Weekly Anime Roundup – #2 (Part 2: Let Loose the Dogs of War)

by Moonlily on May.31, 2009, under Anime

One post isn’t enough to contain all of this information, so here’s part 2 as usual. It’s odd that all of the mediocre shows are in this post (save for Guin Saga), but that’s the way it goes. Not that they aren’t enjoyable, but they sure aren’t great by any stretch of the imagination. Anyhow, as expected, it looks like all of these shows are kicking up a notch since the plots have been fully formed and each of these shows are more or less well on their way to more interesting fare and I get the pleasure of evaluating how they’re doing. 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: Having successfully escaped the accursed castle, Guin and the others meet up with the Crimson Mercenary Istavan who agrees to travel with them. The overland route would be far too dangerous since Mongaul scouts would most likely be about and so, the group decide to take a chance and travel down the infamous Kes River. After a harrowing encounter with a Big Mouth, they come face-to-face with a crack Mongaul squad under the leadership of Lady Amnelis but manage to escape with the Mongaul forces in pursuit. As the group settles down to make camp, Linda sees a prophecy that warns of an impending battle, one that Istavan might not survive. Unnerved by this, the group decides to take refuge with Suni’s (the ape-person) people.

What I thought: The grimness of the tone still continues and if there’s anything that really struck me, it’s the way the series handles the action. Combat scenes don’t last too long, but they do carry quite a bit of tension since the threats themselves are fairly intimidating even though you know that Guin will survive it due to him being the protagonist. Istavan is establishing himself to be a very interesting character with strange motivations and combat prowess that we’ve yet to see, but have high expectations from. And of course, it’ll be interesting to see how they’ll develop Lady Amnelis’s character since she looks to be quite the female badass.

K-ON!

What happened: A new school term starts and that means a heavy recruitment drive is in order, though the Keionbu haven’t quite grasped the concept of recruiting, even though Ui’s presence should be able to help. They make a last-ditch effort to secure some members through another school performance, and that managed to net them Azusa, who was inspired by their performance to submit an application to join.

What I thought: I’m still not impressed with this series, particularly in the way Sawako’s obnoxiousness gets in the way of the group doing anything meaningful. I mean, really, was anyone surprised that the ridiculous costumes that she had the members wear were an exercise in futility? Oh well, at least this time around, we’re treated to yet another concert sequence that was decent and Azusa looks to be a promising recruit… if they don’t abuse her as badly as they did Mio. Somehow, I have a bad feeling that she’ll be abuse bait. But until then, this episode manages to be passable.

Saki

What happened: The tournament has gone under way, and not surprisingly, Nodoka and Saki manage to bury their opponents and move on to win their next game to reach the finals. The main rival schools also manage to do well, though Kazekoshi encounters a bit of drama from their poor play, which, while was good enough for them to win, resulted in their coach getting upset and manhandling one of the members before their captain stepped in to defuse the situation. So the final draws are set and after a brief respite, the final matches will begin!

What I thought: Well, having Nodoka use her penguin to prop up her boobs for the fanservice elements wasn’t something unforeseen, but really, did they have to have her sprout wings no less than three times during that episode? Way to use stock footage there, Gonzo. Beyond that, no surprises really popped up since it was kind of pointless to show Saki’s match when it wasn’t all that important. Kyotaro, despite being played by Lelouch (Jun Fukuyama) is still the group’s bitch, but that doesn’t quite annoy me as much as Kazekoshi’s players bowing down before that bully of a coach. You’d think that after that sort of treatment, they’d have rebelled or something, but I guess they’re too meek to do so or something like that. Next episode is going to be filler, so I’m not having high expectations for it.

Valkyria Chronicles

What happened: The squad gets assigned a desert mission and, much to Welkin and Faldio’s delight, the desert contains some ruins related to the Darsian calamity and it’s the hope that Faldio could use his archeology degree to decipher the script and gain a better understanding of what occurred during that catastrophic event. Alicia somehow mysteriously manages to open a door to a hidden chamber and, with this, more information comes to light, but all this studying is interrupted as Selvaria and Prince Maximilian of the Imperial forces stumble in on them and it looks like the encounter is set up for the next episode.

What I thought: Not a great episode, but nowhere as bad as episode 6 since you actually meet some substantial characters for once. The romance aspect between Isara and Ramal was nothing short of painful to watch since it’s so obvious where it’s going that you just want to headdesk because they could have tried some measure of subtlety rather than cream us on the head with a sledgehammer. I’m still hoping for a decent encounter to come out of this setup though.

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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