And what a better target to pick on than K-ON! After all, K-ON! is pretty much the latest poster child for everything that’s wrong with anime, right? Cute characters with irritating one-dimensional personalities, a general sense of pointlessness about the plot, and nonexistent character growth. Basically, compare Hidamari Sketch to K-ON! and you’re looking at a world of difference in terms of quality and I’d argue that both aim towards the same general target audience.

Enter Sora no Woto with its similar general artistic style and its seemingly nonsensical foundation of a plot and you have a product that would be easy to write off. Unless you actually watched the first episode, that is.

The mythology of the world that they introduce to us creates that sense of expectation that something big is about to happen. Maybe this is experience kicking in, but when you have a sleepy, isolated outpost that has a local legend about 5 women who use their powers to rein in a great evil and when the principal cast is composed of 5 girls, it’s hard not to draw a few conclusions about the show’s direction. Because of this foreshadowing, Sora no Woto seemingly has a sense of purpose to it and this alone makes it a good reason to at least dive into the show and see where the director takes us.

Furthermore, the characters also show flashes of promise as well. Kanata could easily be written off as a Yui Hirasawa clone, except her thoughts and feelings seem more genuine somehow. There’s nothing superficial about her motivations to join this bugle squad and the way she approaches her tasks have an earnestness to it that is positively charming.

That’s not to say that I endorse this show wholly. There are still other characters that need to be introduced and I do feel the need to attune myself to this show’s rhythm (1 episode is hardly a good basis for making that call whether to keep up with it or not), but so far, Sora no Woto’s start has me cautiously optimistic. And that’s only a good thing.

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I was pretty damn sad when CLANNAD ended a couple of months ago, as it’s one of my favorite series now. I kinda forgot about what they did with the first season, and how they bundled an extra episode with the DVDs, so I was pretty excited when I heard they were doing the same with the After Story DVDs. Last time, they decided to cover the later half of the Tomoyo arc, and with this episode, they covered Kyou’s arc, which I’ve played through in the visual novel, so I was interested to see how they’d run with it, and they actually surpassed my expectations.

Now, excuse me while I steal Moonlily’s way of expressing her thoughts on individual episodes.

What Happened: Ryou Fujibayashi has decided to come clean with her feelings about Tomoya in hopes to start a relationship with him. Tomoya accepts in hopes that he’ll get to know her better, and the two begin to spend their time as a couple together. Things begin to go great, as Tomoya learns more about his new girlfriend, and gains a new sense of happiness just by being with her.

Normally I don't like Ryou, but I don't think even I could resist those puppy dog eyes.

However, things haven’t been going so great for Ryou’s sister, Kyou. Tomoya runs into her while strolling around town, and the two decide to spend a bit of time chatting together. Kyou asks Tomoya if he’s ever kissed Ryou yet, and to her surprise, he hasn’t. She offers free kissing practice with her, and despite them never actually touching lips, this sparks quite a bit of gossip around the school. To try and put out the rumor that she’s dating Tomoya, Kyou attempts to date Sunohara with a false confession, but this only leads to Sunohara exposing Kyou’s true feelings for Tomoya.

I wish I was Tomoya. ='(

Eventually, Tomoya begins to accept that it isn’t Ryou that he loves, but Kyou instead. Much drama ensues, and Tomoya is forced to confess his feelings to a short-haired Kyou, and like anyone would guess, they become a happy couple in the end, and Ryou doesn’t harbor any ill feelings towards Tomoya.

What I Thought: The episode starts where the intersecting path of Kyou’s and Ryou’s arc initially begins. Kyou’s arc will get you a light, if you decide to go for her, and Ryou’s arc is considered a BAD END, while Kyou’s is what really should happen. The original CLANNAD anime series established that Ryou and Kyou both had some feelings for Tomoya, but considering the canon path is with Nagisa, it couldn’t really go any further than that. That’s what we have these Another World episodes for, though.

Kyou is a slut.

Like I mentioned before, I’ve played (read, rather) through this entire arc, so I wanted to see what they’d change. Luckily, most of the changes were for the better. Certain scenes have entirely different atmospheres to help foreshadow what it could mean, or to just lend a hand to the overall mood, something that was mostly absent from the visual novel. KyoAni used lots of shading and weather elements in a lot of the scenes and gave the entire arc a much darker, yet fitting mood. This really made this episode for me, because you could tell when shit was hitting the fan.

Sunohara; a true bro.

One thing that bothered me though, was that it all felt a bit rushed. I don’t know why they felt compelled to stick to the standard TV air time, but they did, and that sacrified meaning for the scene where Tomoya has to confess to Kyou, considering that kinda just popped out of nowhere. However, compared to how long and drawn out this entire thing can be in the visual novel(a majority of the Kyou arc there can only be summarized as “lots of awkward”), I felt that the anime version was superior. Sure, rushed, but it felt better and I wasn’t bored most of the time.

I'm having trouble deciding whether I love her more with or without long hair.

Despite that, though, it was incredibly powerful. It’s definitely one of those episodes that just has you on the edge of your seat, just bathing in the suspense of the events that unfold in the episode. I was worried that KyoAni had forgotten completely how to pull off believable and well-done drama after K-ON!, but it only took another episode of CLANNAD to make me realize that was all wrong.

In the end, it was a definitely a great final return to the series I loved and followed so diligently.

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The show’s premise is nothing new; four girls in a school environment decide to hang out together through some contrived means and once they do, the show gives us a look into their day to day affairs as they try to gel into a cohesive group of friends. This concept is nothing new and it shouldn’t be a hard concept to pull off well. Ichigo Mashimaro managed to work up some light and fluffy entertainment, Hidamari Sketch endeared us to its characters through the way the interactions are handled to form that cohesive unit, and Lucky Star’s characters had traits that allowed their personalities to bounce off one another to humorous effect. If we are to declare that all of these shows are comparable to K-ON! (and I would say they are), then we can go ahead and use those shows as a metric with which to measure how well K-ON! is able to deliver upon the life and fluffy entertainment. As you might guess from this post’s title, I don’t think the show measures up too well. But that’s putting it too lightly. Disappointing is probably the most accurate way of phrasing it.

K-ON! starts off with a decent set of ingredients needed for executing its premise, but the manner in which the ingredients are mixed together results in a complete mess with flaws that are just too glaringly obvious. The characters turn out to be nothing more than one-dimensional archetypes (with Mio being the only exception, but only because she’s a plot device, see Baka-Raptor’s explanation), the plot elements are subject to a healthy dose of recycling, and even the soundtrack is pretty dull.

Just based on these criticisms, the series would appear to be headed for disaster, but up until “Fuwa Fuwa Time’s” performance, the series manages to maintain a level of decency that is tolerable because the gags that they used still retained some degree of originality. It isn’t until episode eight where the show takes the plunge into complete ineptitude. As I described in the post, the girls’ attempts at advertising their club were clumsily done because anyone of sound mind would see that they were merely sabotaging themselves and I failed to see the humor behind it.

And then there’s Azusa. Good old Azusa. Right away, her addition to the cast left no doubt in the my mind that she would be little more than a Mio clone, subject to the whimsies and abuses that the other members would heap on her and I was annoyed at the fact that my guess turned out to be correct. A arrival of a new character creates possibilities for the show to expand its horizons except we get none of that. Gags are recycled with a new victim in mind and the same goes for the plot. Upon watching the preview for episode 10, I couldn’t help but shake my head in disbelief when I realized that they were going to effectively reuse the earlier beach house episode with too few variations to make it interesting. Furthermore, the dialogue during that episode worked as a textbook demonstration of tell, not show and it was clear that the producers took the lazy way out of showing the audience how much fun Azusa had. And finally, there was that clumsy attempt at drama which does very little for the series at this stage of the game other than to make one character completely unsympathetic.

We’re on the brink of the final episode (technically speaking) and there’s virtually no chance that the show can redeem itself. The last “real” episode came off as being unconvincing in terms of illustrating how far the girls have come along as a club and as a group of friends (they do say it straight out though, which is again, irritating). The characters are flat and show very little development during the course of the show, and above all, the show felt like it was juiced up on a sort of moe Red Bull drink. That pretty much ensures the show’s astounding lack of quality and leaves only the songs as this show’s saving grace, which, to be honest, does not make it worth your while to sit through if you’re only in it for the fluffy music. While we have been disappointed by shows like Munto, K-ON! has managed to be Kyoto Animation’s lowest point yet. Let us hope, then, that this is but a desperate ploy to increase their cash flow to fund better shows rather than a symptom of their inability to produce polished, enjoyable series.

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One post isn’t enough to contain all of this information, so here’s part 2 as usual and now I know why episodic bloggers burn out so fast. This’ll teach me a lesson for the summer season not to take on so huge of a workload. Anyhow, let’s just proceed onwards and sideways. 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: The Mongaul troops are on the move to hunt down Guin and the Parros twins who have gone into the desolate badlands of Nosferatu to evade capture accompanied by the spellsword Istavan. Amnelis remains undeterred and continues to advance by crossing the river Kes, only to meet up with another Big Mouth that almost gets her until one of her father’s reinforcements, Marus, comes in to save the day. The two meet in council where the discussion over Guin and the twins comes up and Marus is sent after the group. Guin and Marus meet in combat and fight to a draw, but Marus’s lieutenants were able to capture the twins, forcing Guin to surrender and brought before a Mongaul camp. Istavan, who had been keeping tabs on Guin since his capture, manage to lure a sand worm into the Mongaul camp, allowing Guin and the twins to make their escape.

What I thought: You can’t fault the storytelling, that’s for sure, especially in the way this tale unfolds like a heroic Greek epic with all sorts of heroes and famous names all converging onto the screen, each with their distinctive personality traits. Some of the characters, like Amnelis’s underling, are immediately dislikable, but Marus is pretty badass, considering that he’s a 50+ year old guy who wields a Cloud Strife-length sword and manages to duel Guin to a draw. The choreography during that fight scene is awesome to watch and Istavan’s method of allowing the party to escape was clever and resourceful, making him just slightly more interesting than Guin. Next episode is harder to gauge though since it’ll all be about meeting those ape-men. We can hope that I won’t be facepalming hard (if at all) throughout that episode.

K-ON!

What happened: Azusa finally makes a prospective gesture at joining the Keionbu and already demonstrates quite a bit of talent with her electric guitar skills. To her shock and horror, she finds out that the Keionbu is made up of a bunch of slackers who would rather be drinking tea and eating snacks rather than practicing for the concerts to come and already, a lot of tension erupts between her and the other members. It also doesn’t help that the club members (well, except for Mio) attempt to forcibly socialize her and fail miserably. Yui acts like an idiot, Ritsu continues her spree of annoying ADHD tendencies, and Mugi is the silent facilitator to all this. Needless to say, Azusa is less than pleased… yet, she can’t help but feel that the club has a source of untapped greatness which lies behind their brilliant concert performance. By talking with Mio, she comes to learn that this unbridled fun is what contributes to the club’s success and with that promise of forming a deeper friendship with the others, Azusa officially joins the club.

What I thought: This. Episode. Sucks. Hard.

There have been a few times when I become extremely irritated while watching anime and this is one of those times. Up until this point, the show vacillated between being somewhat tolerable (at worst) to mildly amusing at best, but it never had any clincher moments where you can declare the series to be an excellent one. It’s a brainless moe show and doesn’t aspire to be any more than that.

However, episode 9 was a new low for this series and I acutely empathized with Azusa’s frustrations regarding the slacker qualities of the Keionbu. Yes, rage was the order of the day as it was made apparent that the producers were more interested in subjecting her to as much abuse as possible to draw out the moe-ness of her character, with the result being that I knew that they were trying to pander to otaku, and that it wasn’t a pretty sight.

Everything is indicative of the fact that Azusa’s execution character-wise is rather half-assed and that the series aims to tell, not show, which is a huge no-no in my book. As such, the quality within this series just nose-dived.

Saki

What happened and what I thought: There’s no need to use my usual format with this episode of Saki. It’s pretty cut and dry anyways. Besides, with bondage and lesbian undertones, what else do you need, really?

As Week 2’s post indicated, this last episode was nothing short of a throwaway episode as it focused entirely on showing some group bonding. Saki, Nodoka, and Co. end up making small talk and reminiscing over old times (more flashbacks, good god…), Touka and her team are trying to figure just how to get Koromo up in time for the Finals while gelling with the mix of personalities, and Kazeyoshi talks about the leader of theirs (who is voiced by Horie Yui), and as a result, it feels like I’m seeing another Minorin (Toradora) moving around. The feeling one gets from this episode is a sort of heartwarming blandness and really, nothing important happens, so you can safely skip this one.

Valkyria Chronicles

What happened: The standoff between Alicia, Welkin, and Faldio on one side and Selvaria and Maximilian on the other finally ends with an exchange of words and a display of badassness by Selvaria as she uses her sword skills to slice a bullet mid-flight, scaring the bejeezus out of Faldio. The Gallians are clearly outmatched, and the two Imperials take this opportunity to make an exit, only to bring in their super-powered tank, which then fires upon the ruins, reducing it to rubble. Welkin is separated from Alicia and Faldio, who use this time to talk about Welkin. Faldio in particular reminisces over Welkin’s history as a university student and Alicia takes delight in the stories of Welkin’s oddities. By this time, Isara and Faldio’s second-in-command was able to locate Welkin, and through Welkin’s knowledge of lizard behavior, are able to locate Faldio and Alicia. Upon reaching the camp, they learn that the mining center of Fouzen has been captured, which gives the Imperials a massive resource advantage.

What I thought: This episode is nothing more than an opportunity for Alicia (and by extension, the audience) to understand how Welkin’s scattered mind works, and the tale that Faldio tells is certainly heartwarming in its own way. The same can’t be said towards Selvaria and Maximilian though, since the love between them seems pretty one-sided. But hopefully, we’ll get some backstory revolving around why Selvaria is so loyal to Maximilian. So no action this episode, but the character development was decent. There’s not much more to say aside from that.

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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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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Hey guys. You know me as Zenk, your local Shana fanatic/troll/unpleasant person. Since everyone’s writing articles and word is out that my semester is over, I decided (more like was coerced by an ego) to write an article for the site. I’m going to write about whatever I feel like, be it anime, games, visual novels, 4chan, etc. You may find my rants to be somewhat offensive if you particularly like or dislike the subject. My reaction? I’m just glad you read it. Anyway, to start things off, let’s do a play-by-play of episode one of K-ON! K-ON! is about a group of girls who revive their high school’s music club. They have no real musical experience, but that’s not stopping them from starting up a band for the club.

All right then. I hate to say it, but K-ON! is a piece of moe bullshit that thrives on delivering nothing but moe. What the hell is wrong with you people? In the span of little more than a minute, Yui has 1) tossed her phone in the air multiple times, 2) fallen on her behind (lol dojikko) and 3) is running out of her home with bread in her mouth. I’m going to be completely honest: I have been attempting to finish the entire episode for over an hour or two and I still haven’t made it to the opening sequence.

Three hours later

I haven’t struggled so hard to reach the OP of an episode in such a long time. I can’t even clearly see the sequence because I’m too busy crying. I may actually be a masochist, despite my sadistic tendencies. Not discussing the OP whatsoever. Moving on, her ambush by clubs was so kawaii~ Yui is so kawaii when choosing a club. So moe~~~.

An hour later

All right all right. I’m back to struggling. After a bit of nonsense, there is a stare down and Yui falls apart, smacking her head underneath the table after dropping all the printouts she was supposed to be handing out. Is she some kind of idiot? There are more things that go on, but they aren’t important at all. WHOA! IS THAT EMOTION COMING UP?! There is a promise about making a band with a drummer and a bassist. I’m actually starting to get moved by the tears and friendship Mio and Ritsu. No… wait, they fuck you over immediately. You find out Ritsu was just trying to persuade (more like trick) Tsumugi into joining the club. It goes into a funny bit where Ritsu is shut down by Mio and Tsumugi is amused, thus joining the club. I fail to find what Tsumugi found so funny. This isn’t even amusing me. I’m starting to reach my limit with this and it’s only the first episode.

About halfway into the episode, I’m getting really irritated by Yui’s inability to walk like a normal human being and the flashback segment where Yui plays castanets like a fool also got on my nerves. Tell me why am I suffering all this just to write an article? Anyhow, after some debating, she decides to join the music club where she begins hallucinating wildly about playing castanets… again… whi—

That’s it, I’m done. I am not reaching the end of this episode. I’m not even going to reach the part where she joins the club. No more. I am tired of all this rage. I do not want to suffer anymore. Moonlily’s torture is enough for me. I find grinding in Dragon Quest oh so much more enjoyable than K-ON! and that should give you an idea of how high my tolerability is. Yet, I still cannot stand this. To all moe fans out there, please bring your thoughts back and realize you are watching shit. There was something good that came out of this. I skipped to the end and found the ending sequence to be an enjoyable listen.

The Verdict:

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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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