Shameful Otaku Secret!

What Must Be Protected (Final Episode)

Boy am I behind! Already I’m watching first episodes, and I haven’t blogged the final Shana. It was a good one too. Except for the lines I can’t get out of my screenshots. What the hell?

Yes. Who knows, Kazumi may live.

Recap

Shana and Wilhelmina battle Hecate and Sydonay, while Yuji tries to get to the Silver, and thus the Reiji Maigo, before he uses all his life fighting.

Imagine you never watched any Japanese cartoons. Now look at this. Weird, right?

He’s tossing around the Blutsauger even as he gets weaker and weaker, but Shana finally breaks through the crazy clock tower to go after him desperately. It’s sad just how crappy the high school episodes are, because I know they serve to make moments like this more dramatic, as Shana’s feelings for Yuji come to a head and seem to fill the previously-uninterested Yuji with the power to go on.

Aw.

As the clock tower tomogara begins its march, Marjorie uses the last of her failing energy to cast a Fuzetsu around it to protect the city, then flies out to save Kazumi from certain doom.

More importantly, I can’t believe you’re saving Kazumi.

The Silver proves pretty tough to beat, but I called it (not that that’s any huge achievement) — Hecate was the wild card. The scene a while back with the birds was obviously a hint, and here it all comes back to blow up in her face.

Birdies...

The memories and emotions she collected as Konoe make the silver try to enjoy some birds himself, giving Shana and Yuji the chance to kill him and get the Reiji Maigo. Hecate is further baffled when she finds herself tearing up.

Salt water? From my FACE? Oh GOD!

Thoughts

I’m glad to see the series end so well. It almost had me giving up, but I’m actually glad that I didn’t. The last few episodes really brought everything home — fast paced action, creative fight scenes, touches of fanservice, and the tying of the half-baked drama back into things. I don’t think the Konoe thing was a deus ex machina, since it was obviously planned.

Then you’ll just have to KILL YOURSE — I know, I know. Didn’t happen. Probably won’t.

Most significantly, though: the Yuji Choice Maneuver from last week was restarted, and the end of the episode treats us to sad-face Kazumi and happy-face Shana, so… could it be?

Yay END THIS PART OF THE STORYLINE NOW

I’d like to think so, but this show manages to make backwards progress an integral part of its story, so I wouldn’t be that surprised if the Love Triangle With No Sharp Edges continues.

Also, bonus screenshot because it was funny-looking.

About 5 hours of my life I’ll never get back

So, I’m a weak ass who couldn’t manage to finish blogging a couple shows before they ended, but I watched them, and if I didn’t finish blogging it’s probably because I lost all interest in even hating on something. Spice and Wolf disappointed in the end for sure, but having had no expectations for H2O from minute one, I suppose I wasn’t let down.

That said, I did watch it, which reminds me of something a teacher in art school said once: if you go to a restaurant and they serve you a shit sandwich, you don’t have to eat it.

Screengrabs are all from the final episode, just to make things look more exciting.

Plot

Is there a plot? Like a plague of rats, the Visual Novel has descended upon everything, devouring real storytelling in favor of individual mini-arcs devoted to different girls. In H2O, Hirose Takuma is a middle school kid who moves out to the country with his Uncle Dragonball to recover from a bizarre disease that made him blind. If your bets were on “tragic incident in past, repressed” then either you wrote this show or you possess (at least) average intelligence.

Takuma meets a cavalcade of girls, like I’m-Not-Me, Platform Shoes, and Cross-Dress, but enters into a pseudo-relationship with village outcast Hayami, who lives in an abandoned train car in the woods and is inexplicably treated like Gojira with bad breath by the redneck townies.

Gradually the past of the village is discovered, and is of course inextricably linked to Takuma’s own recent but hazy past. And if you’re like me, you don’t care.

Animation

I suppose I’d call it “capable,” but the character designs were not at all appealing to me. The show was produced by ZEXCS, who have only a little work out there, none of which I’m familiar with.

Music

Forgettable incidentals, straight-up unenjoyable OP. I fast forwarded through it every time.

Dangers of Watching

• Fantasy elements I can handle, but those aren’t what kills the believability of the show. That’s handled by horrible characters.
• This show takes to clichés like a fish to water (see what I did there? sigh…)
• I’ll quote myself: there are some sweet moments, but it’s kind of like visiting your dying Uncle Bobo in the clown hospital — a bittersweet ending to a ludicrous experience.
• Animation is pretty crappy.

Benefits of Watching

• The aforementioned sweet moments, of which there are two or three in the series, really can be nice.
• I kind of liked Uncle Dragonball

Bottom Line

Let’s keep it simple, stupid: I pretty much hated this show.

What Happened Over Summer Vacation [post-final episode]

[no really, last link to Clannad info page]

Finally! I’m vindicated! Long ago, I accused Okazaki of being a eunuch, and almost went back on my word until this happened:

I knew it!

Now after the charming victory for Akio in the final episode, we get a nice light-hearted comedic recap before the OVAs, where the real tragedy can feel free to happen.

Recap after the recap

Not much to speak of here, the primary story is that Okazaki and Nagisa are moving unsurprisingly slowly in their relationship, much to the dismay of Sunohara and his visiting sister Mei — who takes to some hardcore meddling.

In the process, we get one of the best laugh-out-loud Akio and Sanae moments, a pile of cutely funny scenarios involving the awkward Tomoya/Nagisa relationship, and some real insights into how our deliquent’s mind works.

Okazaki should be watching True Tears, then

Well.

In the end, they finally make it to the dangerous step of Holding Hands. They’re not wearing bathing suits though, so I’m pretty confident no one will end up pregnant.

Aw.

Thoughts

If you wondered about whether Kyoto Animation could learn a little something to apply to more “conventional” projects by doing the otaku-centric but totally hilarious Lucky Star, here’s your answer. Comedic pacing is right on, down to Sunohara’s dead thumping fall after the “cute girl looking for you” joke gets played on him for the second time in the series. Basically, this episode exists to make you laugh, and it has some of the best laughs of the series, so I guess it worked.

The preview for the upcoming vids looks more up the alley I expected when Clannad started. Horror, tragedy, bad things. So what happens now? Kyoto have teased about Full Metal Panic! and Haruhi Suzumiya getting new series this year, is that out the window? Who knows, but I’m guessing a couple OVAs aren’t going to spoil everyone’s lunch.