Winter 2013 – Week 9 Anime Review

This week: thoughts on why the antagonists of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure are so brilliant, why the arrival of Juju has significantly improved Sasami-san@Ganbaranai, rationalizing that the Dark Faction in Senran Kagura is more kindhearted than the good guys, and the balanced use of success and failure in Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo.

Winter 2013 – Week 7 Anime Review

This week: questions about who the real big bad in Psycho-Pass could be, some thoughts on why I continue to watch Little Busters!, social cliques in character pairings in Senran Kagura, and some earth-shattering omissions in Maoyuu Maou Yuusha.

Magi – 15

The flow of fate is a fascinating concept, a theory which dictates the existence of a predestined ‘proper’ direction for the world to follow.  As we’ve learned from Ugo, there are those who fight to maintain this path and work to keep the world in the vision of Solomon’s wisdom.  Others, however, are opposed to this path and fight against it, laboring against this flow of fate to improve their power and their lives at the expense of Solomon’s plan.  Because of this dichotomy, the conflicting sides fighting to improve their own personal goals, one has to wonder if there is a ‘right’ and a ‘wrong’ side to Magi or if the two are blurred and ambiguous with each sharing some positives and negatives alike.

Needless – Chapter 105

There is a line that separates good and evil but, depending on your perception and your circumstances, the line may be displaced, blurred or somehow obscure and therefore indiscernible.  Within Needless, this line has shifted, slanted, curved and distorted to show that the characters are not accurately bound to the traditional labels of “good guys” or “bad guys”.  And because of this ambiguity regarding these ethics, it has allowed the characters to freely switch and flip side given their personality and the situations they find themselves in.  In fact, it’s rather difficult to tell who’s what anymore besides the few central characters at the heart of the story.  And because of this inability to distinguish good from evil and vice versa, it has accounted for numerous surprises, remarkable character growth, several entrancing fights and, perhaps greatest of all, even more unpredictable fun and amusement. **Warning: spoilers below**

Dantalian no Shoka – 6

Well, that was unexpected.

Dantalian no Shoka continues to evade any form of established story in favor of darting between various storylines with minimal overlap.  And with the entire episode lacking our normal heroes, or any character from any previous episode, it seemed like another random episode with no connection to any previous content.  But that might be wrong in the long run.  The sixth episode of Dantalin no Shoka did provide a chance to introduce two other sets of keykeepers and libraries allowing us the chance to discover who will be playing the roles of good, neutral, and evil in perhaps the eventual story of this anime.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica – 8

One of the things I’ve liked about Puella Magi Madoka Magica has been the whole mystery aspect.  We’ve been following Madoka, an outsider to this isolated realm known only to Puella Magi, around for most of the series, and together, we’ve steadily been learning about these magical girls, their lives, and their morals.  And through this process, we’ve seen great transformations in character.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica – 6

Everywhere I look (probably 1-2 sites), I always hear about how evil Kyubey is and how wonderful Homura is.  After episode 6, I’m beginning to lean the other way.  In fact, I’ll argue that Kyubey is not evil and Homura really isn’t all that good, either.