Visionary Nexus Network

One post isn’t enough to contain all of this information, so here’s part 2. As I stated in the previous post, this is going to turn out to be a weekly column consisting of all the shows I’ve been watching this week. Keep in mind that the sarcasm factor may be high and that all shows that are mocked deserve it. On the flip side, shows that earn my praise are also very deserving, so let’s have at it!

Guin Saga

What happened: Guin, Remus, and Linda finally meet the Crimson Mercenary and have a friendly chat before being separated. Linda is escorted and put into a cell where she encounters an ape girl while Guin and Remus are brought to a cell adjacent to that belonging to the Crimson Mercenary. A friendly chat ensues between Guin and the mercenary, but that gets cut short by an assault by ape-men who stream into the fortress. Guin and Remus manage to escape, aided by the Mongaul soldier Otto who opens the lock to their cells and arms them, urging them to leave this fortress. Guin and Remus are unwilling to leave without Linda and the two try to find out where she is held captive. Finally, atop one of the towers, they see a scary sight: the Lord of the Fortress reveals himself to be a ghost that subsists on human beings and is about to consume Linda and the ape-girl, but Guin steps in. A fight ensues between the ghost and Guin and, as a result of the battle and the ape assault, the castle burns down. Guin, Remus, Linda, and the ape girl, facing no other choice, opt to make a leap of faith and to avoid dying in the castle.

What I thought: There’s something about this show that makes it really appealing in the old, gritty fantasy shows that are less along the lines of Tolkien and more along the lines of Conan the Barbarian. Hell, Guin is practically a Conan-like figure and the villain this week is practically Skeletor. As such, the combat scenes look really sweet and the mood continues to be epic with Nobuo Uematsu at the helm on the soundtrack end. The only downside is that Remus is still whiny and annoying and that Linda is still fricken awesome with her resilience.

K-ON!

What happened: It’s Christmas! The girls all agree to meet at Yui’s house where they do a present exchange, mess around in a talent show, and generally have fun. Sawako does come to crash the party with her childish antics, but that’s about all there is to it. The New Year rolls around with the usual shrine visit, and the 4 girls begin making plans to ramp up for their next performance.

What I thought: It was mildly amusing, but by this time, I’m starting to get annoyed with the heavy emphasis on the fact that Mio is scared of about everything. It also doesn’t help that my brain turned off halfway through this episode, which I guess goes to show how much substance this show really has and how engaging it is. Yes, I understand that this is mostly a moe slice-of-life show and I’m not expecting this to be great for the rest of the run-time. It’ll be watchable, but that’s really about it.

Saki

What happened: The mahjong regional tournaments are about to begin and the teams are all getting ready for the showdown. After wandering around getting psyched up, the first round starts and, though some of the participants are looking down upon Saki & Co, Yuuki basically pounces on them during the first round to give them a massive lead, Mako gets a strong streak, and Hisa does what needs to be done. Now, it’s up to Saki and Nodoka to clean up.

What I thought: Well, I suppose Saki’s funny face that she made after meeting the mahjong team from Ryuumonbuchi was kinda funny, but this episode was more or less predictable since it’s only the first round and showing the shounen tension from game-related anime just wouldn’t work here. It’s somewhat entertaining and sets the groundwork for what’s to come and that’s all there is to it.

Valkyria Chronicles

What happened: A reporter comes to visit Squad 7 after hearing about Welkin’s brave exploits and tries to schedule an interview with him. Alicia does not find this prospect to be a good one since she doesn’t want Welkin’s oddities exposed, and so, tries to interfere with the reporter at every turn. Eventually, the reporter gets her interview while learning precisely nothing in the process, save for the fact that Welkin is fairly charismatic and reports such to her radio audience.

What I thought: What a waste of an episode. Nothing amusing happened and you could have skipped this one without feeling as though you missed out on something vital. Alicia continues to be a tsundere with the secret power of making amusing faces and Welkin is just as laid-back as he normally is. The only important thing here is that you’re exposed to more of Squad 7’s members, so that’s something… I guess. As it stands, this show isn’t all too compelling since I had been expecting a war drama, but haven’t gotten any of that, which I suppose is abjectly poor. Oh well, one can only hope things improve, but with the director’s focus on the comedic elements, I’d have to be delusional to expect things to get better.

That’s pretty much it for this week. For those of you who want to discuss this further in-depth, let me know which shows you want me to create a thread for in the forums so we can get some honest-to-goodness discussion going on. I’ve been missing out on that.

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