news that even if all their powers combined, they won’t get close in killing the Spirit of Origin. But Kurumi isn’t cowed yet because all that doesn’t matter since she controls time. Kotori has everyone draw to see who has the better manga skills. In the end, Natsumi will be their main while those supporting her are Shido, Origami, Yuzuru and Kaguya. Reine then brings Shido and Kotori to talk to Hiroki Takajo, a fellow mangaka who was Nia’s friend. She too is unsure what happened because their friendship soon fall to the wayside. Since she is unable to help, Kotori can only deduce because Nia used Raziel, she must’ve found out something unpleasant. Perhaps that is why she couldn’t trust others except 2D. Shido and his girls burn the midnight oil till they finish the manga. Girigiri. Look at those bags. Hidoi. Better freshen up if they’re going to start their date.

Episode 3
How are Shido and his girls going to compete with Nia? Well, for starters, Kotori and the Spirits dress up as sexy Playboy bunny girls! That sure going to help in the attraction. Yeah, Kotori bringing the crew of Ratatoskr to help in buying and Origami and her AST pals too. Nia seems to be winning as she has a box left to sell. So Miku uses her influence to call all her otaku fans here. Nia is surprised that Takajo is here to visit. Takajo notes that even if she hates her, she will always look forward to her works. This has Shido deduce that Nia likes Takajo but distance herself when she found out about her dark side and got scared of getting too curious that she’ll use Raziel and discover more. Nia rubbishes that and admonishes his nosy behaviour but he is still adamant to help her. Damn, they’re descending into some shouting argument while selling their comics? In the end, both sell finish at the same time and since Nia acknowledges the effort they put in, she’ll read their manga. Yeah, it’s called Shido A Live. Better than Date A Shido, eh? Anyway, Nia finds out that Shido has been telling the truth on what he has done to his Spirit harem. Just as she is about to give him a chance to go on another date, suddenly she turns into a Spirit. Ellen wonders why Nia never inverted this during her imprisonment despite all the torture they gave her. Westcott explains during that period, she lost faith in humanity. Now that Shido opened her up, the device that locked those memories is also now deactivated as she remembers those tortuous moments. Shido and his Spirits try to tackle Nia but their powers overwhelmed or nullified. Shido manages to break out once he realizes using his Spirits’ weapons isn’t written down. However before he can save Nia, Artemisia Bell Ashcroft swoops down and kills Nia and extracts her crystal core which contains her powers. Westcott then absorbs it and gains Nia’s abilities. Of course he wants to take the rest too but that will be for another day as his body might not be able to handle it. Yeah, better to get them one by one and slowly. After they retreat, Touka senses Nia still has some Spirit essence left since she pulled back some of her conscious when she got stabbed. This means Shido can still save her. Yeah, a kiss will do. Glad to hear Nia’s back? In the aftermath, Nia has lost her powers and is now a normal human. Guess it’s a good time to reconcile with Takajo. She learns that some have been a Spirit for a few years and others as pure Spirits. But she notes all Spirits were humans to begin with.

Episode 4
Apparently Nia was just assuming that. Also, she feels her powers have not gone away completely so she thinks she can still stop Westcott from using the book. Shido learns from Mana about Artemisia. She is AST from Britain but the baffling part is that she hates Westcott so why is she working with him? Meanwhile we hear once again Tamae’s complaints how she has reached the big 3-0 and refuses to accept it. Even more so, her friend is getting married! Guess who is single again? Definitely not okay. Heck, she even wishes for an asteroid to rain down on Japan! Oh sh*t! One just hit near school! FOR REAL?! Then the Spirit alarm sounds. Yup, another one is detected. In space! Nicknamed Zodiac, Kotori shows footage how DEM approached her and being upset from being awakened from her slumber, she uses Michael to easily lock/unlock their abilities as well as using some wormhole to rain down meteorites to destroy them. That explains why several locations around the world faced this similar phenomenon. How to send Shido up there to talk to her? Use 3D projection! Had that not been the case, Shido would’ve died as Zodiac tries to kill him all the time without giving him an inch to speak. So when she is baffled why he is alive, he explains it including his goal. She introduces herself as Mukuro Hoshimiya and refuses Shido’s attempts to help her. She does not need happiness as she has no emotions. Even if Shido claims he can make her happy, he cannot decide what is happy for her. Even so, if he seals her power, can he guarantee her safety? She warns him that any further deliberations, she’ll destroy the Earth!

With the conversation ended, before Shido can be depressed, Kotori tells him the facts that they cannot ignore this dangerous Spirit floating above Earth. Even if they leave her alone, DEM won’t. They’ll try to use her power and if they fail, Earth gets exploded. Either way, they must seal her before DEM. That’s your answer. But how are they going to unlock Mukuro’s heart? Don’t worry, Kotori brings them to a newly upgraded Fraxinus. It can go to space! Also a voice assistant named Maria who is definitely better than Alexa or Siri… The gang is then summoned to meet Woodman. He introduces himself as Ratatoskr’s leader. But Nia interrogates him about manifesting Spirits 30 years ago and wants to know his goal. He admits along with Westcott and Ellen, they founded DEM to capture and harvest Spirits and their power. However all that changed when Woodman stumbled into the Spirit of Origin and decided to change his ways and protect Spirits. Why? Because he fell in love with the Spirit of Origin. Hence he and Karen (Ellen’s younger sister) defected to form Ratatoskr. Talk time cut short as DEM has found them and is attacking the place. As Shido and co rush to their stations, Westcott has already infiltrated it. He has no time to play with them yet as he needs to go deal with Woodman and sends them sinking into his wormhole.

Episode 5
Shido is a piggy in a straw house when a wolf wants to eat him! He runs and hides in a brick house and finds Red Riding Hood AKA Yoshino visiting her grandma. But isn’t she the wolf too?! Before they can be eaten, here comes Nia shooting her guns before Momotarou AKA Touka calming the wolf with her dango. So they realize they are fairytale characters. But who is Nia supposed to be? Ah, Fatima from Silver Bullet. It’s her own manga. Then we see Kotori as the matchstick girl and the twins as Hansel and Gretel. They meet up as they heard the emperor is going to put a familiar mermaid on display to sing. But the guards won’t let them in because of the way they dressed so here comes Cinderella AKA Natsumi to use her womanly charms. However the clock strikes 12 and she reverts to a peasant. The guards chase them away. But Kotori has an idea to enter. Meanwhile, some of Westcott’s men infiltrate Fraxinus. Thanks to Maria creating a life-like tiger hologram as distraction, the crew manage to overpower them with their weird ways. Kotori uses her matchstick magic to disguise everyone as elegant ladies. Yup, Shido as Shiori now. As expected, Miku is the little mermaid and when the emperor comes out, she is Origami. With everyone praising how splendid her clothes are despite being naked, I think we know which fairytale she came from. Touka mentions aloud she is naked so Origami claims only those who don’t love Shido will see her naked. Care to change your answer? But Origami becomes embarrassed realizing she is actually naked! When the wolf, ogres and a monster from Nia’s manga enter to attack, Shido’s only option is to have everyone run since nobody can use their powers. However a cooler swordsman Shido slashes them all! He is one from Natsumi’s manga. He then cuts open a portal that leads them back to reality. Shido talks to his counterpart about his dilemma with Mukuro. Heroic Shido knows all about it. He is him after all. Even if he thinks he has made the wrong choice of sealing Spirits, he will still go save her. Because if Mukuro claims she locked her heart to avoid being sad, that means at one point she became sad. That sounds like SOS. Now Shido has all his doubts removed. Back on Fraxinus, it’s time to go full speed ahead to save Mukuro.

Episode 6
Westcott and Woodman face off. The former wants him to come back to DEM but he refuses. Time to fight then. Fraxinus nears Mukuro as they send Shido to go unlock her heart. Thanks to whatever abilities from Maria and Kotori. Shido can manoeuvre and dodge easily Mukuro’s asteroids. But looks like they have company. Those damn DEM ships are here. While Fraxinus takes on Goetia, Origami is there to keep Artemisia from obstructing Shido and take Mukuro. With Fraxinus having better upgraded weapons, they send Goetia and Ellen to defeat. At the same time, Shido and his Spirits manage to outsmart Mukuro and unlock her heart. As Artemisia still will not give up despite DEM’s defeat, she fires at Mukuro in hopes of completing her mission. This time Shido is able to protect her although they are free falling back into the atmosphere. A short flashback of Mukuro getting a new family. In the aftermath, Shido wakes up in bed while his Spirits are relieved he is okay. Kotori claims Mukuro went missing after that but here comes Mukuro popping out from a portal to give her darling a big hug. Thanks to her heart unlocked, she is now filled with gratefulness. She will continue their date tomorrow and allows him to rest up. This means the obligatory fanservice scenes whereby the girls trying to fight to wash his back in the bath?! Healing is going to take a while. Meanwhile Westcott has also lost but is recovering. Ellen asks about him attacking Ratatoskr’s base and he admits to that. As for Woodman, he didn’t say a thing to her because she will kill him if he brings her along. Next day, Shido begins his date with Mukuro. Oh, it’s not space but the park, eh?

Episode 7
Shido and Mukuro are having a typical lovely date. When Shido thinks of cutting Mukuro’s messy long hair to look better, she becomes defensive and rejects. So he just ties it up for her and they continue their date. Mukuro wants him to only love her but of course Shido can’t do that since he loves the other Spirits equally. In that case, Mukuro ends the date prematurely and goes home. Next morning as Shido cooks breakfast, Kotori is distraught to see an unknown man in her home and kicks Shido out. My, what an extreme case of sleepwalking! He goes to school but none of his friends know him. Starting to panic? Yup, all the other Spirits don’t know who he is. Then he realizes Mukuro is behind this. She pops up and admits that she locked their hearts and memories of him. Now they can be together alone in love, right? Oh sh*t. Is Mukuro yandere now? As Kotori and co gather and discuss about the unknown man, Origami’s head starts to hurt. Then her other split persona comes out (the Origami of this world after Shido and Kurumi changed history) and since she still remembers Shido, she tells them he is the one who saved them all. Also, Touka’s personality got inverted. As Shido and Mukuro continue their date, Origami finds them and tells what happened. Mukuro is about to lock her memories but inverted Touka enters the scene as she wants revenge on Shido. Before Mukuro and Touka can fight over Shido (not in the most romantic kind of way, mind you), Origami interjects and suggests winning Shido’s love via a non-violent way. So the first to kiss him wins? So now they’re at a maid café trying to win his heart. Oh boy, Shido is going to suffer seeing the girls are pretty aggressive in their own ways to make him submit! Is this really love? More importantly, is this going to turn into a b*tch fight soon?!

Episode 8
Kotori is thinking hard about Origami’s dual personalities. She wonders who changed the world but each time she thinks about that, she gets confused. I know. I am too. Since Shido and co are kicked out from the maid café for being too raunchy, they head up the tower. However Mukuro has uneasy feelings. As she takes a breather at the toilet, Touka reveals to Shido that the inverse Spirits were actually when the Spirit of Origin made Sephirah. That original form is what you people call inverse. Only later they are ‘refined’ to be compatible with humans. This leaves Shido in shock so Touka gets rough on him and plans to steal a kiss. But Mukuro will not allow it and now this escalates into a Spirit level b*tch fight. As Touka cuts off a bit of Mukuro’s hair, this enrages her as she locks her heart and powers up. Anybody who steals the one she loves from her will die! Of course Shido and Origami won’t sit by and watch. Origami goes to fight Touka as Shido deals with Mukuro. Shido doesn’t want everyone to forget him as they are precious. But Mukuro feels sad since she thinks her love isn’t enough. She hates being alone and won’t let anyone take her. Now she locks the world and is going to try to stop it from spinning so they can be forever together in space. Great timing as the other Spirits are here so Shido has them as well as Kotori and Fraxinus do something about it. When Mukuro attacks, she accidentally cuts off Shido’s arm! Flashback shows somebody gave her a core to become a Spirit. Then she got blamed by her family as people they know forgot about them. That’s when she locked her heart. As Mukuro is going to be inverted, Shido hugs her and claims he is alone like her too. Then he talks about being family because there’s nothing to be afraid of now. Because we’re family. With that logic that one-sided love won’t work in a family, just like that Mukuro calms down. Now he has to deal with Touka but since she lost interest, she kisses him and hopes he would not make Touka sad. So the old Touka back? Mukuro won’t lose as she kisses Shido. She assures she is no longer worried because they’re family. Got to love that word. Later Mukuro talks to Shido as she remembers watching the stars with her sister. She laments worrying a lot when her family loved her a lot. Since he is the same like her, probably why she feels at ease around him. She thinks of changing things and perhaps cutting her hair. Of course she wants Shido to cut it. Next day in school, look who decides to come back to class? Why, IT’S KURUMI!!! WHERE YOU BEEN, GIRL???!!! WE ALL MISSED YOU!!! YEAH!!!

Episode 9
Kurumi assures she isn’t here to wreak havoc. Otherwise she would’ve taken the students hostage and went with violence. We believe in queen Kurumi! Westcott talks to Ellen and Artemisia how Fraxinus now have 10 Spirits. However there is still hope to use Shido and make the Spirits invert. He introduces Nibeelcole, his ‘daughters’ to help them for their next mission. Kurumi agrees to give Shido her Spirit power but on one condition: She wants to devour all the Spirit power he has and that means killing him. At that moment, Shido felt something strange happening to him. At the same time, as Ellen is on her way, she is intercepted by Mana. She has Nibeelcole help her but lucky for Mana, Kurumi and her clones pop out to help. Back to Kurumi and Shido, while he agrees that is both their goal, Shido adds that his other goals include the Spirits atone for what they did and to live a happy life. Since she doesn’t intend to steal his Spirit power by force, they enter a competition to see who will fall for each other first. If Kurumi falls for him, she will give her Spirit power with no fuss. Otherwise, Shido dies. Back home, Kotori is not happy he made this decision without letting Fraxinus know. What else can they do about it now but to devise a plan? So they discuss about Kurumi’s objectives of wanting so but Nia thinks she knows an answer. She reveals about Kurumi’s visit and hence her goal to find the Spirit of Origin and destroy it, making it never existing in the first place. This proves that Kurumi can travel back in time but for that, she needs Shido’s power. Of course this raises more questions as why she would do that. Mana interjects and lets them know about Ellen’s interception. As for how she knew all this, Kurumi came to tell her the exact details of when it will happen. So why did she do this? Probably she didn’t want DEM to get their hands on Shido. Next day, Shido is surprised Kurumi is at his doorstep to walk him to school. Why is he surprised? Isn’t the date already begun when they agreed to the challenge? Shido surprises Kurumi by taking her to a place filled with cute cats. But it’s a draw when she tickles him and he starts purring like a cat. Meow. WTF…

Episode 10
Shido and Kurumi challenging each other with their cute lunch. At this rate both might lose… But it ends with a draw. Kurumi’s next challenge will be next Wednesday. Why? Oh. It’s Valentine’s Day. Hence the rest of the Spirit girls think of also making chocolates for Shido. But some like Origami, Miku and Nia trying to go the extra mile by seducing Shido in his sleep. Thankfully (or not), he kicks them out. Mission failed. But soon Shido is visited by Nibeelcole who plans to kill him. Thanks to his regeneration abilities, they will keep killing him until he dies! Then suddenly he wakes up. Was it all a dream? Because now he sees Kotori all grown up and busty! Sexy! Even the other Spirits too! Except for Origami, Miku and Nia turned into kids. What gives? Turns out this is their training to make him resist Kurumi’s charms. NOT A CHANCE! Of course this fails too seeing Shido is gay. Weak guy runs away. Heh. Then all the girls gather to make Shido their Valentine chocolates. WTF Origami trying to make a huge chocolate mould of herself. Shido gonna die from excess sugar overload… Then Kurumi pops up and wants to join in too since she is making the same for Shido. Kotori agrees as they will be able to get some data out of her. Obviously Kotori sucks and thankfully before she could press the panic button, Natsumi teaches her some basic chocolate making skills. Come that day, Shido’s Spirit harem give him their chocolates. Which guy wouldn’t be delighted after receiving so many?

Episode 11
Some Spirits give Shido their chocolates. Meanwhile Tonomachi and the other guys are getting really jealous of that. Not sure what black magic cult they’re starting to curse Shido but the majihiku wa group ‘saves’ them by giving their chocolates. Whatever. Now it’s back to the real deal because Kurumi is here. The real test is about to begin. Shido takes her on a date. First stop is the lingerie shop. See that coming?! Rest of the date is pretty generic. At the end of the day, Kurumi asks if he wants to really know her past. Since he is adamant, she destroys or the spy devices from Fraxinus. Then she whisks him away to an abandoned place of her to let him peek into her memories. Before she became a Spirit, just a normal girl who is best friends with Sawa Yamauchi. One day, a monster attacked Kurumi but she was saved by a hero of justice, Mio Takamiya. She wants Kurumi to join her in saving the world and gives her a Sephirah. It is then Kurumi became a Spirit. We see Kurumi going around taking down Spirits as she gets used and better with her abilities. At the same time trying to juggle her normal school life and friendship with Sawa. But one day, a tragedy happens. Kurumi spotted Sawa’s dead body and Mio collecting a Sephirah from her. She explains Spirits are humans who were given Sephirah by her. Normally they aren’t compatible and must be refined. That is, by giving them to humans over and over again despite humans will go berserk when exposed to this power. Like how Kurumi killed Sawa. Only then when a human with strong affinity remain themselves as a Spirit. That’s you, Kurumi. Mio thanks Kurumi for helping her recover a Sephirah since it is a tough job. She hints she has a goal to achieve and cannot stop until she reaches it. Then she stole her memories and it’s goodbye. Back to present, Kurumi adds that only thanks to Zafkiel, she managed to get her memories back. That’s why she is adamant in killing the Spirit of Origin.

Episode 12
Kurumi wallowing in self-pity. Wow. Not sure how I should feel about this. Her goal is to change history by killing the Spirit of Origin AKA Mio and to do that, she needs Shido’s power to change history. Of course she will not do this for free and will compensate him. WITH SEX???!!! Holy sh*t! Not sure how I should feel about this either!!! Sex interrupted by Nibeelcole but Kurumi has her clones drag them to hell. That was easy. But after that she falls unconscious. Meanwhile Ellen cannot comprehend Nibeelcole’s failure since it was a sure victory according to Beelzebub. Could somebody be leaking their plans? Westcott thinks somebody is leaking their attacks instead. As Shido tends to unconscious Kurumi, her goth version pops up to say that Shido is supposed to be dead. When Kurumi told him about that condition of hers, Shido was then shot dead by Artemisia. His other Spirits came to his aid but in the worst outcome, Shido got decapitated! Those Spirits inverted as they unleash their wrath, slowly destroying the world. Kurumi managed to escape but even using her Daletto bullet to reverse time, it still cannot bring back a life. In despair, that is when she kisses him but soon realizes the Vav bullet is restored. It is a bullet that sends a mind back to the past and she thought it was sealed after her fight with Kotori. Before that fight, Kurumi kissed Shido and that somewhat sealed Vav in him. So by kissing him again, that power returned. Hence Kurumi will have her clones die for Shido’s sake. Using Vav to send her mind back to a week before, it seems Kurumi’s clones have been protecting Shido from the shadows. Shido has fallen into DEM’s hands 204 times. Yeah, all those strange moments he got owned by Nibeelcole, those were one of those many times. Each time that happened, Kurumi kissed him to revert time again. Now it has pushed her psyche to the limit. Wouldn’t it be easier to just devour him rather than to relive this nightmare? Hey, and make her lose the game?! Besides, we all know what Kurumi’s nickname is, right?! Kurumi wakes up and doesn’t like this interference. Date is over for today. Then she deliberates with her goth version about spilling all this to Shido but goth girl doesn’t see any reason not to. Phantom then shows up to give some warning advice. Kurumi doesn’t appreciate it and shoots her down! That was easy! Because it’s time to unmask Phantom’s true identity: Reine!!! WTF?! Kurumi now realizes as all the puzzle pieces fall into place. She has her clones drag her to hell. Shido returns to Fraxinus. He wonders if they can trace Kurumi. Reine says no. Hmm… He then tells them what Kurumi told him. Because this time it will be him who will save her.

Date & Be Happy
Majihiku wa!!! You mean this has not ended yet and we’re going to have another season???!!! Yup. Looks like it. And it should come as no surprise by the way the series is heading. After all like I have said, the series has already ended and now with remaining volumes and chapters left at hand, they can take their time to plan out how they’re going to end the series. Which means we’re not sure if it is going to be a few more seasons or everything dumped into one big season finale. Only time will tell and we’ll be there to witness the fate of Kurumi, Shido and the rest of the Spirits. How long should we wait? Dunno. When it’s ready, it’s ready. Majihiku wa…

Oh well, I guess at this point we all should know what the story is about, right? Pro dating master Shido dating the Spirits to make them happy because only then their powers can be sealed and the world can spin for another day. That’s supposed to be the whole premise of the series and considering that we are into the fourth season, I have to admit that feels like a drag. Somewhat stale. Yes, I’m not a big fan of the series despite watching it from the first season. And so I thought there would be some sort of twist along the way but I suppose they aren’t straying from the formula. I may be wrong as they might put in some twist towards the climax but too bad this means this season doesn’t seem like it. In short, this season felt boring to me.

Because you know, it’s more or less the same thing as every season we see Shido adding more Spirits to his harem and this season is no exception. At this point I am hardly feeling any sort of excitement. This season adds Nia and Mukuro to the fold as the formula to have them in the Spirit harem remains the same. You know, the Spirits have some sort of peculiar problem and it is up to Shido to find a way to save her. At first she might seem hesitant and resisting due to the unfamiliarity, stubbornness and all that crap. But I assure you because Shido is the main character, the plot will go in his favour. Like Nia felt pretty easy and it feels like she just existed for the plot for Westcott to steal her Raziel. Then there is Mukuro whom you thought would be a tough nut to crack. But once you find the loophole in her heart, everything else that follows will easily fall in place. Once they have been conquered, they become background characters in Shido’s ever expanding and bloated harem. I wonder if he is going to need a bigger house if he is going to date and rescue 100 Spirits. Assuming there are that many. Oh right. Assuming Nibeelcole becomes part of the gang. Holy sh*t! Majihiku wa! Is her character created so that we can have multiple Kurumi clones vs multiple Nibeelcole clones?

It goes without saying that means the other older Spirits already in Shido’s harem felt like insignificant. I don’t know, if being with Shido is all it takes for them to be happy. So be it. I’m just curious about the pecking order if any and if it ever comes down to it, though. Some of them are forgettable like Yoshino who is there just to remind that she is still there existing. The same can be said for Natsumi. It’s like they only need her whenever they need her power for convenience. Then there are the twins who feel like they have a little more significant appearance since they have a bit more dialogue than the rest. Origami who was the wild weirdo also feels a little toned down. She’s still the crazy twisted sexual harasser on Shido but this season she scaled down a lot. Touka being the first Spirit in Shido’s harem, I guess they needed to give her some sort of prominence and that’s why the baffling moment she inverted just to fight Mukuro a run for her money. It’s like they needed some cheesy harem b*tch fight or something. And who the f*ck is Artemisia? Suddenly they introduced her character that doesn’t make any decent impression. Like as though Westcott thinks Ellen needed an assistant or something. Like 1 or 2 hot babes from DEM would effectively turn the tables on Ratatoskr anyway.

Unfortunately, Kurumi being the main motivation why many like yours truly continue to stick with the series through thick and thin, for better or worse (more likely the latter), does not bring much to the table either. That’s the problem when you have high expectations. So the first half of her arc feels as boring as the rest. And then we have the revelation of her past and how she came to be. Honestly, that doesn’t feel exciting either. It just feels like one of those revenge stories. Even the mighty queen needs some saving in the end eventually so that Shido can remain as the main hero of the series. Yeah. You better not make Kurumi cry. But at the end of the day, we all can forgive this little disappointment and still love you with all our hearts, our dear queen Kurumi, RIGHT???!!! Imagine having to relive 204 times and counting to see your beloved die and reset the whole damn thing again. This has got to be worse than that Endless Eight from Haruhi, right?!

For some odd reason, I keep wondering if the Spirit named Phantom would pop up. I don’t know why, it something that keeps bugging me at the back of my head while I was watching this series. Probably I’m still bugged by last season’s credits that listed Phantom as “???” in addition to Kana Hanazawa’s character also listed as “???”. Maybe I missed her somewhere. And then of course, the final episode revelation. Now I know why they listed it as so. Who would’ve guessed, no? At least not me. I wasn’t paying that close of an attention to eye bags Reine. What a way to thrust a character whom everyone would probably brush off easily back to the spotlight and the plot. Speaking of new seiyuus this season, they include Hitomi Nabatame as Nia (Margery Daw in Shakugan No Shana), Akari Kageyama as Mukuro (Beatrice in Princess Principal), Eriko Matsui as Artemisia (Isuzu in Log Horizon), Yumiri Hanamori as Nibeelcole (Hayasaka in Kaguya-sama Wa Kokurasetai) and Aya Endo as Mio (Miyuki in Lucky Star). This season’s opening theme is Over by Miyu Tomita. Typical generic and dramatic upbeat song. Maybe only suits Kurumi. Sorry it sounds bias but that’s how it feels. The ending theme is S.O.S. by Sweet Arms. It’s a rather strange song. It’s like some slow dubstep, trying to be sultry sexy or something but overall fails to impress. Weird.

I feel that the art and animation look a bit different. It could be just me as the characters do look a bit child-like. The difference is not obvious but if you do look a bit harder, then you will notice it. I think that is because the series has as many different animation studios as they have seasons. Can you believe it that for each season, a new studio helms this series? What is this? Musical chairs, anime studio version or something. When AIC Plus+ started off animating the first season, Production IMS then took over for the sequel. Then after a long hiatus, a different studio took over for the third, J.C. Staff. And now you have Geek Toys (Plunderer, Kawaikereba Hentai Demo Suki Ni Natte Kuremasu Ka) handling the fourth. Yeah, whoever feel like doing the next season, please step forward. Can’t have the same studio doing the next season because it will break the consistency. Yeah. Maybe SHAFT can do it and shock us all with their trademark animation, eh? Can’t wait to see Kurumi doing that trademark head tilt and send orgasmic shivers down our spine!

Overall, this season still does not impress since it ended on a cliff-hanger. Especially when Kurumi’s arc isn’t even completed! What gall they have! Definitely a build up for the final stretch. Can’t say I am looking forward to it but if it comes out, I’m obliged to stick around and find out what happens. Though, I can guess pretty much what will happen. Shido getting fed up of dating and let the world burn to the ground!!! That’s his real intention in accumulating his Spirit harem! HAHAHAHAHA!!! Oops. One of my favourite speculated endings. Otherwise newcomers who jumped right into this season will be a lot left confused since the plots, settings and characters from previous seasons are heavily brought over. Doesn’t make a difference to a person like me either who has forgotten most of it. Go back and rewatch season 1 again? No way! My memory isn’t so bad as that Hollywood movie, 50 First Dates! Not gonna date the same Spirit over and over again! But my memory is bad enough the reason why I keep coming back to watch this series since I don’t remember much and I still keep hoping it will turn out for the better. Sadly, this season wasn’t it. I think. Majihiku wa…

Otome Game Sekai Wa Mob Ni Kibishii Sekai Desu

Imagine if Hamefura had a male protagonist instead. Oh well, that’s just me assuming Hamefura is somewhat similar to Otome Game Sekai Wa Mob Ni Kibishii Sekai Desu but only with a male lead only because of the basic premise that the protagonist died and somewhat gets trapped in a dating sim video game. Unlike the former whose protagonist reincarnated as the game’s main villainess and she tries to not follow all routes that would lead to her doom, our male protagonist here reincarnated as some extra minor background character (termed as mob) and wants nothing more than to live his simple and quiet life. But when women of this world hold power and men of his low status are discriminated, do you think he’ll remain his simple and quiet life as a nobody or will fate thrust upon him all the makings of a main character AKA hero? In that sense now I can see why being a mob is tougher than being a main character.

Episode 1
A guy is playing an otome game and he hates it! Why? Because his sister forced him to. Yeah, that brat doesn’t want to go through all the pain in completing the game and has him do it in her stead. Otherwise she’ll tell mom about something. So poor guy has to grit his teeth and criticize every damn thing about this damn game. Holy sh*t! Is this a dating game?! Because it has monster slaying RPG elements as well as sci-fi mecha powered suits! It’s all over the place! He slogs for days and nights until he has 100% completion. By that time he is hungry and decides to go out to get some food. Uh oh. Cue for him to die. Yup, he got so dizzy and falls down the stairs, breaking his neck. Next thing he knows, he is reincarnated in a game. He finds himself as the third son, Leon Fou Bartfort. However he realizes that the setting is the same as the otome game. His father is a mistress to Lady Zola and all men and their sons are ostracized to live in the backwaters of the country. Hence his sister gets to live away lavishly as women hold absolute power here. What a nightmare to relive a world like the game. 10 years passed and Leon is shocked that Zola is going to marry him off to some ugly old broad whose husbands all died in war. This is the only way he’ll get to go to the academy for further education. Of course he declines but she’ll force him to be a soldier and he’ll die in the battlefield. Needing to do something, Leon soon sets off on a journey. Since he remembers the game well, he makes his way to some transporter that transport him to some abandoned lab. Convenient of him to take the identity of a dead researcher and using his ID to activate everything. Looks like everything still working. Then he encounters a guard robot who is trying to rid of all invaders. Since Leon doesn’t know about the current calendar, the robot believes they have lost due to new humans possessing new magic that destroyed them. The robot will annihilate all new humans but Leon manages to destroy its core. That easy, huh? Not after Leon was almost dead from its clutches. Leon proceeds to register himself as a new master of this ship known as Luxion (one of the DLC items he paid for in the game!). 3 months later, Leon returns with a big smug look on his face because with Luxion and a whole lot of treasure and loot, he is able to pay off Zola’s marriage offer (in your face, you old b*tch!) and he is now on his way to the academy.

Episode 2
Leon is now living an independent life at the academy. Thanks to his adventuring efforts in discovering a new island, he has now risen to the rank of baron. With that rank, he is able to find a wife that is about the rank of Zola! Oh sh*t! Trauma! Leon takes his first step to start the school year, which is the same as the start of the otome game. He notices some of the characters like those Prince Julius Rapha Holfort and his male groupies who are the only ones who command a different air around girls. Then there is Angelica Rapha Redgrave who is the series’ antagonist. Leon later notices a scene being played out between Julius and Marie Fou Lafan. It is exactly like the otome game except for it is not with the main heroine, Olivia but Marie. He also notices that Julius is really warming up to Marie and inviting her to his tea party, much to the chagrin of Angelica. So apparently if you want to attract girls, you have to hold a tea party and depending on how expensive your snacks, the higher your chances. Leon thinks he doesn’t need such etiquette classes but damn he is so wrong when he gets enlightened at the holiness of the tea party! He hosts his first one but only fat and ugly b*tch girls attend to pass their time. Then he sees a group of girls bullying Olivia and tearing her paper. Luxion says she is on scholarship. Leon invites her to his tea party and she’s very grateful to him. As she wants to learn more magic, Leon reluctantly brings her to see his sister, Jenna on how to get close to the popular girl in class. Yeah, basically bribery and buying expensive snacks from popular stores. With that, she is able to have tea with Angelica who is impressed that Leon recommended this to her. She is worried that others might take advantage of his competence. But she prefers Olivia’s company better than those snuggling up close to the prince. During the exploration class, Leon knows other students are making him and Olivia the vanguard as meat shields. He then sees Angelica trying to talk to Julius but he brushes her off in favour of Marie. Leon and Olivia stumble into monsters and he stands his ground well until he gets bitten by one. Time for those princes to save the day. Marie then surprises Julius by using her secret healing magic on him. Once again Angelica tries to get in between them but Julius becomes a dick and brushes her off while taking Marie’s hand away. With that drama aside, Olivia seems to be able to use healing magic too and does it on Leon. Leon notices Marie’s sneaky grin and feels suspicious that something isn’t right in this game. Yeah, I can see it’s not following the script.

Episode 3
Angelica has been summoned by Julius and accused of burning Marie’s belongings. Eyewitnesses say it was her. Although Angelica denies, Julius warns her that their engagement was made outside school and to not let it interfere with his school life. Later Leon learns about the quarrel between Julius and Angelica. Although this happened in the game, it happened only much later. Then he peeks at Marie making out with one of Julius’ guys in the library. Something is fishy. Of course we hear Marie’s thoughts that she is playing out all those guys for her convenience. Angelica becomes mad and falls into depression each time she thinks of Marie. She was raised to serve Julius and now that wench has come between them. Jenna visits him to ask if he has anything to do with the prince’s quarrel. He better not. Because if you get on his good side, you’re set for life. Otherwise it’s over. So he better not embarrass her! At the party, Leon and his friends try to introduce themselves to some girls but they all get owned by those b*tches who are looking for higher ranking men. The real drama begins as Angelica confronts Julius and co. She saw Marie making out with the rest. However the rest actually admits to it because they also love Marie. Angry Angelica then throws a challenge to Marie. Of course with Julius and co stepping in to protect her and no champion even for Angelica, the situation looks grim. Leon remembers such event and if Angelica loses, she’ll be expelled and married to some backwater cruel lord and live the rest of her life in misery. Of course he doesn’t want to get involved since he isn’t very familiar with Angelica and just wants to live a normal life. But since he hates those guys, he volunteers to be Angelica’s champion. If Angelica wins, Marie must stay away from Julius. Vice versa. From Marie’s speech, Leon can tell she is not from this world too and is reincarnated like him. Julius and co will allow others to join him but Leon is confident he can take all of them himself. Leon’s sharp tongue mocks them underestimating him in the mecha battle he proposes. Think you guys can’t beat him? I guess you have to at least show you’re super confident. In the aftermath, Leon’s room has been vandalized and it’s like 99% of the school betted on Julius. In the arena, Leon summons his mecha. Gotta love how he calls it Arroganz! Everyone else starts laughing at how lame it looks but we all know who will have the last laugh, right?

Episode 4
Leon’s mecha could be a Lost Item AKA outdated technology. First opponent up is Brad Fou Field. Leon is shocked his weapon is a shovel and thinks Luxion purposely gave it to him. Brad attacks fast but Leon is able to dodge them all and knock him out cold with a strike! Holy sh*t! Even Leon is surprised by this. Who’s laughing now?! In fact, had Leon hit a bit harder, it could’ve killed Brad! Next up is Greg Fou Seberg. This time Greg is cautious but Leon throws a lot of insults. But as Greg repeatedly strikes Leon, nothing happens so a few more whacks and this sends Greg down. Leon doesn’t stop there. More insults about bullying the weak and ripping off his mecha’s limbs. Greg still will not lose and tries to fight without a mecha. But I guess it is just unsightly so Leon is declared the winner. Yeah, everybody’s worried now. Chris Fia Arclight goes next and this time he is more cautious. However Leon uses his drones to shoot him. Not against the rules, right? This makes Chris angry but as he charges, Leon breaks his sword with his bare hands and sends him reeling in defeat. With more insults of course. Everybody starting to panic! The loser is winning! How can this be?! During the break, Jenna distracts Olivia and Angelica that Leon is not well so as to plant bombs in Arroganz. Of course Leon is okay and with Luxior detecting those bombs, Leon can tell it’s part of the story as his next opponent, Jilk Fia Marmoria set up Jenna to do it. So when the match begins, the explosives go off but Leon is okay. Sure, it could rip through a standard mecha. Arroganz is nothing but standard. Jilk getting very worried and starts threatening about Leon’s life. He did that dumb mistake and now Leon has recorded it. Jilk goes straight at him in his panic and gets hammered down. There’s nobody left to protect the prince. Yup, last man left. Oh, you people must be horrified at the turn of events, huh? Even more so Marie. She realizes that all of them are actually weak and will eventually lose. Yeah, it is hinted she let her brother cleared the game for her… Before the last match begins, Leon asks his opinion about Olivia. Can’t say much as they hardly talked.

Episode 5
Julius complains about being born into royalty and that Angelica is one of those women who does not see the real him. Of course Leon has to laugh at that since his own predicament was worse. In fact, Leon admits he loves looking down and belittling on people like them. This has Julius announce he would rather die than have Marie taken from him. Angelica takes this as he truly loves Marie. Olivia surprisingly stands up to support Angelica that even if Julius does not love her, Angelica still loves him as she has been watching him fight in pain. However Julius doesn’t call that true love but just imposition. He doesn’t want to see her again. Leon suggests Julius orders him to lose if he wants to protect his Marie. This time he tries to seriously warn that doing this antagonizes Marie’s family and this will threaten his status. Julius doesn’t care for all that. All he needs is Marie. With that, Arroganz blasts a powerful one to knock him out and shatter his mecha. Leon wins. How y’all losers who bet all your money on the princes feeling now? Yeah, they still hate Leon but this is within his expectations since he wants to leave this academy. Angelica goes to see Julius and still maintains she loves him. However as he points out, she knows nothing about him. Not even his favourite food (some peasant food). Marie knew all that and that’s why he fell for her. Because he cannot love Angelica, she finally gets the painful hint and leaves. Leon speaks to Angelica’s father and makes a deal for his and his family’s life to be spared. He is willing to relinquish all his titles and compensate this huge sum. Of course this is all part of his plan to escape this wife hunting academy so he lies and claims he did it all for the kingdom. Angelica’s father accepts this but has a condition that Angelica stays with him at his hometown during the summer holidays. Angelica is depressed that her words did not reach Julius and got Leon expelled. Worse, she didn’t even thank him. You’d think that Leon’s suggestion to get revenge would be bloody but it seems it is to become happy oneself. Since Angelica ranks higher than Zola, Leon relishes in seeing Angelica stamp her authority over her. The best! In the aftermath, Julius and co lose their status and got disowned by their family. But they’re more than happy to be with Marie. Together we’ll protect Marie! Too bad Marie is in despair because this means no more rich and luxurious royal life that she has been aiming for! Sorry guys, I don’t think she is crying tears of joy! Because of Leon’s heroics in admonishing the princes, he is in fact being promoted to a knight. A feat unheard of his age. Now he is forced back into the academy and cannot leave. With Angelica and Olivia by his side, he’ll get by.

Episode 6
School festival is here. Fancy seeing Angelica and Olivia in a maid outfit? As Leon and his friends prepare their café, Jenna barges in to force Leon to help her. Apparently she had a fight with her friend over a viscount’s heir. She hopes Leon can threaten her a little but since he won’t do anything for her, that’s the end of that. Bye. Next door, Julius and co are running a high end café and you bet the girls will be lining up to get in. Is he a special guest? I thought they were expelled? Leon takes a look at his café and finds it like a host club! Yeah, they listened to Marie and looks like they’re going to have another rivalry on this. As Olivia tries to advertise Leon’s café, many girls tell her off and will not go there because of what happened. Save for Carla Fou Wayne who wants Olivia to help introduce her to Leon. Angelica is soon called. Turns out it is the queen of the kingdom, Mylene. She is incognito so nobody recognizes her. She is here to apologize to Leon for Julius’ actions as she notes the academy is worse off than before with all the discrimination. As Angelica takes Mylene to Leon’s café, just in time they witness Stephanie Offrey throwing her cup of tea at Leon, claiming it is bad. Leon surprisingly apologizes and tolerates all the discrimination. Angelica and Olivia try to help Leon and tell her to leave but she continues to assert her authority just because she is an earl’s daughter. Her family is a rival to Angelica’s family. When Mylene tells her to stop and Stephanie does not recognize her and badmouths her, suddenly Leon revives and beats up all of her servants! Now he has a cause to fight back! He lets everyone Mylene is the queen and will not stand for anyone picking a fight with her. Now that he is on a violent spree, quick thinking Angelica calls his master to turn him into a meek apologetic dog. Leon and Mylene talk. The latter apologizes for her son’s behaviour but hoped he could have solved the matter in a better way than the duel. Because Mylene also wants to make memories here, Leon proposes to marry her!!! Oh boy. This gonna complicate Julius’ position! Imagine Leon is his stepfather now! Speaking of him, here he comes smacking Leon and to stay away from his mom! Leon gets trashed and his girls agree this was his fault in going too far. Julius tries to warn Mylene to stay away from that greedy knight but Mylene shoots back as she wants to see Marie. She finds it disgraceful that they broke their promise to stay away from her after losing and even more so about this overcharged café thingy they’re doing. When Carla visits Leon, he is suspicious why she needed Olivia’s introduction. Turns out she wants his help to save her family.

Episode 7
Leon agrees to help Carla seeing she formally requested him. If he refused her, Olivia would lose face too. But first, the end of the cultural festival signifies the most anticipated event: The air bike race. The favourites to win are Jilk and Dan Fia Elgar. Of course Leon won’t be racing as he will be betting to earn good money. As the preliminaries get underway, Jilk gets targeted although he manages to win the race. However he gets injured from it and can’t possibly race in the finals. Marie so sad because this means she’ll lose her prize money! Clarice Fia Atlee makes her entrance as she was the one who has her followers target Jilk in the race. Long story short, this ex-fiancee of his will never forgive him for breaking up their engagement. With Jilk needing a substitute, Marie wants Leon to do it otherwise somehow Angelica’s family will lose face? With that, he’ll do it. Before the finals, Dan talks to Leon about Clarice that she is actually a kind woman. However that fateful day he just wrote her a letter saying he wanted to break up and did not even meet her. Of course Dan won’t go easy on him too. As the finals begin, everyone targets Leon despite many aren’t Clarice’s followers. They have a grudge on Leon for bankrupting them! Karma’s a b*tch indeed. Meanwhile Stephanie continues to torment Angelica and Olivia. She’s saying mean things of the past but I thought Olivia should know better than to get hurt by it? Should she not trust Angelica now? Apparently she runs away and since this makes Angelica mad, she starts beating up Stephanie! Holy sh*t! B*tch fight!!! Anybody betting on this one?! When everyone is done thinking they have defeated Leon, you know he always has an ace up his sleeve because Luxion has modified his air bike and now it has boosted speed! Leon blasts through the field and even passes Dan to win it. Yup, this bastard once again makes everybody broke! Since Leon won, Jilk will have to repay his debts and do what he wishes. And that is to sincerely apologize to Clarice. She is still not happy but is through associating with him. Leon then heard what happened to Angelica and Olivia and goes to talk to the latter. This means not the happy cheerful kind of thing but being his mean. That’s so Leon alright. You feeling better now? All that’s left is for Olivia to go talk to Angelica.

Episode 8
Carla talks to Olivia and needs her help to aid Leon too. However the one behind all this is of course that b*tch Stephanie. She tries to demoralize Olivia by claiming she is just a pet to Angelica. If that didn’t work, she thinks Olivia is only here because Leon is after her body. We see Leon talking to Luxion on why he decides to go help Carla and take out space pirates. She knows Stephanie is behind this and she is indeed a very vile person with no shred of redemption. This sky pirate event is necessary since Olivia must obtain 1 of the 3 holy items in order to awaken her saint status. Leon is doing it for her as he thinks she is in no condition to do it herself. As for her falling for him? He doesn’t believe it will happen! Luxion can tell that his act only inhibits Olivia’s potential to grow. Before Leon departs on his ship, he is surprised that Carla has also requested Brad and Greg to come. Carla is Brad’s ex-fiancee so he couldn’t turn her down while Greg heard it and wants to come along. Angelica sees all the graffiti in Olivia’s room and it doesn’t take long for her to figure Stephanie is behind this. Yeah, b*tch shows up just to rub it in and say Olivia might die. Of course no more nice girl for Angelica. She’ll make sure she pays but first she must go after Olivia. Leon hears Brad and Greg’s ex-fiancée woes and even if they are useless guys, they had it rough. As the sky pirates are here, Leon goes to engage them all by himself via Arroganz. Discount ossan Harlock knows details of the ship thanks to Carla and thinks he’ll have it easy but how wrong he is. In no time whoops their asses! This leaves Greg in shock as he never knew this is how real battles look like. Just realize you’re just a cocky kid? Carla is in a panic as she cannot contact her home as she has not told her family about this. She thinks of blaming Olivia. So when the ship lands, Carla’s father and his men point their guns at Leon and co. Only when he recognizes Brad and then introduced to Leon, he demands his daughter for answers. Carla panics and tries to blame Olivia but that won’t work since Leon puts his foot down and tells what is going on. Carla further breaks down panicking and eventually tells the whole truth how Stephanie made her do it. Leon tries to talk to Olivia who is now at the lowest of her depression. She is not amused with his kindness because if that’s the case, he is treating her like a pet and not human. Even if he denies he is after her body, I guess that’s the wrong answer too because now she claims she has nothing attractive for him like Angelica. Oh boy, Olivia inconsolable. Oh sh*t. Was this part of any route in the game?!

Episode 9
Leon realizes he is paying for getting ahead of himself but won’t acknowledge he has impeded Olivia’s growth. He punches Luxion when he comments about Olivia being as valuable as a doormat to him. Hope his hand doesn’t hurt… Leon sees Brad trying to practice his sword as he acknowledges he is the weakest among the five. Even when they spar, Leon easily beats him. Needs more training. Leon’s next plan is to head to the pirates’ base since he needs to get the holy necklace. Don’t need to go all the way. They’re here to attack. Brad and Greg plead to help and although they know they’ll get in his way, they still want to do what they can. Olivia as usual is depressed, wondering why she said mean things to Leon who did so much for her. The pirates attack and she heads out. Yeah, going to get kidnapped by the pirate boss! Brad and Greg help her but they are too weak to even do anything. Of course it’s Leon to the rescue. He knows he doesn’t like where this is going but he still has a role to play. Leon becomes a savage as he tears down the pirate boss. Even when he pleads for mercy, Leon will not accept his surrender and tries to kill him! Only when he gets the holy necklace did Leon finally stop. Olivia heals Brad while Leon returns to his arrogant self, making Olivia sad again since she can tell their friendship has hit rock bottom. Later Luxion updates Leon about Olivia. It’s not like she hates him but is mentally instable. Leon feels this is necessary as he is trying to prop up Brad and Greg’s name so he can go back being a background character. With Angelica here, he’ll let her deal with the rest. In the aftermath, Brad and Greg are shocked to receive tons of reward. It seems Leon has reported they were the heroes and has also requested their families to reconsider their disinheritance. Of course for Leon, it’ll work in his favour if that happens. While he isn’t worried about Stephanie (snippets show Mylene and her men arrested her and her punishment will be severe), the pressing issue is Angelica being mad at him and slapped him for making Olivia cry. Yup, it’s part of his plan to distance himself. They’ve gotten too close. Brad and Greg talk to Julius that they want to become stronger and challenge Leon as a true man. More woes for Leon as the duo have talked to the palace and now Leon has been promoted several ranks. Even Clarice’s family has a say and guarantees once he graduates, more promotion! Can’t run away. School resumes tomorrow.

Episode 10
Leon receives a new and advanced air bike from Clarice. But now it’s time for the school trip. In the game, this is where the protagonist choose to get close with one of her love interest, depending on the place chosen. For Leon, there is a particular island he wants to go due to an item he needs. Sure it’s not because Angelica and Olivia are here? Yeah, Chris is here too and as popular as ever. Leon, Olivia and Angelica are at the shrine that is supposed to bring good luck and bond those close to each other. The priestess hands them a few charms and Leon is over the moon because they might contain very rare charms that are hard to get. So it’s like loot boxes, huh? While the ladies get some element blessing talisman, Leon gets some war fortune charm that increases his combat abilities and physical attributes. Next day, as Chris is about to challenge Leon, the whole ship is on alert as monster flying fish are approaching. From their crest, they belong to the Fanoss Dukedom. They were once part of the kingdom but declared its independence. However this event is not supposed to happen till the end of the game. Where did Leon screw up, says he, huh? Well, isn’t he himself the irregular? Riding the big mother monster ship is Princess Hertrude Sera Fanoss. She announces war on the kingdom and gives them an hour to decide if they will surrender or die. When her assistant, Garrett come aboard, he claims they will only take nobles who are of baron or higher ranking. Everyone else is not needed. That is when Angelica offers herself to be the only prisoner in exchange for everyone. Leon and Olivia try to stop this but get held back and beaten up by their own fellow students. When Angelica sees Hertrude, the latter claims she will attack and kill everyone because it’s a pity that only 2 of her friends stood up for her. Chris then talks to Leon how everyone will be killed on this ship. Hence he needs his help to stop this. However Leon is not interested. They didn’t help Angelica so they should die. However he won’t do this for free and by himself. He wants everyone to help. Chris tries to rally all of them to help but since he has no authority, they diss him. Now Leon is going to give them a pep talk about their cowardice. Deirdre Fou Roseblade disagrees with all that and claims about their ancestors’ achievements. But that’s so much about it as Leon points back they are only riding on their ancestors’ glory. They themselves are cowardly pieces of sh*t. Of course everyone disagrees with this and probably this is all part of Leon’s plan to rev them up to fight back. Now they’ll die fighting instead of waiting to be killed. As Leon rides out on his air bike, Hertrude signals the beginning of the attack.

Episode 11
The students especially the boys are doing well in protecting the ship. Leon notes that the guys practised every day to be strong so as to find a good wife. So it’s no surprise that they can be this strong if they want to. Garrett has a sinister plan to sink their ship along with all their monsters so his fleet starts firing their cannons. This is of course too much for the defending students to take. But at that moment of death, Olivia’s charm activates and it becomes a strong barrier to protect the entire ship. Leon barges into the main fleet to rescue Angelica and take Hertrude’s flute. Don’t worry, he didn’t kill all her henchmen. Just knocked them out with rubber bullets. He takes her hostage back to his ship and all her subordinates call him a dirty coward. Look who’s talking! No wonder Angelica laughing her ass off. But back on the ship, Garrett announces the fleet to fire all they’ve got and claims their princess has sacrificed herself. Hertrude has also disabled the control on the monsters. This means they will attack her which also in turn puts the ship in danger. As Leon flies off to buy time, Angelica thinks of what she can do. Oh well, you know, just feel that desperate feeling and voila! Her charm now becomes some sort of offensive weapon to shoot down monsters that come too close. As Olivia is too tired from the protecting, this is your cue for both of them to make up and become best friends again. A shot rocks the ship as it throws Angelica off the edge. She thinks this is it. No use regretting not being true to your feelings. But as fate would have it, Olivia grabs her hand before she plummets. Yes, more friendship bonding at this moment. Another shot now throws Olivia off but not before she throws Angelica back. Okay Leon, your cue to rescue her. Yeah, that happy look on her face, as though she knew Leon will always come to her rescue. When he saves her, the usual arguing she thinks he hates him because of the way he addresses her. He gives excuses she needs to find a better man who is way better than him. As if he didn’t get the hint after she rejects all those princes he suggested! Don’t make her spell it out for you! Oh, too late. Because Olivia confesses she is in love with him and wants to be with him. We can put this drama for later as they return to the ship. Just in time as Leon’s personal giant ship arrives to wage war on his aggressors. Leon going into combat himself with Arroganz to teach those who pick a fight with him. Garrett will not give up as he believes he still has Sir Vandel AKA Black Knight on his side.

Episode 12
Vandel giving Leon a run for his money. Although Arroganz’s armour is tough, Vandel has better piloting skills and experience. Eventually Leon feigns taking a blow from him. Vandel thinks Arroganz is rendered immobile but to his surprise, it can still move. That’s because Luxion is controlling it and this allows Leon in person to go capture the old guy. When Garrett fires a special flare that will summon monsters to take everyone out including themselves, Leon has Luxion shoot laser beams from the sky that kill all the monsters! Can you beat that?! Vandel wants to be killed but Leon in his usual arrogant tone will have him live in shame for the rest of his life. After all, full grown adults lost to a bunch of kids on holiday. It’s the end of them for sure! Garrett even pleading for some mercy but Leon will take all their usable ships and robots. Later Luxion asks about not using him to fight Vandel as he would easily defeat him. Leon reasons that had Luxion fight, he would’ve vaporized everything and this would mean everyone including the kingdom will see him as a threat. He just wants to stay low. Later Leon has Chris take credit for this incident and this will have his family reinstate him back. He also introduces Luxion to Angelica and Olivia. But now a more pressing issue as the princes have created a robot (did they mash everything together?) and are going to duel Leon again. Yeah, Marie not impressed. Leon accepts this so he can lose. Because he realizes Olivia is too good for them and if they want to be with Marie, so be it. The princes let Greg pilot it as he goes on the offensive. Leon would certainly love to lose had Luxion not warn him that Greg’s mecha is going to explode due to all the parts put together haphazardly. This means Leon must win by destroying the armour to save Greg’s life. And just like that, Leon’s misery returns. Yeah, Marie sad her money down the drain. More woes for him as now Leon is being awarded a special medal for capturing Hertrude. Being promoted again, huh? Marie also not impressed as she vows to acquire all the saint’s remaining items and become the protagonist. Later Olivia hints to Leon that she hopes to hear his answer one day. This makes him think he needs to make his resolve. Despite wanting to be a mob, he still wants to be with Angelica and Olivia. Luxion notes Leon is similar to Marie because both have knowledge of this world and try to use it to their advantage to get close to the protagonist and romantic interests. Leon denies of course.

My Next Life As A Mob: All Routes Lead To Arrogance
So are we going to have another season or are we going to leave it hanging like that? Sure, it’s all happy ending for now in this chapter but there are lots more chapters from the light novel where this came from. So if you’re not satisfied with how things are going and Leon haters hating how this guy always gets his way in the end and hoping to see him eat some just desserts, feel free to read up on the light novel. Otherwise, Leon’s going to level up and rue about it as always. Hey, it’s his attitude that got him to where he is, right? No complaints! Just suck it up and reap what you deserve!

While the story overall isn’t anything much and even generic to boot, somehow I find it interesting. Perhaps it is because I keep comparing this to Hamefura despite both series are very different from each other as it goes on. Since this fantasy world is a mesh of a few other elements than your standard dating sim with magic, perhaps it gives a slightly different refreshing take on the animes that I have seen under this genre. Curiously, it seems I feel like I need to know what is going to happen next although some moments were somewhat predictable. But hey, as long as a series can keep my attention for a big part of the season, that itself is already good in my books.

Even though Leon is an arrogant piece of sh*t and most likely sharing the same vibes with a certain Bakarina, somehow I find him more tolerable than the latter and in fact I am more inclined to support him than that doomed villainess. Partly it is because everyone here looks down on him and then they are forced to eat their words and humble pie once he turns the tables on them. It brings me great satisfaction to see Leon owning those prideful nobles and show them their place. Unlike Bakarina who does not have any real enemies to boot (since it is mostly the guys fawning over her) and she herself starts off as a noble character. Whereas Leon had nothing and had to start from scratch to work his way up. Hence his villain-like actions and attitudes to me are justified. A mob acting like a mob…

Even more so that Leon has to be as arrogant as f*ck AKA an asshole dick is because this is to avoid others stepping over his head and to remind them of his place. Someone that you wouldn’t want to mess with seriously. We all already know that females rule the world here and unless you’re some princely status, you’re as good as being under the thumbs of the matriarchy. Imagine if Leon tries to play being the nice guy, he’ll get trampled all over and no one will take him seriously. Even in the event if he is humble in victory and plays it nice and gentle, considering how f*cked up these entitled young nobles are, they will not think twice in showing their continued disrespect. Leon after all, comes from a commoner lineage and it is pretty evident what we see how they treated Olivia could actually be done the same onto him. Therefore I believe Leon has every right not to be the gentleman and play the nice guy since respect is not something he is aiming for. Yes, respect is earned and these blokes don’t deserve his! So keep spouting those arrogant lines because Leon has a great talent for it and it keeps thinks a lot more interesting and funny.

Make it double since Luxion himself is sarcastic and it’s amusing to see them trade deadpan insults at each other. It’s like they have this love-hate relationship but can’t do without the other. But you got to hand it to Leon for being dedicated to stay and finish the entire otome game until he knows it like the back of his hand. I bet he even knows all the secrets better than the programmers and designers of the game! Yeah. The irony. I bet he can write a sequel for this game if by chance there is some miracle he gets reincarnated back to his old life. I just wonder what could it be so bad that Leon had to comply with his b*tch sister’s request than getting one of his dirty secrets out. Don’t tell me he fathered a secret child! Sorry, not in the script!

Of course the cliché moment is that Leon himself is slowly becoming a hero and accumulating his own mini harem. Maybe this is the only ridiculous point that I noticed because despite he claims he just wants to be a mob and a background character who lives a low profile life, he keeps butting heads with high profile people and gets involved with events that would propel him to greater status. He should know by now that the rank he attains, there is no way for him to return to his quiet life, right? Then he tries to give excuses which feels like trying to shirk off his responsibilities when it is obvious that Olivia and Angelica have both fallen for him. Maybe that is his own way to psycho himself to get complacent. He might lose sight and focus. But ultimately when a girl says she loves you, she really means it. Sorry, guys don’t have the privilege to friendzone girls. Only the opposite works.

I’m sure this isn’t in any route of the game whereby Olivia becomes some sort of side character and damsel in distress. Of her emotions, that is. Leon played the game millions of times and it’s weird to have him think that the events are proceeding like in the game albeit at a different pace. I thought Olivia was the main character in the game? Now it’s Leon, right? Therefore what Luxion said was true because now that Leon is taking the helm and taking charge, this has relegated Olivia into some emotional time bomb as she grows weaker with each passing event. Eventually, falling for a mob character who is actually the main character all along. Weird, right? Seeing Olivia this way is both heart wrenching as well as annoying because I thought she would become a strong woman to support by Leon’s side but she turned out into this mess. Which of course gets fixed somewhat because as long as you confess your feelings, everything is a-okay, right? Yeah, I don’t think that’s how it works but whatever.

I want to say the same about Angelica too but if you compare her fate to the original game, she is in a much better position than she is now. So I would say that Angelica has come out stronger than Olivia but that is mainly because she has backing from Leon and her family status. Now that the main villainess is no longer the villainess because a certain mob guy decided to play the role of the villainess, hence Angelica’s role feels somewhat awkward as it is mainly trying to justify and ascertain her friendship with Olivia. They aren’t like Bakarina-Maria pair in Hamefura as it feels like there are some hidden tension between them due to Angelica being the ex-villainess and what she did before. But alas, thanks to the power of friendship, they’re back stronger than ever. And of course, big thanks to Leon for that. Behind every successful woman, there is man behind. Uhm. Whoops. Whatever.

I’m very curious about this bratty Marie. There are hints to indicate that she is Leon’s sister in real life (the biggest hint is same seiyuu!) and if that is the case, it made me wonder how she died in real life and end up here! I’m very curious to know how! Anyway, it looks like Marie is having her own ulterior motives here, the way she obviously manipulate others, using her cute innocent charms to the utmost of perfection. However her character role seem to sputter out and take a back seat after her princes got defeated and disowned by their families. It would be interesting to see what she will be doing next but in the meantime, she’s laying low until the time is right as she plots her next move.

As for those princes, they aren’t bad people per se and even after they got their asses handed to them by the one and only Leon. Personally, I don’t find these princes as annoying as the ones in Hamefura (who are just pretty annoying trying to pander to Bakarina – though, it is still weird that the princes continue to pledge their love altogether for Marie – because they sound robotic in that!). The good thing after their loss to Leon, they seem to learn a lot about humility and even begin to look at Leon in a different way, despite Leon does not change much in his attitude and all. Reality hits hard for them as life isn’t a bed of roses they think it is so in a way, you could say that once again that it is thanks to Leon that they manage to avoid a future of ruin. You could say that he gave them a chance at redemption. Can you imagine these guys teaming up with Leon and taking down the matriarchy?! Don’t laugh. The impossible happened with Leon, right? But still, they’re the biggest losers and jokers each time they think they can rumble and beat Leon. Oh well, got to give them points for being this confident. Of course, not every female here is bad. Like Mylene and Clarice, they’re quite decent people but with the majority of women in power, they give women a bad name so to speak. But good thing we won’t hear from arrogant b*tches again like Stephanie, Carla and Jenna. Just desserts they’ve got.

Art and animation are standard anime style. Hot looking guys and girls that are aplenty but of course some minor characters looking ugly, which in a way is a better reflection of their stinky attitude than those who look good because those are what you call real life clickbait. Heh. One of the weirdest things I find is that the eyes of the characters somehow made me think they resemble bug eyes. Though it isn’t actually that but I can’t help see them in such a way. Because of that, many of such characters especially the female ones look a bit weird. As for the character designs, at this rate I believe some characters look like they’re from other animes. Most notably Angelica whom I keep joking that she is the reincarnation of the Fate series’ Saber. There is also some CGI employed but these are used sparingly and does not feel clashing with the rest of the 2D animation. For instance those fish monsters. It isn’t horrible but I thought it could use a little bit of polishing up. The robots sometimes I noticed used CGI too but it’s not very jarring because well, robots moving like robots… I guess it’s fine then… This anime is done by Engi who did Uzaki-chan Wa Asobitai and Tantei Wa Mou Shindeiru.

Voice acting is pretty okay and I didn’t expect to hear a few recognizable seiyuus such as Akira Ishida as Luxion, Ayane Sakura as Marie, Kenichi Suzumura as Julius, Koji Yusa as Chris, Nobuyuki Hiyama as Greg, Kousuke Toriumi as Jilk, Sora Amamiya as Hertrude, Sayaka Ohara as Mylene and Eri Kitamura as Deirdre. The rest are Takeo Ootsuka as Leon (Takeo in Noblesse), Kana Ichinose as Olivia (Marlya in Fairy Gone), Ai Fairouz as Angelica (Hibiki in Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru), Shinnosuke Tachibana as Brad (Tomoe in Kamisama Hajimemashita), Sayumi Suzushiro as Clarice, Ayaka Suwa as Stephanie (Oono in High Score Girl) (Hijiri in Trinity Seven) and Haruka Shiraishi as Clarice (Asirpa in Golden Kamuy). The opening theme is Silent Minority by Kashitarou Itou. This dramatic rock piece feels like it should’ve been better suited for a shonen anime like Naruto or Black Clover. Selfish by Riko Azuna as the ending theme fares okay as a lively pop music with the occasional brass fanfare.

Overall, it isn’t a very extraordinary anime as it has borrowed many elements from various genres so if you’re looking for something unique and captivating, this isn’t it. But I suppose it is still better than those that have main characters being reincarnated as an overpowered character. This one has the main character reincarnated with overpowered arrogance! His I-don’t-give-a-f*ck attitude resonates in me even more so in today’s testing times. The opinion on this series is very much divided out there as some find it pretty interesting (like yours truly) while others felt disappointed especially those who read its light novel source didn’t particularly like how the adaptation went. Also, many don’t like the main character because he acts more like a big bully and dick. Hey people, hate the sin and not the sinner! Sort of. I don’t know if there will be more isekai dating sims reincarnation categories in the future. My guess it’s going to be weird because you know, Japan has a lot of weirdest dating sims from dating a pigeon to a prince horse to a printer to a T-Rex and even a dashing Colonel Sanders himself! We can conquer all those with ease but not the heart of a real person in real life. Sad… :’(.